History of Babylonia Essay

Babylon is Akkadian babilani which means the Gate of God(s) and it became the roof of the land of Babylonia. The etymology of the fall upon Babel in the Bible means crushed (Gen 119) and throughout the Bible, Babylon was a symbol of the confusion ca practiced by immortal littleness. The name Babylon is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Babel.The Early Growth of BabylonThere is conclusion that man has lived in this area of Mesopotamia since the root of culture. The first records indicate that Babylon was established as a urban center around the 23rd coulomb BC. Before this it was a provincial capital orderd by the kings of the city of Ur. Then came the migration of the Amorites.Quick Overview of Babylonian HistoryBabylonia (pronounced babilahnia) was an ancient conglomerate that existed in the Near East in southern Mesopotamia between the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers. Throughout much of their taradiddle their main rival for supremacy were their neighbors, the Assyrian s. It was the Babylonians, under King Nebuchadnezzar II, who destroyed Jerusalem, the capital of the domain of Judah, and carried Gods covenant people into captivity in 587 BC.The Bible reveals much somewhat the Babylonians all the way back from the eon of Hammurapi (2000 BC) to the fall of Babylon (about 500 BC). Throughout the uncommon Testament in that location are references to the Babylonians, their people, culture, religion, military power, etc.Babylonia was a long, narrow country about 40 miles wide at its widest point and having an area of about 8,000 square miles. It was bordered on the north by Assyria, on the east by Elam, on the south and west by the Arabian desert, and on the southeasterly by the Persian Gulf.The earliest known inhabitants of Mesopotamia were the Sumerians, whom the Bible refers to as the people of the land of Shinar (Gen 1010). Sargon, from unrival direct of the Sumerian cities, united the people of Babylonia under his rule about 2300 B.C. Many scholars believe that Sargon might have been thesame person as Nimrod (Gen 108).Artists Depiction of the Ziggurat at UrAround 2000 BC Hammurapi emerged as the ruler of Babylonia. He expanded the borders of the Empire and organized its laws into a make up verbally system, also known as the Code of Hammurapi. About this time Abraham left Ur, an ancient city located in lower Babylon, and moved to Haran, a city in the north. Later, Abraham left Haran and migrated into the land of Canaan under Gods bargain that he would become the father of a great nation (Gen 12).Alongside of Babylonia there must also be a mention of Assyria, which bordered Babylonia on the north. Assyrias development was often intertwined with the course of Babylonian history. About 1270 BC, the Assyrians overpowered Babylonia. For the next 700 years, Babylonia was a lesser power as the Assyrians dominated the ancient world.Around 626 BC, Babylonian independence was finally won from Assyria by a leader named Nabop olassar. Under his leadership, Babylonia again became the dominant imperial power in the Near East and and so entered into her golden age. In 605 BC, Nebuchadnezzar II, the son of Nabopolassar, became ruler and reigned for 44 years. Under him the Babylonian Empire r individuallyed its greatest strength. Using the treasures which he took from some other nations, Nebuchadnezzar built Babylon, the capital city of Babylonia, into one of the leading cities of the world. The famous hanging gardens of Babylon were known to the Greeks as one of the s til now wonders of the world.As previously mentioned, in 587 BC, the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and carried the leading citizens of the Kingdom of Judah as prisoners to Babylon. The Hebrew prophet Jeremiah had foretold that the Jews would be free to return home to Jerusalem later on 70 years. The Lord had encouraged His people through Ezekiel and Daniel who were also captives in Babylon. During this 70 year period of captivity, the Per sians conquered Babylonia, and the Babylonians passed from the scene as a world power.Throughout the long period of Babylonia history, the Babylonians achieved ahigh level of subtlety that made an impact on the whole known world. Sumerian culture was its basis, which later Babylonians regarded as traditional. In the area of religion, the Sumerians already had a system of gods, each with a main temple in each city. The chief gods were Anu, god of heaven Enlil, god of the air and Enki or Ea, god of the sea. Others were Shamash, the sungod Sin, the moon-god Ishtar, goddess of love and war and Adad, the storm-god. The Amorites promoted the god Marduk at the city of Babylon, so that he became the chief god of the Babylonian religion, starting around 1100 BC.Babylonian religion was temple-centered, with elaborate fetes and many different types of priests, peculiarly the exorcist and the diviner, who mainly were trained to drive away evil spirits.Babylonian lit was mainly dominated by my thology and legends. Among