“Among the objects [from the eighteenth century BC] it is perhaps the Code of Hammurabi that is the most important. . . . Properly speaking, rather than a code, the text of 3,500 lines is a collection of penalties to be taken as a model. At the top of the stele, a relief illustrates that the king’s decisions were just because they were inspired by Shamash [the sun god] himself, who was the god of justice since nothing escaped his attention. Hammurabi, wearing a long garment and a thick-brimmed cap on his head . . . stands with one hand raised in greeting or respect before the divinity on a throne above the Cosmic Mountain (with scales), who is identified by the rays coming out of his back. The god holds the insignia of his omnipotence, the circle and stick, which the king must be about to touch . . . in order to fulfill his role as unfailing, supreme judge.”

—The Art and Architecture of Mesopotamia, by Giovanni Curatol, Jean-Daniel Forest, Nathalie Gallois, Carlo Lippolis, and Roberta Venco Ricciardi, 2007.