Babylonia

Babylonia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the pre-539 BC ancient empires. For the region called
Babylonia by Jewish sources in the later, Talmudic period, see Talmudic
Academies in Babylonia. For other uses, see Babylonia (disambiguation).
Babylonia was an ancient Akkadian-speaking Semitic nation state and cultural
region based in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq). It emerged as
an independent state c. 1894 BC, with the city of Babylon as its capital. It was
often involved in rivalry with its fellow Akkadian state of Assyria in northern
Mesopotamia. Babylonia became the major power in the region after Hammurabi
(. c. 1792 - 1752 BC middle chronology, or c. 1696 1654 BC, short chronology)
created an empire out of many of the territories of the former Akkadian Empire.
The Babylonian state retained the written Semitic Akkadian language for ocial
use (the language of its native populace), despite its Amorite founders and Kassite
successors not being native Akkadians. It retained the Sumerian language for
religious use, but by the time Babylon was founded this was no longer a spoken
language, having been wholly subsumed by Akkadian. The earlier Akkadian and
Sumerian traditions played a major role in Babylonian (and Assyrian) culture, and
the region would remain an important cultural center, even under protracted
periods of outside rule.
The earliest mention of the city of Babylon can be found in a tablet from the reign
of Sargon of Akkad (2334- 2279 BC), dating back to the 23rd century BC. Babylon
was merely a religious and cultural centre at this point and not an independent
state; like the rest of Mesopotamia, it was subject to the Akkadian Empire which
united all the Akkadian and Sumerian speakers under one rule. After the collapse
of the Akkadian empire, the south Mesopotamian region was dominated by the
Gutians for a few decades before the rise of the Sumerian third dynasty of Ur,
which encompassed the whole of Mesopotamia, including Babylon.
Contents
1 Periods
1.1 Old Pre-Babylonian period
1.2 First Babylonian Dynasty - Amorite Dynasty 1894 - 1595 BC
1.2.1 The sack of Babylon and ancient Near East chronology
1.3 Kassite Dynasty 1595 - 1155 BC
1.4 Early Iron Age - Native Rule, Second Dynasty of Isin (1155 - 1026
Babylonia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Babylo...
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BC)
1.5 Period of Chaos 1026 - 911 BC
1.6 Assyrian Rule 911 BC - 620BC
1.7 Neo-Babylonian Empire (Chaldean Era)
1.8 Persian Babylonia
2 Babylonian culture
2.1 Old Babylonian culture
2.1.1 Art and architecture
2.1.2 Astronomy
2.1.3 Medicine
2.1.4 Literature
2.2 Neo-Babylonian culture
2.2.1 Astronomy
2.2.2 Mathematics
2.2.3 Philosophy
3 Legacy
4 See also
5 Notes
6 References
7 Further reading
8 External links
Periods
Old Pre-Babylonian period
Main article: First Babylonian Dynasty
During the third millennium BC, there had developed an intimate cultural
symbiosis between the Sumerians and the Akkadians, which included widespread
bilingualism.
[1]
The inuence of Sumerian on Akkadian (and vice versa) is evident
in all areas, from lexical borrowing on a massive scale, to syntactic,
morphological, and phonological convergence.
[1]
This has prompted scholars to
refer to Sumerian and Akkadian in the third millennium as a sprachbund.
[1]
Akkadian gradually replaced Sumerian as the spoken language of Mesopotamia
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The extent of the Babylonian Empire at
the start and end of Hammurabi's reign
somewhere around the turn of the 3rd
and the 2nd millennium BC (the precise
timeframe being a matter of debate),
[2]
but Sumerian continued to be used as a
sacred, ceremonial, literary and scientic
language in Mesopotamia as late as the
1st century AD.
From c. 3500 BC until the rise of the
Akkadian Empire in the 24th century BC,
Mesopotamia had been dominated by
largely Sumerian city states, such as Ur,
Lagash, Uruk, Kish, Isin, Larsa, Adab,
Eridu, Nuzi, Awan, Hamazi, Akshak and
Umma, although Semitic Akkadian
names began to appear on the king lists
of some of these states (such as
Eshnunna and Assyria) between the 29th
and 25th centuries BC. Traditionally, the major religious center of all
Mesopotamia was the city of Nippur, and it would remain so until replaced by
Babylon during the reign of Hammurabi in the 18th century BC.
The Akkadian Empire (2334 - 2154 BC) saw the Akkadian Semites and Sumerians
of Mesopotamia unite under one rule, and the Akkadians fully attain ascendancy
over the Sumerians and indeed come to dominate much of the ancient Near East.
The empire eventually disintegrated due to economic decline, climate change and
civil war, followed by attacks by the Gutians from the Zagros Mountains. The
Sumerians rose up with the Third Dynasty of Ur in the late 22nd century BC, and
ejected the Gutians from southern Mesopotamia. They also seem to have gained
ascendancy over the Akkadian kings of Assyria in northern Mesopotamia for a
time.