these was a creation myth written to glorify their god Marduk. According to this myth, Marduk created heaven and earth from the corpse of the goddess Tiamat. Another work was the Gilgamesh Epic, a flood story written about 2000 BC. Scientific literature of the Babylonians included treatises on astronomy, mathematics, medicine, chemistry, botany, and nature. One of the main aspects of Babylonian culture was a codified system of law.Hammurapis famous code was the successor of earlier collections of laws liberation back to about 2050 BC. The Babylonians used art for the national celebration of great events and glorification of the gods. It was marked by stylized and symbolic representations, hardly it expressed realness and spontaneity in the depiction of animals. The Old Testament contains many references to Babylonia. Gen 1010 mentions four Babylonian cities, Babel (Babylon), Erech (Uruk), Accad (Agade) and Calneh. These, along with Assyria, were ruled b y Nimrod. antiquated Babylonia MonarchyThe Babylonian political structure was a monarchy. The king ruled through a number of officials who were directly under and responsible to him but he could intervene in person at any level of government and administration. thus Hammurapi (1792-1750 BC) took a direct hand in dealing with property claims in Larsa after he had captured that city-state. The monarchywas inheritable and maleprimogeniture seems to have been the guiding principle. Babylonian historians designated a continuous line of kings a dynasty.The king was an absolute monarch and in the very early period there were a few checks to his authority in that he had to respect custom and tradition, private property, the sensibilities of the nobles, religion and divination. The king was the ultimate authority in all areas however religion where he was subject to the dictates of the chief god as represented by his chief priest. thence in the New Years festival the kings role included being slapped in the face by the chief priest and pulled by the ears as a sign of his subservience to the god.Ancient Babylonia Communication, Roads and ScribesEfficient administration of the country dep stop upon good communication theory through a system of roads and relay stations for messengers. Written communications passed back and forth in great number and required a large body of trained scribes. Most people, including the king and his officials, were illiterate so that they were heavily dependent upon the scribes both to write and interpret their commands and reports in an appropriate manner. Many of these letters have been discovered in modern times and they provide a fascinating glimpse of the real events and piece relationships of the day, in contrast to the official versions found in royal in bookions.Ancient Babylonia Nebuchadnezzar IINebuchadnezzar II marched back to Babylon and was crowned king, which inaugurated one of the most powerful periods in Babylonian history. Nebuchadnezzar continued his brilliant campaigns focusing his military maneuvers on the west, which he effectively brought under his control. It was the kingdom of Judah who had called upon Egypt to encourage them against the Babylonians. King Nebuchadnezzar continued his attacks and on his second conquest the conquered Jerusalem in 586 BC taking the survivors as prisoners back to Babylon.This was known in Jewish history has the Babylonian captivityand the exile. After he destroyed Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar focused his attacks upon Egypt and he conquered it in 568 BC though therehas been no detailed theme of this invasion ever discovered, it remains a tremendous success for the king of Babylon and the first time any Chaldean king had ever conquered Egypt.After Nebuchadnezzars death his successors remained obscure untilNabonidus (555-539 BC), the last of the dynasty, ascended the throne. According to history Nabonidus, for some reason, lived throughout 10 of the 17 years that he ruled, at an Arab desert oasis called Tema, which was a vast distance from Babylon. In Babylon he left his son Belshazzar, to rule on his behalf. Nabonidus and his mother were from Harran and claimed to have been a loyal subject to the last of the Assyrian kings. both he and his mother were zealous worshipers of the moon-god Sin, the tutelary deity of Harran, but when Nabonidus tried to promote this cult in Babylonia, the native priests, especially those who followed Marduk, became enraged. This religious controversy break dance Babylonia in twain. Some of this literary propaganda of the time has been recovered.Babylonian culture flourished during the pax Assyriaca of the 7th century BC and again under the Chaldean dynasty of the sixth century BC. Their god Nabu, son of Marduk and god of writing and learning became very popular throughout that period. The practice of astrology permeated the Babylonian society to the point that there were every night watches by the astrolog ers throughout the kingdom. Archeologists have recently recovered massive detailed records of the movements