Paris Louvre

I woke up at 10 am, having gone to bed last night at 10pm.  I was still tired and probably should have stayed in, but after lunch I decided to go to the Louvre.  Just as I approached the train station, the sun came out.

Vaires-sur-Marne

By the time I arrived,  I had less than two hours before the museum closed, so I decided to focus on Antiquities. The collections in this section, "Antiquités Orientales," cover a period of 9,000 years from prehistoric times to the beginning of the islamic age, and a territory that reaches from North Africa to the Indus (Mesopotamia), and to Central Asia, the Black Sea (Anatolia), and to the Arabian peninsula (to the Indian Ocean).
















Obviously, I had to choose what to see.  This was not the first time I visited some of these galleries, but I know that I see different things at different times.  This was a fascinating period, of advanced civilizations, and long lost empires that I only know about from reading.

This wall plaque has two registers. At the top is the King Ur-Nanshe
 who founded the Lagash Dynasty of Sumer. In the lower register
he presides over a banquet celebrating a new sanctuary.  2900 - 2340 B.C.

Lagash is an ancient city located northwest of the junction of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and east of Uruk.  It is located in present day Iraq.  It is one of the oldest cities of the Ancient Near East.

Gudea, the Prince of Lagash.  He holds a vase from which flows
a river of fish.  The image evokes the role of a protector 
who nourishes his people and assures their prosperity.

One of the most famous objects in the Louvre is known as the Code of Hammurabi, an emblem of Mesopotamia.  It is a basalt column erected by the king of Babylon in the 18th century B.C.  It is a work of art, an historic object, and the most complete legal document of antiquity, even before the Bible.  The text is written in cuneiform in the Akkadian language.  The first rule reads, "If a man accuses another of homicide, but cannot bring proof against him, the accuser will be put to death."  It is harsh by today's Western legal standards.

Code of Hammurabi

As in other large museums, getting from place to place involves long walks through beautiful galleries.  It is hard to resist the impulse to stay in them, especially when they are so spectacular. 

The Greek and Roman sculpture gallery

It is a challenge to choose what to focus on when there are many small objects in a case; and many, many other cases with hundreds of small, finely crafted works of art in them, but I just looked at those that most attracted my attention in each case.

Statuettes in shape of birds. Alabaster
Uruk about 3300 B.C. Albâtre  

From this gallery I could see into the courtyard.  It was not yet 5 PM and the light was fading.

When he became king of Assyria, Sargon II decided to build a new capital that would reflect the grandeur of his reign. This relief comes from the palace.  

Sargon is tall and faces an important dignitary (left), 
perhaps the Crown Prince Sennacherib.  Traces of pigment 
lead scholars to believe that the figures were painted.

Mesopotamia did not have enough wood to built Sargon's capital, so the wood had to be imported.

This panel depicts the perilous journey of huge trunks of cedars
that had been cut in the mountains of Lebanon.  
The voyage by sea was the most dangerous and
was placed under the protection of various genies.

It was almost 6:00 when I left the Louvre.  The palace and the pyramid were lit for the evening.  Also, there was a full moon.  The scene was so beautiful!

Although this photo is somewhat blurry, it is possible to appreciate the effect. 

Cuneiform text