IMAGES OF POWER: ANCIENT NEAR EAST: FOCUS

(Akkadian and Babylonian)

ONLINE ASSIGNMENT:

http://smarthistory.khanacademy.o

rg/victory-stele-of-naram-sin.html

TITLE or DESIGNATION: Victory

Stele of Naram-Sin

CULTURE or ART HISTORICAL

PERIOD: Akkadian

DATE: 2254-2218 B.C.E.

MEDIUM: pink sandstone

ONLINE ASSIGNMENT:

http://smarthistory.khanacad

emy.org/law-code-stele-of-

king-hammurabi.html

TITLE or DESIGNATION:

Stele of Hammurabi with

Law Code

CULTURE or ART

HISTORICAL PERIOD:

Ancient Babylonian

DATE: c. 1792-1750 B. C. E.

MEDIUM: basalt

IMAGES OF POWER: ANCIENT NEAR EAST: SELECTED TEXT

(Akkadian and Babylonian)

ART of the ANCIENT NEAR EAST

Online Links:

Naram-Sin of Akkad - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Code of Hammurabi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Translation of the Code of Hammurabi - Wikisource

Ishtar Gate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Victory Stele of Naram-Sin – Smarthistory

Law Code Stele of King Hammurabi - Smarthistory

Sargon the Great rose from obscure

origins to become cupbearer to the king of

Kish. Rebelling, he built the city of Akkad

and proclaimed himself king. After

defeating the king of Uruk, he conquered

the rest of Sumer.

Sargon built a unified Akkadian state but

respected the traditions of the conquered

peoples, especially the culture of the

Sumer.

He conquered Upper Mesopotamia and

the Amorites in Syria, and created an

empire that ranged from the Persian Gulf

to the Mediterranean.

A later king, Naram-Sin, brought the

empire of Akkad to its zenith. He was the

first Mesopotamian king to claim

divinity, as well as the first to be called

“King of the Four Quarters”.

Right: Head of an

Akkadian ruler

Victory Stele of Naram-Sin (from Susa, Iran),

2254-2218 BCE, pink sandstone

Naram-Sin was the third successor and grandson

of King Sargon of Akkad. Under Naram-Sin the

Akkadian Empire reached its zenith. He was the

first Mesopotamian king known to have claimed

divinity for himself.

Naram-Sin's famed victory stele depicts him as a

god-king (symbolized by his horned helmet)

climbing a mountain above his soldiers, and his

enemies, the defeated Lullubi. Although the stele

was broken off at the top when it was stolen and

carried off by the Elamites, it still strikingly

reveals the pride, glory, and divinity of Naram-

Sin.

The stele broke from tradition by using

successive diagonal tiers, rather than a

horizontal format, to communicate the story to

viewers.

Naram Sin’s routed enemies fall, flee, die, or beg

for mercy. The king stands alone, far taller than

his men. His troops march up the mountain behind

him in orderly files, suggesting the discipline and

organization of the king’s forces. The enemy, by

contrast, is in disarray.

He is shown nearly twice the size of his soldiers, as

gods (here represented only by their symbols in the

sky) had previously been distinguished from

mortals.

He clasps a veritable arsenal of weaponry- spear,

battleaxe, bow and arrow- and the grand helmet

that crown his head sprouts horns, an attribute

heretofore reserved for gods.

Art historian Irene Winter has gone even further,

pointing to the eroticized pose and presentation of

Naram-Sin, to the alluring display of a well-

formed male body. In ancient Mesopotamian

culture, male potency and vigor were directly

related to mythical heroism and powerful

kingship.

The artist has included identifiable native trees along

the mountain pathway to heighten the sense that

this portrays an actual event rather than a generic

battle scene. Before Naram-Sin, both along the right

side of the stele and smashed under his forward

striding leg, are representations of the enemy, in this

case the Lullubi people from eastern Mesopotamia

(modern Iran).

One diminutive adversary has take a fatal spear to

the neck, while companions behind and below him

beg for mercy.

The focus of the composition is Naram-Sin, who

appears as god-hero-king, his divinity signaled by his

horned helmet, his heroic magnificence suggested by

the perfection of his body, and his role as gallant king

and warrior intimated by his stance with one foot

slightly raised, crushing the broken bodies of the

defeated enemy. Because Naram-Sin was now

considered both god and king, it was no longer

necessary to separate the terrestrial and divine

worlds and relegated them to different sides of the

stele.

The text- unfortunately

fragmentary- situates the

battle. Although the stele

was broken off at the top

when it was stolen and

carried off by the Elamites,

it still strikingly reveals the

pride, glory, and divinity of

Naram-Sin. The stele broke

from tradition by using

successive diagonal tiers,

rather than a horizontal

format, to communicate the

story to viewers.

It is six feet and seven

inches tall, and made from

pink sandstone. The stele

was found at Susa. A

similar bas-relief depicting

Naram-Sin was found a few

miles northeast of

Diyarbekir (in present-day

eastern Turkey).

