Akkadian Empire

Although not a religious text per se, the “Epic of Gilgamesh” gives us great insight on how the people in ancient Mesopotamian society felt about the gods and their relationship with them. The religion of this time is completely foreign to those raised in the Judeo-Christian western world, whose god plays the role of the concerned parent. The “Epic of Gilgamesh” reveals to us that the ancient Sumerian gods had human characteristics, were dangerous and were not perfect beings whose example we…

Nearly 4,000 years ago, a man named Hammurabi became king of a small city-state known as Babylon. We known very little about Hammurabi’s personal life, we aren’t even sure what he looked like. However, we do know that Hammurabi developed a system of justice carved on a large pillar brick containing 282 laws. What are these laws for and just have it affected it’s people? Even though we know very little about Hammurabi, archaeologists have found a tablet containing details on Hammurabi’s…

Greek and Mesopotamia visualized masculinity through male’s domination over the inferior group and their involvement in sexual relationships not only with women, but also with other men (Wiesner, p. 18). In Heracles by Apollodorus, Heracles uses his strength and exceeding skills to prove his superiority. Likewise, in the Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh uses his position of power as a king and his exceeding physical strength to dominate through fear the citizens of Uruk. Both Gilgamesh and Heracles…

It would be bold to say that at a passing glance anyone without proper knowledge of ancient Near Eastern and Egyptian art would identity works like the Code of Hammurabi and the Palette of Narmer as coming from the same source. It would be an even bolder claim that the previous statement hides some truth to it. While the source of each piece are from different locations, the contexts and ideals depicted in the imagery are shared. As both artwork shows a powerful leader of their time announcing…

In the dynasty of the old Babylonian was controlled by an Amorites named him Hammurabi who ended up being the sixth king in this dynasty. He is well known for the codes in which he engraved in stone to serve as a political and law for his kingdom to follow in this ancient middle eastern land. Hammurabi was well known because of these codes that he created they were meant to be observed in public is laws for every day citizens in his kingdom to follow. Hammurabi who depicted these codes from…

worldview. The Babylonian, Akkadian, and Hebrew civilizations are among the first with strong, yet contradicting, worldviews. Each of their worldviews developed their views of gods, man, and heroism. These civilizations believed in different creation stories and legends, each outlining how they interpreted the world, both natural and supernatural. A creation story really shapes how people view their…

earliest forms of mankind forming a civilization and a centralizing power. The Code of Hammurabi is also significant because it is the first set of concrete laws written down. Under the powerful reign of Hammurabi, Babylon rose to prominence. His empire spread most of Mesopotamia. These two myths demonstrates how some civilizations were more powerful than others and were able to gain dominance over other groups through their tyrannical rule and laws. There are many differences and similarities…

This paper will be examining the differences and similarities of gender in Mesopotamia as well as Ancient Egypt. When looking at the sources there can be certain distinctions made for gender assumptions in each society. In Mesopotamia, men were considered to be the breadwinners, head of the household, the warriors, builders, as well as the rule makers while women were considered to be the housekeepers and baby makers. (“Epic of Gilgamesh” 10-40) In Egypt, men were often seen as the…

Literary and artistic practices have long since given us an idea about the practices and culture within ancient civilizations, that we are still attempting to discover information today. Two civilizations that we have received the most knowledge about through their written text are Mesopotamia and Egypt. For the Egyptian perspective, The Instructions of Merikare, a letter addressed from a father to a son about how to be an effective pharaoh, is able to be analyzed to determine facts about…

Amazing Ancient Civilizations Whenever one thinks about amazing ancient civilizations, Egypt and Mesopotamia may come to mind. Both blossomed into successful realms that exchanged revolutionary ideas. These cultures were important because of the enormous amount of power and influence they had on future technology, due to the advanced inventions they had developed; however, while they maintained similar governments and religions, they were also very distinct in these areas as well. In terms of…