Oriental Antiquities (Richelieu wing, ground floor) covers the sculptures, stone-carved writings, pottery and other relics of the ancient Middle and Near East, including the Mesopotamian, Sumerian, Babylonian, Assyrian and Phoenician civilizations, plus the art of ancient Persia. The highlight of this section is the boldly sculpted stonework, much of it in relief. Watch out for the statues and busts depicting the young Sumerian prince Gudea, and the black, two-metre-high Code of Hammurabi, which dates from around 1800 BC, during the Mesapotamian civilization. Standing erect like a warning finger, a series of royal precepts (the "code") is crowned with a stern depiction of the king meeting the sun god Shamash, dispenser of justice. The Cour Khorsabad, adjacent, is dominated by two giant, Assyrian winged bulls (one is a reproduction) that once acted as guardians to the palace of Sargon II, from which many treasures were brought to the Louvre. The utterly refined Arts of Islam collection lies below, on the lower ground floor. Bizarrely, the so-called Baptistery of St Louis, an exquisite fourteenth-century Syrian brass bowl, was used for numerous royal christenings in the nineteenth century.
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