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The art of Mesopotamia has survived in the archaeological record from early hunter-gatherer societies (10th millennium BC) on to the Bronze Age cultures of the Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian and Assyrian empires. These empires were later replaced in the Iron Age by the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian empires. Widely considered to be the cradle of civilization, Mesopotamia brought significant cultural developments, including the oldest examples of writing. The art of Mesopotamia rivalled that of Ancient Egypt as the most grand, sophisticated and elaborate in western Eurasia from the 4th millennium BC until the Persian Achaemenid Empire conquered the region in the 6th century BC. The main emphasis was on various, very durable, forms of sculpture in stone and clay; little painting has survived, but what has suggests that, with some exceptions,〔Frankfort, 124-126〕 painting was mainly used for geometrical and plant-based decorative schemes, though most sculptures were also painted. Cylinder seals have survived in large numbers, many including complex and detailed scenes despite their small size. Mesopotamian art survives in a number of forms: cylinder seals, relatively small figures in the round, and reliefs of various sizes, including cheap plaques of moulded pottery for the home, some religious and some apparently not.〔Frankfort, Chapters 2–5〕 Favourite subjects include deities, alone or with worshippers, and animals in several types of scenes: repeated in rows, single, fighting each other or a human, confronted animals by themselves or flanking a human or god in the Master of Animals motif, or a Tree of Life.〔Convenient summaries of the typical motifs of cylinder seals in the main periods are found throughout in Teissier〕 Stone stelae, votive offerings, or ones probably commemorating victories and showing feasts, are also found from temples, which unlike more official ones lack inscriptions that would explain them;〔Frankfort, 66–74〕 the fragmentary Stele of the Vultures is an early example of the inscribed type,〔Frankfort, 71–73〕 and the Assyrian Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III a large and well preserved late one.〔Frankfort, 66–74; 167〕 ==Uruk period== The Protoliterate or Uruk period, named after the city of Uruk in southern Mesopotamia, (ca. 4000 to 3100 BC) existed from the protohistoric Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age period, following the Ubaid period and succeeded by the Jemdet Nasr period generally dated to 3100–2900 BC. It saw the emergence of urban life in Mesopotamia, and the beginnings of Sumerian civilization, and also the first "great creative age" of Mesopotamian art.〔Frankfort, 27〕 Slightly earlier, the northern city of Tell Brak, today in Syria, also saw urbanization, and the development of a temple with regional significance. This is called the Eye Temple after the many "eye idols", in fact votive offerings, found there, a type distinctive to this site. The stone Tell Brak Head, 7 inches high, shows a simplified face; similar heads are in gypsum. These were evidently fitted to bodies that have not survived, probably of wood.〔Frankfort, 241-242〕 Like temples further south, the Eye Temple was decorated with cone mosaics made up of clay cylinders some four inches long, differently coloured to create simple patterns.〔Frankfort, 24, 242〕 Significant works from the southern cities in Sumer proper are the Warka Vase and Uruk Trough, with complex multi-figured scenes of humans and animals, and the Mask of Warka. This is a more realistic head than the Tell Brak examples, like them made to top a wooden body; what survives of this is only the basic framework, to which coloured inlays, gold leaf hair, paint and jewellery were added.〔Frankfort, 24-28, 31-32〕 The Guennol Lioness is an exceptionally powerful small figurine of a lion-headed monster,〔Frankfort, 32-33〕 perhaps from the start of the next period. There are a number of stone or alabaster vessels carved in deep relief, and stone friezes of animals, both designed for temples, where the vessels held offerings. Cylinder seals are already complex and very finely executed and, as later, seem to have been an influence on larger works. Animals shown are often representations of the gods, another continuing feature of Mesopotamian art.〔Frankfort, 28-37〕 The end of the period, despite being a time of considerable economic expansion, saw a decline in the quality of art, perhaps as demand outstripped the supply of artists.〔Frankfort, 36-39〕 File:Vorderasiatisches Museum Berlin 051.jpg|Cast of the Warka Vase File:Uruk Trough -British Museum.jpg|Uruk Trough File:Tell Brak Head (BM).jpg|Tell Brak Head File:UrukHead.jpg|The Mask of Warka File:Guennol Lioness.jpg|The Guennol Lioness, 3rd Millennium BC, 3.5 inches high File:Sitting bull Louvre AO7021.jpg|Limestone bull, Uruk c. 3000 BC File:Cup with Nude Hero, Bulls and Lions, Tell Agrab, Shara Temple, Jamdat Nasr to Early Dynastic period, 3000-2600 BC, gypsum - Oriental Institute Museum, University of Chicago - DSC07461.JPG|Cup with Nude Hero, Bulls and Lions, Tell Agrab, end of the period File:Jamdat Nasr Period pottery - Oriental Institute Museum, University of Chicago - DSC06949.JPG|pottery and cone mosaic pieces 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Art of Mesopotamia」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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