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Middle Eastern architects

by Egenia Salza Prina Ricotti

SOCIAL POSITION OF THE MESOPOTAMIC ARCHITECTS
The social position of the architects was not always the same in the different parts of the ancient world. What happened, to set an example, to the Middle Eastern ones who from the very early periods of this civilization were working and building? How were they treated? We don’t know the name of anyone of them, and also in the sources they are never cited. Now, of course, we can try to imagine that, just to make an example, in the second millennium B.C. there was no Imhotep living in Mari, and that palaces as the one with 300 rooms had been built without an architect making its plan. And how? Did this Royal Residence just appear from the soil as if by magic? This really seems very difficult to accept, and even more it is because, apart from the Royal apartments and from all the courtiers lodgings, in this palace existed very sophisticated climatization systems, hot water in the bath rooms, fireplaces and drainages under the floors. To sum it up, here the most refined technical works were applied and this prove the existence of a highly cultured and well prepared caste of planners who could construct such marvels.
It must have been so because how can we imagine that the splendid palaces of Assurnarsipal II (883-859 B.C.) or of Tiglatpileser III (745-727 B.C.) at Kalkhu and the even more imposing residence of Sargon II (721-705 B.C.) in his town of Dur-Sharrukin near Ninive, and all the great palaces and the buildings in the same Ninive enhanced by Sennacherib (704-681 B.C.), and by Assurbanipal (668-626 B.C.), the Sardanapal of the Greeks, had no authors. Did not all these very potent kings have architects to work for them? Did they erect themselves all those monuments with no one drawing their plan and directing their building? If it was so who was the author of the very important royal palaces of the Anatolians towns? Who studied and realized King Solomon’s residence just near Yahweh’s temple? And what can we say about the Persians with the Cyrus’ Royal palace of Pasagarde? Had really been the same monarchs to erect Persepolis with its imposing Apadana, the Great Kings home, a colossal building begun by Darius I (518 B.C.) enhanced by his son Xerxes I, and by Artaxerxes III Ocho? There is no doubt that all these were the works of architects and of great architects too, not of kings. But why don’t we know anything about them?
The explanation is simple. In the Middle East architects were not allowed to sign their works. The only name that must appear on them was the one of the king and to him all the glory and praise went. Thus we would never know who planned all these admirable buildings and, what is even worse we will always ignore the name of the artist who created the splendid Babilonian Hanging Gardens, one of the seven marvels of the ancient world. Those gardens had different ascriptions: for some one they were a creation of the queen Semiramis, a legendary personage who lived – or at least was believed to have lived – in the IX cent, B.C. But it seems that she never existed.
By a more probable version given to us by Diodorus, the Sicilian geographer, the gardens were made by another Assyrian king and exactly by Nebuchadrezzar (605-602 B.C.) who did them to console the beautiful Amyhia, one of his spouse who came from Persia: a Median princess who longed for her mountains and for the woods of her infancy. A romantic love story, but to come back to reality, who was the author of the Hanging Gardens? Who solved the difficult technical problems to realize them? Also if a popular saying tells us, “love can move the mountains” it is really difficult to believe that Nebuchadrezzar was the one who uprooted the high hills from their place. And also if we will never know the name of his architect, we can’t, however, detract from the king the glory to have ordered and financed this splendour.
It is, however, certain that Middle Eastern architects were not mistreated. Already the simple fact that in the Louvre museum we find an acephalous statue of one of them, a certain Tello, imply that he must have been well paid and that he had a good social position. It is then possible that the authors of all those splendid monuments were covered with pure gold, but there is also no doubt that to them was denied the most desired reward, and that they were never able to transmit their name through the centuries. No. Never one of them could proclaim as Horace once did
Exegi monumentum aere perennius…
But well paid they certainly were.


Bibliography
Scientific popularization
- E. SALZA PRINA RICOTTI, Gli architetti e progettazione di architettura nell'antichità in Archeo (Anno XI, nº 12 (142) December 1996, pp. 58 - 85.



Academic papers
- E. SALZA PRINA RICOTTI - Villa Adriana. Un singolare solaio piano in opus caementicium, in Palladio, Nuova serie, Anno I, N. 1, Giugno 1988. pp. 1-12.
- E. SALZA PRINA RICOTTI, Adriano: architettura del verde e dell’acqua in Horti Romani, Rome , 1995, pp. 363-399.
- E. SALZA PRINA RICOTTI – Hadrien, architecte, ingénieur et urbaniste, in Hadrien. Trésors d’une villa impériale, Italia 1999, pp. 37-46
- E. SALZA PRINA RICOTTI – Adriano, architetto, ingegnere e urbanista, in Adriano architettura e progetto, Italia 2000, pp. 41-45 e schede