Sumerian & Mesopotamian

This illustration presents a meticulous line drawing of a cuneiform tablet fragment, identified as part of the first tablet of the 'Creation Series' or Enuma Elish. The drawing captures the intricate wedge-shaped script and the jagged edges of the broken clay, representing fragments 45528 and 46614 from the British Museum. Such technical reproductions were vital for the dissemination and study of ancient Near Eastern texts in the early 20th century.

This illustration is a precise hand-copy of a cuneiform tablet fragment belonging to the Enuma Elish, the Babylonian creation myth. It shows the obverse side of joined fragments 45588 and 46614 from Tablet I of the series, preserving the ancient wedge-shaped script used in Mesopotamia.

This relief from the top of the diorite stele of Hammurabi depicts the king standing in a gesture of prayer before the sun god Shamash. Shamash, seated on a throne and wearing a tiered robe and horned headdress, extends the rod and ring, symbols of royal power and justice, to Hammurabi. This scene legitimizes Hammurabi's rule and the laws inscribed below by presenting them as divinely ordained.

This plate presents a meticulous reproduction of Column XXXV from the Code of Hammurabi, one of the oldest and most complete written legal codes in history. The cuneiform script, originally carved into a massive diorite stele around 1754 BCE, is here rendered for scholarly study, illustrating the complex wedge-shaped characters used in ancient Babylon to record laws and social edicts.