So, the survivance of Bronze and Iron Age patterns into modern Northern Arabian architecture is simply stunning. Not just the crenellations, but also the thicker walls at the base, the buttresses, etc. Check out Dumat al-Jandal (al-Jawf today).
Do you see it as Hittite more than Canaanite and Babylonian, from the Solomonic temple to the Ishtar gate?
I confess to seeing it as Hittite, not because it is necessarily more Hittite in design, but because I am moving slowly eastward in learning about the ancient world, and the Hittites were the most relevant of the cultures for the Bronze Age Greeks. I am working on remedying that now (my argument being that if I am to understand the Greeks better, I need to understand ancient Anatolia and the Levant better, and to understand ancient Anatolia and the Levant better I need to go back further in history).
I do see what you mean about the Ishtar gate in Babylon; it makes me wonder if this style of architecture could be traced back even further, perhaps to the Sumerians. I mean, if certain types of music/poetry identifiably have their roots in the Bronze Age, something as solid as architecture certainly could be expected to retain patterns that date back thousands of years, particularly if those patterns are particularly suited to a region because of climate, building materials, etc.
I think I may be doing some reading this weekend, to give you a better answer!
I mean, it’s not too late 😛 and honestly, I feel like it would be a wonderful complement to the dominant narratives in the West re: the history of the Near East and re: the asil Arabian’s history. I can’t be the only history nerd that appreciates the nuggets you drop 🙂
Jeanne,
Maybe they didn’t 😛 but there’s something to be said for critiquing academic works and how they fit (or don’t fit) in dominant narratives. Which is really all that history is, when you boil it down – a well-crafted story using the facts available, but even the facts are often, well, subjective. I’ll probably take a look in it, as well; I do enjoy scholarly works that shift the lens from a Eurocentric framework.
Jeanne, I have read A LOT of books in my life, but few come close to shifting mindsets as this one, even if all the hypotheses may not be verified in the end. What matters is the thinking outside the box, and the logic behind these hypotheses is as sounds as the logic against, if not more.
@Moira, we understand each other. I studied near eastern languages and civilizations at the U. of Chicago, just don’t ask how I ended where I did.
Edouard, just reading a summary of the proposition is enough to make me change my thinking. Whether it is true in total or not, there must have been interchanges of cultures back then. The lands are just too close together and the people traveling so frequently.
Do these gates still stand today?
I must say, they remind me to an extent of the Bronze Ae Hittite fortifications – it’s the crenellations that look familiar, I think!
So, the survivance of Bronze and Iron Age patterns into modern Northern Arabian architecture is simply stunning. Not just the crenellations, but also the thicker walls at the base, the buttresses, etc. Check out Dumat al-Jandal (al-Jawf today).
Do you see it as Hittite more than Canaanite and Babylonian, from the Solomonic temple to the Ishtar gate?
I confess to seeing it as Hittite, not because it is necessarily more Hittite in design, but because I am moving slowly eastward in learning about the ancient world, and the Hittites were the most relevant of the cultures for the Bronze Age Greeks. I am working on remedying that now (my argument being that if I am to understand the Greeks better, I need to understand ancient Anatolia and the Levant better, and to understand ancient Anatolia and the Levant better I need to go back further in history).
I do see what you mean about the Ishtar gate in Babylon; it makes me wonder if this style of architecture could be traced back even further, perhaps to the Sumerians. I mean, if certain types of music/poetry identifiably have their roots in the Bronze Age, something as solid as architecture certainly could be expected to retain patterns that date back thousands of years, particularly if those patterns are particularly suited to a region because of climate, building materials, etc.
I think I may be doing some reading this weekend, to give you a better answer!
Have you read Martin Bernal’s Black Athena? It is paradigm shifting…
You keep expanding my mind, Edouard. Thank you for that!
I have not; I will see if it is in the university library on Monday!
That blog could well have been about near eastern history and archaeology..
Whoever wrote the Wikipedia entry on Black Athena did not care for it at all. [smile] That means there are probably some good things in it!
Edouard,
I mean, it’s not too late 😛 and honestly, I feel like it would be a wonderful complement to the dominant narratives in the West re: the history of the Near East and re: the asil Arabian’s history. I can’t be the only history nerd that appreciates the nuggets you drop 🙂
Jeanne,
Maybe they didn’t 😛 but there’s something to be said for critiquing academic works and how they fit (or don’t fit) in dominant narratives. Which is really all that history is, when you boil it down – a well-crafted story using the facts available, but even the facts are often, well, subjective. I’ll probably take a look in it, as well; I do enjoy scholarly works that shift the lens from a Eurocentric framework.
Jeanne, I have read A LOT of books in my life, but few come close to shifting mindsets as this one, even if all the hypotheses may not be verified in the end. What matters is the thinking outside the box, and the logic behind these hypotheses is as sounds as the logic against, if not more.
@Moira, we understand each other. I studied near eastern languages and civilizations at the U. of Chicago, just don’t ask how I ended where I did.
Edouard, just reading a summary of the proposition is enough to make me change my thinking. Whether it is true in total or not, there must have been interchanges of cultures back then. The lands are just too close together and the people traveling so frequently.
I must read it!