ASSYRIAN - STELE CODE OF HAMMURABI | 3D

Last crawled date: 2 years ago

, carved from a monolith of black basalt quarried in the Zagros or Upper Mesopotamian mountains. Its arched top is carved in bas-relief on the front. It depicts a meeting scene between King Hammurabi and the god Shamash. The king, shown on the left, stands with his right hand raised as a sign of respect. He wears a long beard, a wide-brimmed cap and a vertically pleated robe. The sun god Shamash, to his right, sits on a throne. He wears the horned tiara characteristic of deities, a long beard, and a ruffled robe. He is identified as the sun-god by the rays that stream over his shoulders and the three rows of scales on which he places his feet, which represent the eastern mountains that the sun crosses every morning. He gives the king the insignia of royalty, the staff and a circular object (ring or circle) which symbolise equity. This bas-relief is classical in style and composition; it is inspired in particular by the so-called presentation scenes common on cylinder seals since the end of the third millennium BC. The presence of Shamash is linked to his function as god of justice (the prologue of the Code designates him as the great judge of Heaven and Earth).