Following the collapse of the Sumerian "Ur-III" dynasty at the hands of the
Elamites in 2002 BC, the Amorites, another Semitic people who had begun to
migrate into Mesopotamia from the northern Levant, gradually gained control
over most of southern Mesopotamia, where they formed a series of small
kingdoms, while the Assyrians reasserted their independence in the north. The
Sumero-Akkadian states of the south were unable to stem the Amorite advance.
It was left to king Ilushuma (20081975 BC) of Assyria, the dominant ruler in
Mesopotamia at the time, to clear the Amorites from the south, and preserve
native rule for his southern brethren. Ilushu-ma describes his exploits in defeating
the invading Amorites to the south as follows; The freedom
[nb 1]
of the Akkadians
and their children I established. I puried their copper. I established their
freedom from the border of the marshes and Ur and Nippur, Awal, and Kish, Der
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of the goddess Ishtar, as far as the City of (Ashur).
[3]
These policies were
continued by his successors Erishum I and Ikunum.
However, when Sargon I (1920-1881 BC) succeeded as king in Assyria in 1920 BC
he eventually withdrew Assyria from the region, preferring to concentrate on
continuing to vigorously expand Assyrian colonies in Asia Minor, and eventually
southern Mesopotamia fell to the Amorites. During the rst centuries of what is
called the "Amorite period", the most powerful city states in the south were Isin
and Larsa and Assyria in the north.
First Babylonian Dynasty - Amorite Dynasty 1894 - 1595 BC
One of these Amorite dynasties founded the city-state of Babylon circa 1894 BC,
which would ultimately take over the others and form the short-lived rst
Babylonian empire, also called the Old Babylonian Period.
A chieftain named Sumuabum appropriated the then relatively small city of
Babylon from the neighbouring Mesopotamian city state of Kazallu, of which it
had initially been a territory, turning it into a state in its own right. His reign was
concerned with establishing Babylonian statehood amongst a sea of other minor
city states and kingdoms in the region. However Sumuabum appears never to
have been given the title of King, and it appears that he ruled the city tenuously
as an occupying chieftain rather than an absolute ruler.
[4]
He was followed by Sumu-la-El, Sabium, Apil-Sin, who each ruled in the same
vague manner as Sumuabum, with no reference to kingship being made in any
written records of the time. Sin-muballit was the rst of these Amorite rulers to
be regarded ocially as a king of Babylon, and then only on one single clay tablet.
Under these kings, Babylon remained a small nation which controlled very little
territory outside of the city itself, and was overshadowed by neighbouring
kingdoms that were both older, larger, and more powerful, such as; Isin, Larsa,
Assyria and Elam. The Elamites in particular, occupied huge swathes of southern
Mesopotamia, and the early Amorite rulers were largely held in vassalage to
Elam.
The Empire of Hammurabi
Babylon remained a minor territory for a century after it was founded, until the
reign of its sixth Amorite ruler, Hammurabi (1792- 1750 BC, or . c. 1728 1686
BC (short). He was a very ecient ruler, establishing a bureaucracy, with taxation
and centralized government. Hammurabi freed Babylon from Elamite dominance,
and indeed drove them from southern Mesopotamia entirely. He then gradually
expanded Babylonian dominance over the whole of southern Mesopotamia,
conquering the cities and states of the region, such as; Isin, Larsa, Eshnunna,
Kish, Lagash, Nippur, Borsippa, Ur, Uruk, Umma, Adab and Eridu. The conquests
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of Hammurabi gave the region stability after turbulent times and coalesced the
patchwork of states of southern and central Mesopotamia into one single nation,
and it is only from the time of Hammurabi that southern Mesopotamia came to be
known historically as Babylonia.
The armies of Babylonia under Hammurabi were well-disciplined, he turned
eastwards and invaded what was a thousand years later to become Persia (Iran),
conquering the pre Iranic Elamites, Gutians and Kassites. To the west, the Semitic
states of the Levant (modern Syria) including the powerful kingdom of Mari were
conquered.
Hammurabi then entered into a protracted war with the Old Assyrian Empire for
control of Mesopotamia and the Near East. Assyria had extended control over
parts of Asia Minor from the 21st century BC, and from the latter part of the 19th
century BC had asserted itself over north east Syria and central Mesopotamia
also. After a protracted unresolved struggle over decades with the Assyrian king
Ishme-Dagan, Hammurabi forced his successor Mut-Ashkur to pay tribute to
Babylon c. 1751 BC, thus giving Babylonia control over Assyria's centuries old
Hattian and Hurrian colonies in Asia Minor.
[5]
One of the most important works of this "First Dynasty of Babylon", as it was
called by the native historians, was the compilation of a code of laws which
echoed and improved upon the earlier written laws of Sumer, Akkad and Assyria.
This was made by order of Hammurabi after the expulsion of the Elamites and the
settlement of his kingdom. In 1901, a copy of the Code of Hammurabi was
discovered on a stele by J. De Morgan and V. Scheil at Susa, where it had later
been taken as plunder. That copy is now in the Louvre.
