Explain the role of King in …

Role of kings in Construction and maintenance of temples in Mesopotamia

1. As the archaeological record shows.villages were periodically relocated in Mesopotamian history because of food in the river and change in the course of the river. There were man-made problems as well. Those who lived on the upstream stretches of a channel could divert so much water into their fields that villages of downstream were left without water.

2. When there was continuous warfare in a region, those chiefs who had been successful in war could oblige their followers by distributing the loot and could take prisoners from the defeated groups to employ in the temple for various works. 3. In time victorious chiefs began to offer precious booty to the gods and thus beautify the community's temples.

They would send men out to fetch fine stones and metal for the benefit of the god and community and organise the distribution of temple wealth in an efficient way by accounting for things that came in and went out.

4. War captives and local people were put to work for the temple or directly for the ruler. This rather than agricultural tax, was compulsory. Those who were put to work were paid rations. It has been estimated that one of the temples took 1,500 men working 10 hours a day, five years to build.

5. With rulers commanding people to fetch stones or metal ones to come and make bricks or lay the bricks for a temple, or else to go to a distant country to fetch suitable materials.Hundreds of people were put to work at making and baking clay cones that could be pushed into temple walls, painted in different colours, creating a colourful mosaic