of heavenly bodies.Literature was copied and studied and many new compositions were created. In art and architecture the most impressive remains that have been unearthed by archeologists are in Nebuchadnezzars Babylon. The city apparently had not changed much when the Greek historianHerodotus wrote about it less than a century later and called its Hanging Gardens one of the 7 wonders of the world. In 539 BC Cyrus the Great of Persia conquered Babylon.Ancient Babylonia Houses and FarmsAround the temple were clusters of houses made of sun-dried brickand inhabit by grangers and artisans. The populations of the Babylonian cities piece of tailnot be estimated with any reasonable degree of accuracy, because theauthorities, so far as extant documents reveal, took no census. The number of inhabitants of a city belike ranged from 10,000 to 50,000. The city streets were narrow, r oaming, and quite irregular, with high, windowless walls of houses on both sides.The streets were unpaved and undrained. The average house was a small, one-story, mud-brick structure, consisting of several rooms grouped around a court. The house of a well-to-do Babylonian, on the other hand, was probably a two-story brick dwelling of about a dozen rooms and was plastered and whitewashed both inside and out.The world floor consisted of a reception room, kitchen, lavatory, servants quarters, and, sometimes, even a private chapel. Furnitureconsisted of low tables, high-backed chairs, and beds with wooden frames. Household vessels were made of corpse, stone, copper, and bronze, and baskets and chests of reed and wood. Floors and walls were adorned with reed mats, fell rugs, and woolen hangings.Below the house was often located a mausoleum in which the family dead were buried. The Babylonians believed that the souls of the dead traveled to the nether world, and that, at least to some e xtent, sprightliness continued there as on earth. For this reason, pots, mother fuckers, weapons, and jewels were buried with the dead.Agriculture formed the economic base of Babylonian civilization with production of barley, wheat, fruits, vegetables, with cattle and sheep predominating.The main rationalise in the time of the ancient Babylonians was barley. The farmer would sow his seed with a tool known as a seeder plough The plough would create a furrow into which a seed would be dropped using a funnel. A man would have to walk beside the seeder plough and drop the seeds in at regular intervals. This would mean that all the seeds would be at exactly the correct depth.It would have taken considerable skill to achieve tasks such as irrigationand the winnowing. If the farmer got the irrigation wrong he could flood the field or let it get too dry to allow the plants to grow. Similarly if the farmer did the winnowing in too strong a wind the grain would also blow away but if he did in too weak a wind there would be chaff and dirt still mixed in. The farmer would have probably followed his father in his trade and would have been taught by him. The farmer would almost certainly have been apprenticed by his father.Ancient Babylonia Social HierarchyThere were several levels in the social hierarchy with the king at the top and the slaves at the bottom. In between, in descending order, were the nobles, the free citizens and those in military and civil service. The class structure was generally rigid although some mobility from one level to another was possible. The debt slave had the possibility of paying his debts and regaining his freedom but the only hope for the foreign captive was escape or death.Thus in Babylonian society there were mainly three classes in society, theawilu, a free person of the upper class the wardu, or slave and themushkenu, a free person of low estate, who ranked legally between the awilu and the wardu. Most slaves were prisoners of war, b ut some were recruited from the Babylonian citizenry as well. For example, free persons might be reduced to slavery as punishment for certain offenses parents could sell their children as slaves in time of need or a man might even turn over his entire family to creditors in payment of a debt, but for no longer than three years.Ancient Babylonia SchoolsFor the most part the only nurture that a young Babylonian might have received would have been of a scribal type. Those who were sent to school to train as a scribe had to be children of wealthy or influential parents. Boys were admitted and possibly girls as well. There is no doubt that rich women often had a lot of freedom and influence.By the time of Hammurapi (1792-60) the language of Sumerian had been re dimensiond by Akkadian as the commonly spoken language in Babylonia but Sumerian wasstill used for nearly all religious texts. It was therefore necessary to train students, not only in the script, cuneiform, but in the language as well.The students education would begin when he was eight or nine years old. Each day he would get up at sunrise and go to school, which was commonly known as the tablet house. At the tablet house there