The First Babylonian Dynasty was established by an Amorite chieftain who was a

semi-nomadic Semitic invader from the lands to the west. Babylon controlled little

Surrounding territory until it became the capital of Hammurabi’s empire a century

later (r. 1792-1750 BCE). Hammurabi is famous for codifying the laws of Babylonia

into the Code of Hammurabi that has had a lasting influence on legal thought.

Subsequently, the city of Babylon continued to be the capital of the region known as

Babylonia. Hammurabi's empire quickly dissolved after his death, although the

Amorite dynasty remained in power in a much reduced Babylonia until 1595 BCE

when they were overthrown by the invading Hittites.

Stele with law code of Hammurabi (Susa,

Iran), c. 1780 BCE, basalt

The sixth Babylonian king,

Hammurabi, enacted the code, and

partial copies exist on a human-

sized stone stele and various clay

tablets. The Code consists of 282

laws, with scaled punishments,

adjusting "an eye for an eye, a

tooth for a tooth" as graded

depending on social status, of slave

versus free man.

One nearly complete example of

the Code survives today, on a

diorite stele in the shape of a huge

index finger. It is located in the

Louvre.

At the top is a representation in high relief

of Hammurabi in the presence of Shamash,

the flame-shouldered sun god. The king

raises his hand in respect. The god extends

to Hammurabi the rod and ring that

symbolize authority. The symbols are

builders’ tools – measuring rods and coiled

rope – and connote the ruler’s capacity to

build the social order and to measure

people’s lives, that is, to render judgments

and enforce the laws spelled out on the stele.

The collection of Hammurabi’s judicial

pronouncements is inscribed on the Susa

stele in Akkadian in 3,500 lines of cuneiform

characters. Hammurabi’s laws governed all

aspects of Babylonian life, from commerce

and property to murder and theft to marital

infidelity, inheritances, and the treatment of

slaves.

Hammurabi is of great historical

importance as the author of the oldest

surviving code of laws. Its declared aim

was to “cause justice to prevail in the land,

to destroy the wicked and the evil, that the

strong might not oppress the weak”,

although, in fact, one of its chief concerns

was to protect money-lenders from

defaulting borrowers, for whom rigorous

penalties were prescribed.

This code is inscribed on a stele under a

relief of Hammurabi standing before the

enthroned sun god at penalties were

prescribed. This code is inscribed on a stele

under a relief of Hammurabi standing

before the enthroned sun god at the

summit of a holy mountain or ziggurat- a

perfect illustration of the semi-divine

status of the priest-king, to whom the god,

himself in human form, delivers the laws.

That the stone takes the form of a phallus,

an obvious symbol of male dominance, is

perhaps no coincidence.

Before Hammurabi there is no known equivalent attempt to organize a legal system and

to put it down in writing. Punishments depended on the gender and social standing of

the offender. Shamash wears the four-tiered, horned headdress that marks him as a god

and a robe that bares one shoulder and ends in a stiff, flounced skirt. Hammurabi faces

Shamash confidently, his hand raised in a gesture of greeting. Any suggestion of

familiarity in the lack of distance is offset by the formality of the pose. The smaller,

earthly law enforcer remains standing in the presence of the much larger divine judge,

seated on his ziggurat throne.

The Code is inscribed in the

Akkadian language, using

cuneiform script. Various copies of

portions of the Code of Hammurabi

have been found on baked clay

tablets, some possibly older than

the celebrated stele now in the

Louvre.

Though the stated purpose of

Hammurabi’s laws was to protect

the weak from the strong, they

also maintained traditional class

distinctions: the lower classes were

more severely punished for crimes

committed against the upper

classes than vice versa. There was

no intent to create social equality

in the protection of the weak, or in

the expressed concern for orphans

and widows, but rather to

maintain the continuity and

stability of society.

The Neo-Babylonian Empire or

the Chaldean Empire was a

period of Mesopotamian history

which began in 626 BCE and

ended in 539 BCE During the

preceding three centuries,

Babylonia had been ruled by

their fellow Akkadian speakers

and northern neighbors.

Neo-Babylonian rulers were

deeply conscious of the

antiquity of their heritage, and

pursued an arch-traditionalist

policy, reviving much of their

ancient Sumero-Akkadian

culture. Even though Aramaic

had become the everyday

tongue, Akkadian was restored

as the language of

administration and culture.

Ishtar Gate (Babylon, Iraq), c. 575 BCE

Babylon is a name which actually means “The Gate of God”. The gate was named

in honor of the goddess Ishtar of love, fertility, and war. The lions depicted on the

gate are emblems of Ishtar.

Ishtar is the Akkadian counterpart

to the Sumerian Inanna and to the

cognate northwest Semitic goddess

Astarte. The goddess represents the

planet Venus.

