Ishtar Gate

The Ishtar Gate - one of the city gates of Babylon - and the Processional Way were in its final form during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II built ( 605-562 BC). Babylon was the capital of Babylonia and lay on the Euphrates River in what is now central Iraq.

The Ishtar Gate is located since 1930 in the Ancient Near East Museum, which is housed in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. The gate was part of the walls of Babylon that belonged according to some, especially older lists of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

Excavation history

Already 1851-54 gathered members of a French expedition in the area of the mound el- kasr colored glaze brickbats, who were among the reliefs of the Processional Way, at this time, however, could not yet be identified. 1897 traveled the architect Robert Koldewey and the Orientalist Edward Sachau finally under an expedition commissioned by the Royal Museums of Berlin to the Tell and recognized the importance of the glazed tile. Koldewey recalled later in his excavation report:

" During my first stay in Babylon on 3 and 4 June 1897, during my second visit from 29 to December 31, 1897 I had many fragments of enamelled brick reliefs seen, some of which I took back to Berlin. The peculiar beauty and the historic importance of these pieces (...) contributed to the decision at unearthing the capital of the Babylonian Empire. "

It succeeded Koldewey to convince the patrons in Berlin by the need for a large-scale excavation and finally took place on 26 March 1899, the first sod. Gradually, the most important monumental buildings of Babylon were excavated and during the excavation work on the temple of the goddess Ninmach found the remains colored glazed brick fragments with reliefs of bulls and snake-like animals, with the door remains of brick reliefs. Then they started from July to December 1902 specifically to lay the gatehouse free and came across a Temennu whose inscription Koldeweys the thesis, if it were the Ishtar Gate confirmed:

" Nabu - kudurri - usur II, King of Babylon, son of Nabopolassar, king of Babylon, I am. The Gate of Ishtar I have with blue glazed bricks for Marduk, my lord built (...) Huge Bronze Animals and powerful serpent structure I have set up at his doorstep. Using sheets of limestone and of ( ... ) stone I have the bull mount (...) Marduk, exalted Lord, eternal life (...) give as a gift. "

After they had at the beginning of the excavation found first wall coatings in which the animal representations were not more complete, was found in deeper excavations surprisingly more completely preserved representations of a snake spirit and a bull, although worked in relief, however, were not glazed. These rows spread down below, on the north side of the gate building they reached nine layers far down, suggesting suggesting that the gate had to have gone through different phases.

Architectural History

Just as the Processional Way, the Ishtar Gate was recognized by various construction phases until it had its final appearance. First seems to have been at the site of a previous building gatehouse, nothing of which is obtained because he was believed to have been removed during the construction work for the expansion of the royal palace. The ensuing construction history was divided according to Koldewey in three phases: In the first phase we built a gatehouse, which was covered with unglazed relief and probably in its architecture simply repeated the predecessor and thus was also located on the ground floor. From him were still the lowest components are present. But a short time later the conversion work on the main castle of Babylon must have taken place: For this purpose, the Processional Way was heaped up to seven meters, which is occupied by the exposed at this level cobblestones. There must have been a temporary passage at this level and with this construction project, of course, came also a part of the gatehouse at the landfill. But only after the landfill had reached a height of 10.85 m, the nearest well-preserved plaster was applied, which is why the second phase of the gate can be set here.

During this phase, the ground plan of the gate received its final form and there was a forecourt. All the unglazed reliefs, which now were still above the level of the Processional Way, have been carefully edited with rasps and scrapers, which is why the quality of these reliefs significantly from that of spilled apart. In addition, the reliefs were covered with plaster, which should probably serve as a protective coat. Koldewey interpreted the measure as follows: " That would be in line with the old artists who seem to have had a great respect for their own creations. " About the following animal series are plotted in flat glaze on the wall. Though it is only get one row with bulls, but it can be assumed that there was still about a series with flat glaze dragon.

Since it is only two animal series, it seems likely that this second phase was never completed, but due to the change requests of Nebuchadnezzar, who was planning to expand the palace to the north, again disappeared under a heightening layer. At the time when the procession road had reached its final height of 15 m, the relief art was further developed, leading to glazed reliefs made ​​a combination of the techniques of unglazed relief and flat glaze possible. The third and final period of construction finally gave the Ishtar Gate, the form in which it can be seen today in the Museum of the Ancient Near East.

Transport to Berlin and reconstruction in the Ancient Near East Museum

The Berlin museums came with the Ottoman Antiquities match in Constantinople Opel that the findings are likely to be spent on the " proper treatment and composition " to Berlin. By sea traveled as 399 boxes, each containing approximately 250 brick fragments, from Basra to Hamburg and Elbe, Havel and Spree finally down to the copper trench in front of the Ancient Near East Museum. After the basis of the first World War, the excavation work had come to Babylon to a halt, the negotiations between the museums in Berlin and the newly formed Iraq Museum in Baghdad division of the finds were only in 1926 recorded and managed to convince the Iraqi side of it, that only by merging the new findings with those already located in Berlin, a reconstruction of the gate was possible. And so met in March 1927 estimated additional 400 boxes full of enamelled brickbats in Hamburg, from where they were transported to Berlin.

