Cuneiform, Cylinder Seals, Hammurabi, and Assyrian Power — Quick Notes

Wedge-shaped writing on damp clay tablets; early writing around $3000\ \text{BCE}$ .
Tablet examples include beer rations; cuneiform records how much beer a person gets.
Writing tool: reed stylus with triangular tip pressed into clay; dries to create the record.
Used for multiple languages: Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian, Assyrian, Hittite, Old Persian, and more.
Script evolved from pictographic symbols (e.g., a cup) to more abstract signs over thousands of years.
Today’s pictograms and emojis echo the ancient use of symbols to convey information.
Cylinder seals: small stone signatures rolled across damp clay to authenticate documents; often carried on a string around the neck.
Seals show sacred and secular imagery; materials include stone, lapis lazuli, agate, marble, ivory, bone, shell.
Reproductions on clay envelopes and seals provided official verification of ownership and consent.

Function as personal signatures; impressions serve as proof of authenticity.
Worn or carried on a cord; used to seal envelopes and clay tablets.
Materials: various stones and precious materials; often decorated with inscriptions and imagery.
Impressions left by rolling the seal handle through moist clay; patterns indicate the signer.

One of the oldest surviving legal codes; inscribed on a tall stele carved in basalt.
Height: $7\ \text{ft}$ tall.
Public display of laws and consequences; organized in registers for clarity.
Theocracy: Hammurabi receives laws from the god Shamash; investiture scene shows Hammurabi before Shamash with a horned crown.
Laws set out clear consequences (e.g., "If a man puts out the eye of another, his eye shall be put out").
Precedes many biblical legal texts; highlights divine justification for rulership.

Height of the Assyrian Empire; warrior kings; universal military service for men.
Large gypsum wall reliefs in palaces depict campaigns, lion hunts, archers, and chariots.
Propaganda: imagery of divine support, fierce kings, and tactical prowess to intimidate visitors and celebrate power.
Standards bearing symbols of gods Adad and Nergal mark sides in battle.
Kings depicted as protectors and conquerors; victories celebrated in reliefs, even when not all battles were truly won.

Lamassu: protective deity with human head, body of a bull or lion, wings of an eagle; triple horned crown.
Placed at doorways as guardians; typically large reliefs (7–8 ft tall) in palatial entrances.
Often shown with one leg forward to suggest motion as you walk through.
Originally painted in bright colors; reconstructions use pigment evidence to visualize the vivid appearance.
Demonstrates protection, authority, and divine sanction of the ruler.

Palaces like Ashurbanipal’s housed lavish materials (cedar, cypress, juniper, boxwood, teak, tar etc.).
Digital reconstructions show how original pigments would have brightened walls and rooms.
Inscriptions describe buildings and gods; color and staging amplify power and grandeur.

Mesopotamia located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
Regions featured: Ur, Nimrud, Ashurbanipal’s palace; transitions from Sumerian to Babylonian to Assyrian control.
The region’s art and inscriptions reflect shifting political power and state ideology.

If you designed your own cylinder seal, which symbols would you include to represent you?
Common choice: cats appear frequently in student responses.