Museum the Artifact That I Have Chosen

Museum

The artifact that I have chosen is from the Louvre in Paris. It is the law code of Hammurabi. The Louvre is one of the most famous museums in the world. Located in Paris, it contains works from around the world, both archaeological and artistic, including things like the Mona Lisa. The Louvre was founded in 1792. It contains many different collections. Antiquities contained are from Egypt, the Near East (Mesopotamia, etc.), Greece, Rome and more. There is a section on Islamic art. Sculpture and painting are also represented. Many of the works are French, but there is representation of other major European art traditions as well. The Louvre is also an architectural wonder, including the famous Louvre Pyramid in the front of the museum, designed by IM Pei.

The Hammurabi Code is an ancient stele that is found in the Department of Near Eastern Antiquities. It is a large carved piece, with both images and text. The text describes the code of law that the king of Mesopotamia, Hammurabi, dictated for his people. The work is significant as an early code of law, and the fact that the law was published so that the citizens would know the laws of the land. The laws are specific, regarding things like crimes, commerce and other issues of the day. They are written in an ancient script, but we know this script and the laws have been deciphered. The code dates back to ancient Mesopotamia, which is modern day Iraq, and was from around 1772 BCE. Hammurabi was the sixth king of Babylon, which was one of the great empires of the time. The stele is made out of diorite and is over seven feet tall. It is written in cuneiform script, which is one of the early forms of writing, and the one used in ancient Mesopotamia at the time. The stele was found in Iran in 1901 by a Swiss archaeologist. It is believed that the stele arrived there after a local king took it as a prize from Babylon, where it was created.

The Hammurabi Code is significant for a number of reasons. The first of these is that it was an early code of law. Rulers in these times were almost always absolute in their power, and in many cases this power was exercised arbitrarily. Hammurabi's approach was instead to have a code of law, so that all citizens would understand the laws to which they are subject, and that there would be consistency in how the laws were executed in the kingdom. This was a significant step for jurisprudence and for civilization in general, and Hammurabi's code is one of the earliest and best-preserved examples of this type of law in society.

The code is also significant because it is complete. Where other kingdoms of the time may have had similar codes of law, we do not necessarily have record of this. The Hammurabi Code is complete, and we can decipher it. This allows us to learn a lot of things about society and how it was organized back in ancient Mesopotamia. Thus, the code provides significant insight into the way that people thought about issues, and how that society was organized. This is tremendously significant because without such powerful written records, archaeologists are often left to guess or to interpret laws, which is much trickier.