would be a man like a schoolmaster. His title literally meant the Expert. There would be a number of other teachers who would each specialize in a different aspects of Sumerian and its writing. To keep order some of the senior students would be appointed as a helper. A students work would consist of copying tablets using a slab of wet clay. Also he would learn various texts by heart. If he successfully passed an examination the student became a scribe.Ancient Babylonia Astronomy and the CalendarThe observations of the astrologers, which were meticulously recorded on a nightly basis over many centuries, led to accurate predictions of various astronomical phenomena and the correct calculation of the solar and lunar year. The Babylonian schedule was based upon the lunar year but, t hanks to the astrologers knowledge, could be reconciled with the solar year by means of intercalary months.We owe much of our calendar system to the Babylonians. They were probably the first people after the Sumerians to have a calendar. This calendar was very important because without it agriculture could not be planned properly.There were twelve lunar months in the year but as the months were shorter than our months often an extra month would have to be added. This was called the second Elul. Each week was divided into seven days. The day was divided into six separate each of two hours duration and containing thirty parts. The Babylonians measured time with a water or sun clock.One can see from this that the Babylonian calendar has markedsimilarities with our own for instance the twelve months in the year and seven days in a week.Ancient Babylonia MedicineMedicine was practiced by two kinds of experts the physician(asu), and the exorcist (dsipu), and the talents of either or both might be demanded at the sick bed. There was a whole set of diagnostic texts in which a multitude of possible symptoms was listed and the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment given. Surgery was known and even delicate operations on the eye were performed. The Babylonians had a superb knowledge of human and animal anatomy and physiology and were aware, for example, of the circulation of the blood and the pulse.Ancient Babylonia CuneiformThe script of the Sumerians and all the other inhabitants of Mesopotamia employed to write their language, up to the first century BC was cuneiform. The name cuneiform comes from theLatin word cuneus, meaning wedge.According to Babylonian beliefs Nabu, the god of scribal arts, who was also the city god of Borsippa, gave cuneiform to them.When the Akkadians, Semite invaders from the desert, adopted the Sumerian civilization and part of the Sumerian Territory they also adopted cuneiform. They adapted the script to fit their own. The next wave of Semite invaders, the Amorites, did likewise, but they continued to speak the Akkadian tongue. Thus we find Hammurapi (1792-1760 BC) who was an Amorite, speaking Akkadian and writing cuneiform. Since the time of Hammurapi, successive Mesopotamian empires controlled huge empires in the Near East. Because of this cuneiform, Akkadian became the lingua franca of the Near East, as Latin was of Medieval Europe. This of course ended when Mesopotamian civilization declined so that cuneiform was no longer being used by about the first century BC.When the Sumerians first brought cuneiform into being it was nothing like the script that it was to become. It was an ideogramatical script (a symbol represented by a word). For example a picture of sheep would mean sheep. When the Sumerians came into contact with the Akkadians they needed to adapt their script to fit. This was necessary even to write Akkadian names. Obviously it was far more important for the Akkadians because they needed to write their la nguage in it. Cuneiform then underwent a transformation. It became a syllogramatical script where each symbol represented a sound.Therefore the symbol for a word such as dig, if we took an English equivalent would be correctly used in the second syllable of indignant. This transformation enabled cuneiform to be used with other languages.As cuneiform changed from an ideogramatical to a syllogramatical scriptits symbols were simplified. The original pictograms were perplex and hard to write on clay tablets. The symbols developed, losing many of their lines and the remaining lines were wedge shaped and straight.Cuneiform was originally written with a reed or hold fast stylus but this was quickly developed into a precision tool. We have derived virtually all our knowledge of the Babylonians from texts written in cuneiform on clay tablets. From these tablets we have been able to learn their law, business, administration, religion and all other aspects of Babylonian civilization. Withou t these texts we would know little about the Babylonians.http//www.bible-history.com/babylonia/BabyloniaBabylonia00000023.htmHISTORY OF THE HITTITESThe first Indo-European empire seventeenth century BCA group of tribes, speaking Indo-European languages and collectively known as