Sights

Susa Significant archaeological finds at Susa: Hammurabi Codex Victory Stele of Naram-Sin Hammurabi In 1800 B.C. the Ammorite king, Hammurabi, took the throne of the new Babylonian dynasty. He was the sixth king of the first dynasty of Babylon. He began immediately to expand his new empire to eventually include Asyria and nothern Syria. Hammurabi was a great military leader and lawgiver. In the First year of his reign Hammurabi fulfilled a promise to the Babylonian god Marduk and established an extensive law system which encompassed nearly every area of Ancient life. The document was over 300 paragraphs long and included sections on social, moral, religious, commmercial and civil law. Kings of the day would post large monuments listing their laws with an accompanying statue carving of themselves to identify the law with the king. Hammurabi was no different in this practice. There were many copies of this law errected throughout the kingdom. Usually in the temples dedicated to the local gods. It now resides in the Louve, in Paris. Law-Codex of Hammurabi The style of Hammurabi is a black diorite stone, seven and a half feet in height and six feet in circumference. It was discovered by J. De Morgan and V. Scheil during their excavations at Susa, the Edomite capital, in 1901-2. The fifty-one columns of cuneiform text was written in the Akkadian (Semitic) language. The top of the stele has an engraved picture of Shamash, the sun god, seated on a throne handing a scepture and ring to Hammurabi. This is to symbolize the divine origin of the great code of laws which king Hammurabi received. This picture would reinforce the motivation for keeping these laws. Read the Translation of Hammurabi's Code of Laws at University of Evansville here

Victory Stele of Naram-Sin Originally this stele was erected in the town of Sippar, centre of the cult of the Sun god, to the north of Babylon. lt was taken as booty to Susa by an Elamite king in the 12th century BC. The stele illustrates the victory over the mountain people of western lran by Naram-Sin, 4th king of the Semite dynasty of Akkad, who claimed to be the universal monarch and was deified during his lifetime. He had himself depicted climbing the mountain at the head of his troops. His helmet bears the horns emblematic of divine power. Although it is worn, his face is expressive of the ideal human conqueror, a convention imposed on artists by the monarchy. The king tramples on the bodies of his enemies at the foot of a peak; above it the solar disk figures several times, and the king pays homage to it for his victory