Abstract

Mesopotamian sensory experiences included consciously manipulated and formal sense-scapes that invoked ideas of power and social order. But informal and continually changing sense-scapes were also created by the messy input from everyday life, which reinforced notions of community and productivity. The past inhabitants of Mesopotamia embraced synaesthesia in conceptualising and using materials, in observing and walking through buildings and gardens, and in activities from discarding rubbish to practising religion. Archaeology, art and texts are important sources for our reconstruction of Mesopotamian sense-scapes and of the memories and ideas they created and invoked.