Buildings+and+Structures+-+Cole

Buildings and Structures - Cole C.     Sumer was divided into two broad separate areas. One section of Sumer was urban and the other was rural. Archaeologists have not found many rural structures in Sumer due to poor architectural design. This unfortunately caused them to erode very quickly. Urban structures are found more often because they were more sturdy. The buildings were made of mud bricks and on occasion they would make them out of clay. Royalty and sometimes nobles had bathrooms in their house lined with waterproof bricks which was very rare to have in those days. When possible the Sumerians would make the outer (and sometimes the inner) walls several feet thick to protect the interior of the city from the heat of the day. They would also do this to buildings so that they were more sturdy. The people of Sumer often white-washed the exterior of the walls to reflect sunlight beaming down on Sumer. They would make the bricks for the structures more often in the summer as that is when it would be hotter so that the bricks would dry faster. Sumerians would sometimes make fired bricks by putting them into a furnace so that they were harder and longer lasting. Since there was not much wood in the area it would be hard to get fuel for the furnace. This lack of resources caused fired bricked to be very expensive. Fired bricks were most commonly used in high-status buildings such as palaces. Workers used a type of mortar between bricks made by mixing moist mud and powdered limestone. They also used a substance called bitumen to make mortar. It is very waterproof but it is not completely waterproof. All mortars, no matter how good they were, deteriorated rather quickly which meant that there were lots of repairs going on in Sumer. The houses in Sumer were often one room houses unless you had high status within Sumer. The houses had reed roofs and a fireplace at one end of the room so that they could cook. The lower class of Sumer would sleep on raised mud brick sleeping platforms. Lower class people had very little furniture. The richer people of Sumer had quite a few rooms that surrounded an inner courtyard and sometimes they even had a second floor. The richer people would have small windows that were placed high up to keep in the heat. There were some houses that were three stories tall but were commonly shared by 3-4 families. The people who lived outside of the city would live in one room, reed huts with no mud bricks for support. The most important buildings in Sumer were placed in the center of the area. These buildings may include the ziggurat, the palace etc. Common people lived and worked on the edge of the city. The farmers lived far from the centre of the city because the farmland was located beyond the river that was created to flow around the city. The fishermen would also live near the outskirts of the city because the river is where the borderline of the city is located.