the Hittites, establish themselves as the dominant power in Anatolia. Their capital is at Bogazkoy, a dramatically fortified city on a steep slope among ravines its walls and towers enclose no fewer than five great temples.The priest-king who makes this place his capital in the 17th century BC is Hattusilis I. He has ambitions for his people. Moving south and east with his army, he reaches the Mediterranean and continues into northern Syria.Eager to give his empire full credentials, Hattusilis brings back from Syria a team of scribes, expert in cuneiform. They adapt the cuneiform script to a new purpose, the recording of an Indo-European language, and they lay the buttocks for an important state archive at B ogazkoy.When the clay tablets of this archive are discovered, in the 20th century, they provide the basis for our knowledge of the Hittites.The magic of iron from 1500 BCThe Hittites are the first people to work iron, in Anatolia from about 1500 BC. In its simple form iron is less hard than bronze, and therefore of less use as a weapon, but it seems to have had an immediate appeal perhaps as the latest achievement of technology (with the mysterious quality of being changeable, through heating and hammering), or from a certain intrinsic magic (it is the metal in meteorites, which fall from the sky).Quite how much value is attached to iron can be judged from a famous letter of about 1250 BC, written by a Hittite king to accompany an iron dagger-blade which he is sending to a fellow monarchThe furthest extent of the empire 16th 12th century BCIn about 1600 the Hittites reach and destroy Babylon, before retreating again to their Anatolian heartland. In the 14th century they march agai n to establish an empire which reaches into northern Syria, east of the Euphrates, and extends down the Mediterranean coast to confront the Egyptians. A hard but inconclusive engagement at Kadesh in 1275 stablizes the frontier between the two power blocs.It is followed some years later by a accordance and the marriage of the daughter of the Hittite king (Hattusilis III) to the Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II. In the 12th century the Hittite empire suddenly collapses overwhelmed, it is thought, by the onrush of the Sea Peoples. These grand intruders are described in Egyptian chronicles as raging down the coast to threaten the frontiers of Egypt in about 1218 and again in 1182 BC http//www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/plaintexthistories.asp?historyid=ab66ixzz2HIAKxOZL The Hittites were an Ancient Anatolian people who spoke a language of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family and established a kingdom centered at Hattusa in on the exchange Anatolian plateau in the 18th c entury BC. The HittiteEmpire reached its height around 1285 BC,encompassing a large part of Anatolia, north-westernSyria about as far south as the mouth of the Litani River, and eastward into upper Mesopotamia. After ca. 1180 BC, the empire disintegrated into several independent Neo-Hittite city-states, some surviving until as late as the 8th century BC.The depot Hittites was taken from the King James translation of the Hebrew Bible, translating HTY, or - BNY-HT Children of Heth (Heth is a son of Canaan). The archaeologists who discovered the Anatolian Hittites in the 19th century initially identified them with these scriptural Hittites. Today the identification of the Biblical peoples with either the Hattusa-based empire or the Neo-Hittite kingdoms is a matter of dispute.The Hittite kingdom was commonly called the territory of Hatti by the Hittites themselves. The fullest expression is The Land of the City of Hattusa. This description could be applied to either the entire empire , or more narrowly just to the core territory, depending on context. The word Hatti is actually an Akkadogram, quite than Hittite it is never declined according to Hittite grammatical rules. Despite the use of Hatti, the Hittites should be distinguished from the Hattians, an earlier people who inhabited the same region until the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC, and spoke a non-Indo-European language called Hattic.The Hittites themselves referred to their language as Nesili (or in one case, Kanesili), an adverbial form meaning in the manner of (Ka)nesa, presumptively reflecting a high concentration of Hittite speakers in the ancient city of Kanesh (modern Kltepe, Turkey). Many modern city names in Turkey are first recorded under their Hittite names, such as Sinop and Adana, reflecting the contiguity of modernAnatolia with its ancient past.Although belonging to the Bronze Age, the Hittites were forerunners of the Iron Age, developing the manufacture of Iron artifacts from as earl y as the 14th century BC, when letters to foreign rulers reveal the demand for their iron goods. Recent excavations, however, have discovered evidence of iron tool production dating back at least as far as the 20th century BC. Hittite weapons were made from Bronzethough iron was so rare and precious