Occidental culture and Babylon’s 3,000-year history

Located on Museum Island, the Berlin Pergamon Museum is one of the most popular tourist museums in the city. Housed within is the exhibition “Babylon—Myth and Truth,” a world-community project.

Treasures owned by the Pergamon Museum as well as treasures on loan from other museums can be viewed in this exhibition, including pieces from the Louvre of Paris, the British Museum of London, and the Stattliche Museum of Berlin.

Visitors arrive in droves. Through the impressive anterior Ischtar door, they gaze down Babylon’s 30-meter-long (98 feet) procession avenue and begin their exploration into another world.

The theme of the first section is “Truth.” More than 800 cultural objects invite the visitor to experience Babylonian culture—one of the most renowned cultures of the old Orient.

The cultural objects are organized into 10 different topics, such as statues, reliefs, religious offerings, architectural pieces, Babylonian scriptures, and other artifacts of this ancient culture.

Babylon’s Rulers

Upon entering the section entitled “Kingdom,” the visitor learns about Babylon’s rulers, starting with Hammurabi (1792–1750 B.C.), the sixth king of Babylon. After having ruled Babylon for 30 years, Hammurabi united a number of surrounding kingdoms through military campaigns and became the first king of the Babylonian Empire.

Hammurabi is perhaps best-known for the set of laws developed during his reign known as Hammurabi’s Code. This code, which put forward the principle, “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,” is the oldest and most complete code of laws from ancient times. It is displayed on a 2.25-meter-high column, with an eye-level copy conveniently placed for easy viewing.

Babylon rose to a powerful position in the old Orient through military campaigns. This section of the exhibit also presents historical information about some of the later Babylonian or Chaldean rulers.

Subsequent displays present the architecture, religion, legislation and laws, business activities, daily life activities, and also the Babylon shrine, thus providing visitors with a comprehensive historical review of Babylon’s culture and its evolution.

Babylon’s written language encompassed 600 different hieroglyphs. They have survived in the form of cuneiform writing on clay tablets, rocks, and steles. The steles are upright stones or slabs with inscribed or sculptured surfaces.

Nearly 10 years of schooling were required for one to learn all 600 hieroglyphs, and very few Babylonians mastered them all.

Tower of Babel

Visitors can observe the evolution of Babylonian culture through an examination of the building structures. With an inner double wall, an outer wall circling the east bank, and a fortress in the northern part of the city, Babylon was the most protected city in antiquity.

With so many different types of buildings as well as other construction projects, the ancients could not agree which should be included in the wonders of the world.

Many of the buildings were dedicated to Marduk, considered the patron deity of Babylon. Though he was initially regarded as a minor city god, he was later revered as the highest god.

Exhibition in Berlin—Babylon: Myth and Truth

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