The Sumerian Inanna was first

worshiped at Uruk in the earliest

period of Mesopotamian history. In

incantations, hymns, myths, epics,

votive inscriptions, and historical

annals, Inanna/Ishtar was

celebrated and invoked as the force

of life.

But there were two aspects to this

goddess of life. She was the goddess

of fertility and sexuality, and could

also destroy the fields and make the

earth's creatures infertile. She was

invoked as a goddess of war,

battles, and the chase, particularly

among the warlike Assyrians.

On Ishtar’s Gate, profile figures of Marduk’s dragon and Adad’s bull alternate.

Left: An aurochs above a flower

ribbon (The aurochs, the ancestor of

domestic cattle, was a type of large wild

cattle which inhabited Europe, Asia,

and North Africa, but is now extinct; it

survived until 1627.)

The Ishtar Gate, dedicated to the

Babylonian goddess Ishtar, was

the eighth gate to the inner city of

Babylon. It was constructed in

about 575 BC by order of King

Nebuchadnezzar II on the north

side of the city. Through the gate

ran the Processional Way, which

was lined with walls covered in

lions on glazed bricks (about 120 of

them).

Statues of the deities were paraded

through the gate and down the

Processional Way each year during

the New Year's celebration.

An avenue used for procession

passed beneath the gate of Ishtar,

followed the double wall that

protected the palace and led into

the heart of the city, where it

connected the Heragila, a word

meaning “the high-roofed temple”

or temple of Marduk to the new

year temple outside the city walls

where celebrations marking the

beginning of the year and lasting

12 days took place each spring.

The consort of Ishtar was

Tammuz. Their sacred marriage

was performed at the New Year

Festival between the king and a

priestess of Ishtar.

The possession of a god’s image was a fundamental tenant to Babylonian religion. The

Babylonians would “kidnap” the gods of their enemies and hold them captive in

Babylon, thus asserting their control over their enemies. The Elamites once captured

Babylon and took the statue of Marduk back to Susa in the 12th century BCE. The

Babylonians couldn’t conduct their New Year celebrations without the statue and it

was forbidden to make a replica since the statue itself was “alive”.

IMAGES OF POWER: ANCIENT NEAR EAST: ACTIVITIES and REVIEW

(Sumerian, Akkadian, and Babylonian)

This stele commemorates

Naram Sin’s victory over

the Lullabi peoples.

Naram- Sin is the ruler of

the Akkadian peoples.

In order to convey a sense

of divinity, Naram-Sin

wears a horned helmet.

The mountain depicted in

the stele serves

symbolically as a

transition between heaven

and earth, indicating that

Naram-Sin has access to

the divine powers of the

gods that ordinary

humans do not have.

Naram-Sin is clearly

designated as the focal

point of the composition

because the gaze of all of

the other figures are

directed towards him.

The suns or the stars

above are the forces that

validate Naram-Sin’s

powers. They remind us of

his access to the divine.

The vanquished are shown

begging for mercy. One

has a spear protruding

through his neck. The

enemy is clearly in

disarray. Their size

indicates inferiority when

contrasted to the

hierarchical proportion

used to depict Naram-Sin.

This stele is made of pink

limestone was was created

around 2254-2218 B.C.E.

It is 6 feet and 7 inches

tall.

In the early 18th century

B.C.E., the Babylonian

king Hammurabi

formulated a set of nearly

300 laws for his people.

Here the king raises his

hand to show respect to

the seated god that he

stands before.

The god hands

Hammurabi the tools of a

builder, a measuring rod

and a coiled rope. These

connote the ruler’s

capacity to construct the

social order and to

regulate people’s lives,

that is, to render judgment

and enforce the laws

spelled out on the stele.

The sun god Shamash with

flames emanating from his

shoulders demonstrates

greater status due to his

being seated and of slightly

higher proportion. He sits

on a ziggurat throne and is

depicted in the familiar

convention of combined

frontal and profile views

but with two important

exceptions. His great

headdress with it s four

pairs of horns is in true

profile so that only four, not

all eight, of the horns are

visible. Also, the artist

seems to have tentatively

explored the notion of

foreshortening. His beard is

a series of diagonal rather

than horizontal lines,

suggesting its recession

from the picture plane.

The feet of the god is placed

on top of a symbolic

representation of the

mountains from which the

god emerges.

This stele is made of

basalt which is very

durable. The fact that it is

made of such a hard stone

may be an indication of

how it has survived to be

almost 4,000 years old.

The image of Hammurabi, as an emblem of power, differs

from the image of Naram-Sin in that he is a pious conduit

through which a god speaks. Naram-Sin, with his idealized

body and larger proportions, is himself a god.

Under the relief we see three pieces of writing: (1) the king’s

investiture, or his right to rule, (2) an ode to his glory, and (3)

the laws that are used to govern Babylonia. They are written

using cuneiform in the Akkadian language.

VIDEO: Victory Stele of Naram-Sin on Smarthistory

VIDEO: Stele of Hammurabi with Law Code on Smarthistory