Ancient garden from Babylon to Rome
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Fragment of vase
© Institute and Museum of the History of Science

Fragment of vase

Schistose stone, c. 12th cent. B.C.
Provenance uncertain
Paris, Musée du Louvre, inv. AO 4673

This fragment, part of a ritual vase, shows a man watering a plant, with a goddess beside him. In Mesopotamia, this scene celebrated the sovereign's devotion to the divinities that presided over nature and environmental balance.