Primordial Water

Crossed by the only two rivers known from the biblical paradise, whose importance and dangers may have inspired the myth of the flood, ancient Mesopotamia is also the land where irrigation was first invented and developed. These first human experiments in controlling water, through the artificial transformation of the natural environment, led to the invention and development in Mesopotamia of the earliest known hydraulic works (the first canals, bridges, aqueducts, pipe networks, artificial lakes, etc.). They brought change to the territory and its inhabitants, whose strengths and weaknesses over the long term will be shown. Deliberately relying solely on the collections of the Louvre, whose richness makes such a project possible, the exhibition is integrated into the permanent galleries of the department to examine all Near Eastern antiquities through the lens of water and its environmental lessons from past to present.