Transcript Royal Art as Political Message in Ancient Mesopotamia

Royal Art as Political Message
in Ancient Mesopotamia
Catherine P. Foster
UC Berkeley
Turkey
Armenia and
Azerbaijan
Iran
Lebanon Syria
Jordan
Iraq
Israel
Egypt
Saudi Arabia
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 the
ancient 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 the
ancient Near East
before the coming of
Alexander the Great in
331 BCE
Persepolis
“Gateway of All Lands”
Royal Art as Political Message