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Shamash

A reference page linking a name, group, or concept to the materials that discuss it.

Mesopotamian god of the sun and justice, shown before Hammurabi on an eighteenth-century BCE stele preserved in the Louvre.

Relief at the top of the Sun-God Tablet from Sippar, ninth century BCE. Shamash sits before a solar disc; a Babylonian king and two intermediary figures stand to the left. British Museum, 91000. Photograph by Prioryman, 22 January 2012
Relief at the top of the Sun-God Tablet from Sippar, ninth century BCE. Shamash sits before a solar disc; a Babylonian king and two intermediary figures stand to the left. British Museum, 91000. Photograph by Prioryman, 22 January 2012Prioryman / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 · CC BY-SALicense · Object record · Image source

Text

Shamash is the sun and justice god in Mesopotamian traditions. One pictorial witness is the upper relief of HammurabiHammurabiKing of Babylon in Mesopotamia, reigning around 1792–1750 BCE. A celebrated legal text preserved on a stele and cuneiform copies bears his name.Glossary · Click to read the explanation’s stele, Louvre SB 8, from the eighteenth century BCE. This dates the object mentioned rather than the beginning of the god’s worship. [1]

Shamash sits before the king with divine and solar attributes and displays rod-and-ring insignia. The image connects royal authority with divine justice, but handing over a written law book is not a visible detail. This page’s photograph shows an inscribed face of the stele rather than the upper Shamash scene.

References and notes

  1. Louvre catalogue for SB 8: object identification, material, date, Hammurabi–Shamash relief and findspot. Catalogue metadata consulted. The article photograph shows another inscribed face, not the upper relief. SB 8; catalogue Return to the text ↑

Research history

Substantive changes are retained here. Minor copy edits remain in the internal operational log.

  1. Edition 5 · 13 October 2026 · editor

    Substantive record update

    Read this revision in its original language (Arabic)

  2. Edition 4 · 13 October 2026 · aladmin

    Substantive record update

    Read this revision in its original language (Arabic)

  3. Edition 3 · 13 October 2026 · editor

    Substantive record update

    Read this revision in its original language (Arabic)

  4. Edition 2 · 12 October 2026 · editor:aladmin

    Substantive record update

    Read this revision in its original language (Arabic)

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IL Archive, «Shamash», Edition 5, https://ilarchive.com/en/entities/shamash