Home > Museum > Virtual Museum > The Mesopotamian Gallery
Oriental Institute Virtual Museum
Please note: To view the Oriental Institute Virtual Museum's panoramic movies, you must have the free Apple QuickTime player installed on your computer.
Click on the image to download the panoramic movie.
Mesopotamian Gallery: Building Of A Temple
One of the primary duties of Mesopotamian kings was the construction and maintenance of the temples of the gods. Temples were constructed primarily of unbaked mud brick, but rulers employed various methods to insure that their building activities were recorded for posterity. Exhibited here are baked bricks stamped while still soft with inscriptions recording the names, titles, and building activities of various kings, and figurines and inscribed objects from foundation deposits that were buried beneath strategic parts of temple walls. Some of the foundation figurines show the king himself, carrying on his head the basket of materials out of which he would fashion the all-important first brick.
Detailed List of Artifacts on Exhibit
Return to the Museum Floor Plan
Revised: February 19, 2007