Modern archaeological excavations in Mesopotamia have determined that ziggurats were often the first buildings constructed in a settlement.
It was also during this early period when the secular and the religious importance of ziggurats were first solidified. Later, true ziggurats would dwarf these early ones in size, but the meaning, style, and construction methods used to make them were established during this early period by the Sumerians. One of the first proto-ziggurats was known as the “White Temple,” which towered forty feet aboveUruk'se the city. Essentially, the first of these ziggurats comprised a simple tower built on top of a platform.
3500-2900 BC) – named for the city where civilization first began in Mesopotamia – when temples began to be built that can be considered “archaic” or proto-ziggurats. It was during what is known as the Uruk Period (ca. They were also the first people to build ziggurats in the southern portion of that land, generally known as Sumer. The Sumerians were the first ethnic group to bring civilization to Mesopotamia. Still, based on references to the structures in Sumerian and Akkadian language texts, modern scholars have determined that the ancient Mesopotamians believed they were their many deities' earthly homes. Unfortunately, there is no known extant text that explains precisely what ziggurats were intended to symbolize. Like the most monumental building in the ancient world, ziggurats' development was a long process that took hundreds of years to reach its maturity. Map Depicting the Distribution of Known Ziggurats in Ancient Mesopotamia: Note that Most Are in the Fertile area between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers
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