The document summarizes Babylonian art and the Code of Hammurabi. It discusses how Babylon was founded as a small town that grew to prominence under the First Amorite Dynasty. It describes the major gods and goddesses of Mesopotamia like Anu, Enlil, Inanna, and Marduk. It provides details about King Hammurabi, who issued one of the first written legal codes containing laws governing commerce, property, domestic affairs, and physical crimes along with their penalties.

1. ART OF THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST:
BABYLONIAN ART
STELE OF HAMMURABI
RODRIGUEZ, Abraham Borra
BFA ID-U 2012-78784

7. BABYLON
• Babylon (Greek )is an adaptation
ofBabili (Akkadian) meaning
"Gate of God“
• In the Hebrew Bible, the name
appears as Babel, interpreted in
the Book of Genesis to mean
confusion
• Was an Akkadian city-state
(founded by an Amorite
Dynasty, 1867 BCE)

8. BABYLON
• First appeared during the third
millennia BCE as a small town
and flourished and attained
independence with the rise of
the First Amorite Babylonian
Dynasty
• Had 5 distinct periods: Old
Babylonian, Kassite, Middle
Babylonian, Assyrian, and Neo-
Babylonian period.
• During this time, the City of
Babylon became the cultural
center of Sumer
• Ruled and unified the region of
Mesopotamia for over 300 years

9. THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST
• The people of the Ancient
Near East worshiped
numerous Gods and
Goddesses, mostly nature
gods. Each city had a
special protective deity, and
people do believed the fate
of the city depended on
the power of that deity.

10. The Gods and Goddesses of
Mesopotamia

11. Anu
The chief deity of the Sumerians, Anu was the god of the sky
and of the city of Uruk.

12. Enlil
Anu’s son, Enlil was the lord of the winds and the earth . He
eventually replaced his father as king of the gods.

13. Inanna
The Sumerian goddess of love and war, Inanna was later
known as Ishtar..

14. Nanna
The moon god, Nanna was also known as Sin. He was the
chief deity of Ur.

15. Marduk
chief god of the Babylonians.

16. Nabu
He is the son of Marduk and the god of writing and wisdom

17. Adad
was the Babylonian god of storms

18. Ningirsu
The local god of Lagash and Girsu

19. Ashur
The local deity of Assur, the city that took his name, Ashur
became the king of the Assyrian gods. He sometimes is
identified with Enlil.

20. Utu
The sun god, Utu was known later as Shamash. On a
Babylonian stele, Shamash presents the Rod of Justice to
Hammurabi.

30. a wedge-shaped stylus was used to make impressions on clay
surfaces (also on stone, metal, and wax surfaces)

31. Technique
CUNEIFORM WRITING
(“Cuneus” Latin for “wedge-shaped”)

32. Enuma Elish ("when the
gods"), Fragment of a clay tablet from
Nineveh,

33. clay tablet from the library of Ashurbanipal at
Nineveh

34. An early world map, circa 600 BCE

35. The sun-god tablet from Babylon, about 870 BCE

37. THE CODE OF HAMMURABI

50. • Sixth king of the first
Babylonian Dynasty (1792 BC to
1750 BCE)
• He inherited the power from
his father, Sin-Muballit
• Died c. 1750 BCE
• at the time of his death, his
successors were unable to
maintain his empire
• Favorite shepherd of Shamash
• Best known for the set of laws
he made (Hammurabi’s Code)

51. • One of the earliest surviving
written bodies of law
• Hammurabi’s laws governed
all aspects of Babylonian life.
The largest portion is then
devoted to matters of
commercial and property
law, rulings in domestic
issues, and questions of
physical assault , detailing
penalties to be exacted on
non-compliers

52. • Here is a small sample of the infractions
described and the penalties imposed (which
vary with the person’s standing in society):
• ❚ If a man puts out the eye of another man, his
eye shall be put out.
• ❚ If he kills a man’s slave, he shall pay one-third
of a mina.
• ❚ If someone steals property from a temple, he
will be put to death, as well as the person who
receives the stolen goods.
• ❚ If a man rents a boat and the boat is
wrecked, the renter shall replace the boat with
another.
• ❚ If a married woman dies before bearing any
sons, her dowry shall be repaid to her father, but
if she gave birth to sons, the dowry shall belong
to them.
• ❚ If a man’s wife is caught in bed with another
man, both will be tied up and thrown in the
water.

53. • ❚If anyone bring an accusation of any crime
before the elders, and does not prove what he
has charged, he shall, if it be a capital offense
charged, be put to death …
• ❚If anyone break a hole into a house (break in
to steal), he shall be put to death before that
hole and be buried …
• ❚If a son strikes his father, his hand shall be
hewn off; if he break another man’s bone, his
bone shall be broken
• ❚ If a builder build a house for someone and
that house is not properly built, and cause death
to the owner, the builder shall be put to death; if
it kill the son of the owner, the builder’s son shall
be put to death
• ❚If anyone steal a cattle or goat, and if it belong
to a God or the court, the thief shall pay thirty
fold; if they belonged to a freed man of the king
he shall pay ten fold; if the thief can’t pay, he
shall be put to death.

54. • Source:
• Janson’s History of Art (7E): The Western
tradition
• Gardner’s Art Through the Ages (V1) : A Global
History
• Stokstad’s Art History
• A History of Western Art (5E)