Where Words Meet Pictures

Mesopotamians invented cuneiform, the first true writing, around 3200 BCE — and image and text grew up together.

The Code of Hammurabi (about 1754 BCE) is a tall stone pillar of laws. Above the text, a carving shows King Hammurabi receiving authority from a god. The picture does the persuading: it tells everyone the rules below come from heaven, not just from a man.

The search is far from over. Archaeologists now use satellite imaging and ground-penetrating radar to spot buried sites without lifting a single shovel.

Each new find sharpens the picture of how Mesopotamian art set patterns — of storytelling, of figures, of power on display — that later shaped Greek, Roman, and Western art.