Ancient Mesopotamia: Ziggurats, Royal Sculpture, and the Shaping of the Akkadian Legacy

March 4, 2026 at 7:45 pm

Ancient Mesopotamia: Ziggurats, Royal Sculpture, and the Shaping of the Akkadian Legacy

Marian Feldman – Johns Hopkins University

The rulers of the Third Dynasty of Ur (c. 2100-2000 BCE) built massive new ziggurat temples in southern Iraq that replaced older iterations of the sacred space; yet within these complexes, they preserved and curated royal monuments from the preceding Akkadian dynasty (c. 2350-2150 BCE).

As historic architecture is a key element in shaping a culture’s memories of its past, it aids in the formation of its national identity. Deliberate displays of representational sculpture, however, permit new, interpretive narratives of the past and thereby also impacts national identity. This presentation shows the result when these two modes of identity-making intertwined with one another in the sacred precincts of the Ur III rulers: especially in the Ekur temple complex of the Sumerian god Enlil at Nippur.

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Donald O Kane