Shalmaneser's Handshake with Babylon

The oldest known image of a handshake appears on an Assyrian relief from the 9th century BCE, showing King Shalmaneser III clasping hands with Babylonian King Marduk-Zakir-Shumi I to seal an alliance. Carved nearly 3,000 years ago, it captures a gesture still used to express trust and diplomacy. Long before contracts or signatures, a simple handshake was already binding kings together in stone.

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