Post on 17-Dec-2015
Royal Art as Political Message in Ancient Mesopotamia
Catherine P. FosterUC Berkeley
JordanIraq
Iran
Syria
Turkey
Saudi Arabia
Armenia and Azerbaijan
Egypt
Israel
Lebanon
Mesopotamia: “land between the rivers”
“Warka Stele/a”
80 cm in height
“Warka Stele/a”
80 cm in height
‘Priest-King’
“Victory Stele of Naram-Sin”
2 meters in height
Originally erected in theancient city of Sippar
“Statues of Gudea”
2,100 BCE
Emphasis was piety
Temple Eninnu
Ningirsu
Old Babylonian Period
1700 BCE
Hammurabi
Ruled from Babylon
“Code of Hammurabi”
2.5 meters in height
Currently on display at the Louvre in Paris
282 sections
Lex talionis = “Eye for an Eye”
Shamash, god of Justice
“Rod and ring” of kingship
“Code of Hammurabi”
2.5 meters in height
Currently on display at the Louvre in Paris
282 sections
Lex talionis = “Eye for an Eye”
“…to cause justice to prevail in the land, to destroy the wickedness and evil, that the strong may not oppress the weak”
Neo-Assyrian Period
1000 – 750 BCE
Expansion
Orthostats
“Lion Hunt” scenes
Ashurnasirpal II
Ashurbanipal
Ashurnasirpal II
Sennacherib
Tiglath-Pileser III
Ashurbanipal
Persian Empire
Last great empire of theancient Near East before the coming of Alexander the Great in 331 BCE
Persepolis
“Gateway of All Lands”
Royal Art as Political Message