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| Patrick Pouyssegur, département des Antiquités orientales |
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Opening days: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday
Duration: 1 hr.
 
The appearance of the first towns in Mesopotamia inaugurates the age of city-states. Writing and monumental architecture contributed to the growth of royal power, which fostered the growth of Sumerian art.
After a period lasting several millennia which saw the rise of agriculture and stable settlements, urban civilization emerged on the great alluvial plain of southern Mesopotamia in the 4th millennium BC. Already an economic center, the town became the seat of a system of government which took on a monarchical character. Political power acquired a powerful instrument of control: writing. An official art emerged, dominated by the representation of a bearded figure shown engaged in warlike or religious activities: the priest-king. He was the embodiment of the new social order.
In the first half of the 3rd millennium, some twenty city-states occupied southern Mesopotamia, known as Sumer. Each was organized around an urban center surrounded by a more or less extensive tract of agricultural land. Each city-state came to be governed, in the name of the city god, by a ruler who was the deity's representative among men. This mediator between the human and the divine endeavored to impose his prerogatives on the powerful clergy. His growing power found expression in the palace, which was both the king's residence and seat of his administration. The ever-growing need for raw materials led to a huge expansion in trade well beyond southern Mesopotamia, which in turn fostered the spread of Sumerian culture and its main vehicle: cuneiform writing.
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From the Pyramide, follow the signs to the Richelieu wing. After the ticket barrier, turn right and take the escalator. Enter Room 1 of the Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art and make your way to display case 1.
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