Prof. Friedrich Rathgen, the head of the chemical laboratory of the Berlin museums, had already in 1903 considered and decided that they had a high salt content, which led to various processes of leaching were applied the brick fragments closer, the fragments were others in large vats given with water to gradually flush out the salt, which lasted one and a half years due to the large number of fragments.

The 1927 incoming parts were subjected to the same procedure and finally could one could start to sort the thousands of fragments according to their membership. You already tried in 1906 to assemble according to the reconstruction drawings by Walter Andrae, the animal reliefs from the fragments, but were partially made ​​this brick fit by being carved out or breaks painted over. This was not in the sense Andraes, the reconstruction of the reliefs stronger hosted in 1928 after his appointment as director of the Near Eastern department of the actual findings. Basically, the bricks were left in their found condition, with only some very damaged sites were supplemented with colored plaster.

So could finally be started with the construction of Ischtartores and part of the Processional Way in the south wing of the Pergamon Museum, to make them accessible for the first time to the public in 1930. However, even though the gate was housed in the spacious light hall of the museum, the restored version could be built only in a scaled down version to reconstruct the actual dimensions of the gate in Babylon would have exceeded the limits of the capacity significantly.

Layout, dimensions and location in Babylon

The Ishtar Gate was at the time of Nebuchadnezzar II the northern city gate in the inner circular walls of the eastern part of the city. Although there were a total of five goals (next to the Istartor nor the Marduk Gate, the Zababa gate which Urasch gate and an unspecified designated gate in the southern city wall ) is recorded the Ishtar Gate by its particularly opulent, before the other gates from. But not only the elaborate decorations testified to its special significance, even the size of the door must have, very impressive cast on anyone who entered the city through the gate.

The gatehouse is doppeltorig, which means that it consists of two buildings, a slightly smaller north gate, which you first walked through and a large south gate, behind which opened a big place, which eventually led to the Processional Way. The former covered with his two flank towers over a width of 28 m and was almost 11 meters deep, the latter had enormous proportions: but his goal area measured 14.9 × 8.05 m. The gate width was 4.5 m, which suggests mighty door. Of these, however, no remains have been found, probably because they were, according to the large stone slab inscription of corruptible cedar. The total length of which one has to put in passing through the two goal areas, including the court, was 48 m.

Manufacture of brick and glaze technique

Probably a working model was produced for the manufacture of bricks first, by which is has probably imagine a wall piece, on which the relief could be modeled in plastic clay. Attention was paid to the joint line of the brick, Koldewey commented: " The relief is designed so that the joints never pass cut across striking games. " The unfired bricks had to be about 30 % larger than the one finally mounted on the wall were, because by the heat during the firing process they lost volume. While for the production of ordinary bricks just clay was pressed in a wooden frame with the appropriate dimensions, and later dried and fired the production in relief tiles was more complicated: The wooden frame had to be larger so that the respective fitting could still be applied to a page. Only after that the mold was lined with clay and dried in the sun.

Prior to the application of the glaze which clay was first fired, then the contours of the relief Animals were coated with a viscous Glasurbrei from a Gießbüchse on the bricks. So bleeding of colored glazes relief should be prevented during the burning process and, after drying this designated by Koldewey as "dead margins" outlines, the resulting fields with the appropriate colored glazes could be completed.

The Ishtar Gate and the Processional Way were in the Pergamon Museum reconstructed using the original glazed clay bricks. The walls of the gate and the street are decorated with representations of lions, bulls and dragons, the icons for the main deities of Babylonia are.

The lion depicted are symbols of the goddess Ishtar, Lady of Heaven, love goddess and protector of the army. The snake-like hybrids ( Mušḫuššu or Bel called ) represent Marduk is the god of the city and fertility, who gave eternal life. The wild bulls symbolized the weather god Adad.

" For God Muschku and Nabu I attached the inside of the road and about I put a powerful filling up of shiny dust. May you happy gods walk on this path, " stands on the approximately 20,000 bricks.

In the Ancient Near East Museum - where the Ishtar Gate is located - are exhibits from archaeological excavations German scientists, including the Deutsche Orient -Gesellschaft shown, which were excavated in the Sumerian, Babylonian and Assyrian civilizations. These include many monumental monuments, reliefs and smaller cult, jewelry and utensils.

About every 10 to 15 years to show signs of decay on the glazed surfaces (PVB ) can be rectified by regular maintenance with the help of cotton buds and small syringes with polyvinyl butyral.

Others

The German post brought to the Inception November 23, 1966 with the values ​​10 and 20 Pf Pf two figure motif stamps of the Ishtar Gate, the German Post AG, the Initial Issue Date January 2nd, 2013 a € 1.45 stamp with the motif of Ishtar gate out. The motives of the two special postage stamp from 1966 have been designed by Klaus Hennig, the theme for 2013 by Stefan Klein and Olaf Neumann, Iserlohn.