著者

伊東 好次郎

出版者

川村学園女子大学

雑誌

川村学園女子大学研究紀要 (ISSN:09186050)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.15, no.1, pp.13-41, 2004-03-15

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The Tigris flows on the east side and the Euphrates flows on the west side of Mesopotamia from the north to the south. Mesopotamia is a long flat land between these two big rivers. In the early times of the ancient history the oriental civilization developed and Christianity rooted deep in this area. Countries such as Babylonia, Assyria and Neo-Babylonia rose and fell one after another vieing with each other for power and land. The land is flat in Mesopotamia, so they founded the fortified cities in the wide expanse of plain. People built temples for their gods and goddesses and tombs for their kings in the centres of their cities. They enclosed their cities with high and thick walls against their enemies, especially putting stress on height. Their cities that were founded regularly on the square or oblong ground plan looked austere and stern. They were called the temple-citadels in Mesopotamia and Egypt. Their ruins have still remained. In upper and lower Egypt this type of temple-citadels developed as the trading as well as worshipping centres on the banks of the Nile. In Greece another type of temple-citadels developed under the influence of Asia Minor through the Aegean isles. As Greece is a mountainous country, the Greeks could not use the same ground plan as the people in Mesopotamia and Egypt. The new type of temple-citadels was first built at the high top of the rocky hill on the semi-circular ground plan by the clever employment of its location in Mycenae of the Peloponnesian Peninsula. This type of the temple-citadel was called 'acropolis' in Greece. Next another acropolis was built on the same ground plan in Tiryns near Mycenae. Then acropolises were reproduced in Athens and other places in Greek mainland. By the development of the acropolises in Greece, a new and more active defence system replaced the old passive methods of defence employed in the ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt.