France - Paris day 07 - Louvre Near Eastern Section Part 1 of 2

 So this is the courtyard in the middle of the near Eastern section. Its big because of the huge items from the palace of Sargon the second. He took over Assyria and eventually Babylon, he is regarded as an usurper, from 722 to 705 BCE.

 This is a class of students in front of reliefs showing cedar, probably in current day Lebanon, being felled to make ships.

This is my wife standing beside a genie. In this area at this time period they are depicted as having four wings, very similar to Christian cherubs.

 These are positioned as they would have at the time, flanking a doorway.

 Manistusu, ruled the Akkadian empire from 2269 to 2255 BCE and had this stone carved with his great deeds and purchase of land to expand the empire. Click on it to see the detail.

 The code of Hammurabi. He was sixth King of Babylon from 1792 to 1750 BCE and became the first king of the empire as it expanded its dominance over Mesopotamia.

 He established a code of laws for his subjects to follow, had them inscribed on these stone pillars and distributed to everywhere he controlled in public locations. That way anyone could read and heed (for those who could read) and be judged equally.

 Some of those are: Eye for and eye and tooth for a tooth...if a son hits his parent that hand will be cut off...if a man steels he shall pay back tenfold its worth or be put to death...if someone is accused of a crime and it is found not to have occurred the accuser will be put to death...etc. This stone represents the first open legal system and was one of my highlights of the museum.

 A stellae with the god Ishtar.

A model of a chariot. As you've probably have guessed...I like models.