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