1. Royal Art as Political Message in Ancient Mesopotamia Catherine P. Foster UC Berkeley

2. Jordan Iraq Iran Syria Turkey Saudi Arabia Armenia and Azerbaijan Egypt Israel Lebanon Mesopotamia: “land between the rivers”

4. “Warka Stele/a” 80 cm in height

6. “Warka Stele/a” 80 cm in height ‘Priest-King’

7. “Victory Stele of Naram-Sin” 2 meters in height Originally erected in the ancient city of Sippar

11. “Statues of Gudea” 2,100 BCE Emphasis was piety

12. Temple Eninnu Ningirsu

13. Old Babylonian Period 1700 BCE Hammurabi Ruled from Babylon

14. “Code of Hammurabi” 2.5 meters in height Currently on display at the Louvre in Paris 282 sections Lex talionis = “Eye for an Eye”

15. Shamash, god of Justice “Rod and ring” of kingship

16. “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”

17. Neo-Assyrian Period 1000 – 750 BCE Expansion Orthostats

18. “Lion Hunt” scenes Ashurnasirpal II

19. Ashurbanipal

21. Ashurnasirpal II

22. Sennacherib

23. Tiglath-Pileser III

25. Ashurbanipal

30. Persian Empire Last great empire of the ancient Near East before the coming of Alexander the Great in 331 BCE Persepolis

31. “Gateway of All Lands”

35. Royal Art as Political Message