From before 3000 BC until the reign of Hammurabi, the major cultural and
religious center of southern Mesopotamia had been the ancient city of Nippur,
where the god Enlil was supreme. However, with the rise of Hammurabi, this
honour was transferred to Babylon, and the south Mesopotamian god Marduk
rose to supremacy in the pantheon of southern Mesopotamia (with the god Ashur
remaining the dominant deity in the northern Mesopotamian state of Assyria). The
city of Babylon became known as a "holy city" where any legitimate ruler of
southern Mesopotamia had to be crowned. Hammurabi turned what had
previously been a minor administrative town into a major city, increasing its size
and population dramatically, and conducting a number of impressive architectural
works.
The Babylonians, like their predecessor Sumero-Akkadian states, engaged in
regular trade with the Amorite and Canaanite city-states to the west; with
Babylonian ocials or troops sometimes passing to the Levant and Canaan, with
Amorite merchants operating freely throughout Mesopotamia. The Babylonian
monarchy's western connections remained strong for quite some time. An Amorite
chieftain named Abi-ramu or Abram (possibly the Biblical Abraham) was the
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father of a witness to a deed dated to the reign of Hammurabi's grandfather;
[citation needed]
Ammi-Ditana, great-grandson of Hammurabi, still titled himself
"king of the land of the Amorites". Ammi-Ditana's father and son also bore
Canaanite names: Abi-Eshuh and Ammisaduqa.
Babylonian Decline
However, southern Mesopotamia had no natural, defensible boundaries, making it
vulnerable to attack. After the death of Hammurabi, his empire began to
disintegrate rapidly. Under his successor Samsu-iluna (1749-1712 BC) the far
south of Mesopotamia was lost to a native Akkadian king called Ilum-ma-ili and
became the Sealand Dynasty, remaining free of Babylon for the next 272 years.
[6]
Both the Babylonians and their Amorite rulers were driven from Assyria to the
north by an Assyrian-Akkadian governor named Puzur-Sin c. 1740 BC, who
regarded Mut-Ashkur as a foreign Amorite and a former lackey of Babylon After a
decade of civil war in Assyria, a native king named Adasi seized power c. 1730
BC, and went on to appropriate former Babylonian territory in central
Mesopotamia, as did his successor Bel-bani.
Amorite rule survived in a much reduced Babylon, Samshu-iluna's successor
Abi-Eshuh made a vain attempt to recapture the Sealand Dynasty for Babylon, but
met defeat at the hands of king Damqi-ilishu II. By the end of his reign Babylonia
had shrunk to the small and relatively weak nation it had been upon its
foundation.
He was followed by Ammi-Ditana and then Ammisaduqa, both of whom were in
too weak a position to make any attempt to regain the many territories lost after
the death of Hammurabi, contenting themselves with peaceful building projects in
Babylon itself.
Samsu-Ditana was to be the last Amorite ruler of Babylon. Early in his reign he
came under pressure from the Kassites, a people originating in the mountains of
north west Iran. Babylon was then attacked by the Asia Minor based Hittite
Empire in 1595 BC. Shamshu-Ditana was overthrown following the "sack of
Babylon" by the Hittite king Mursili I. The Hittites did not remain for long, but the
destruction wrought by them nally enabled the Kassites to gain control.
The sack of Babylon and ancient Near East chronology
The date of the sack of Babylon by the Hittite king Mursilis I is considered crucial
to the various calculations of the early chronology of the ancient Near East, since
both a solar and a lunar eclipse are said to have occurred in the month of Sivan
that year, according to ancient records.
The fall of Babylon is taken as a xed point in the discussion of the chronology of
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The extent of the Babylonian Empire
during the Kassite dynasty
the ancient Near East. Suggestions for its precise date vary by as much as 230
years, corresponding to the uncertainty regarding the length of the "Dark Age" of
the ensuing Bronze Age collapse, resulting in the shift of the entire Bronze Age
chronology of Mesopotamia with regard to the chronology of Ancient Egypt.
Possible dates for the sack of Babylon are:
ultra-short chronology: 1499 BC
short chronology: 1531 BC
middle chronology: 1595 BC
long chronology: 1651 BC
ultra-long chronology: 1736 BC
[7]
Kassite Dynasty 1595 - 1155 BC
Main article: Kassites
The Kassite dynasty was founded by
Gandash of Mari. The Kassites, like the
Amorite rulers who had preceded them,
were not originally native to
Mesopotamia. Rather, they had rst
appeared in the Zagros Mountains of
what is today northwestern Iran.
The ethnic aliation of the Kassites is
unclear, though like the Mesopotamian
peoples and the Amorites, the Kassites
were Caucasoid in appearance. However
their Kassite language was not Semitic,
and is thought to have been either a
language isolate or possibly related to
the Hurro-Urartian family of Asia
Minor,
[8]
although the evidence for its
genetic aliation is meager due to the scarcity of extant texts. However, several
Kassite leaders bore Indo-European names, and they may have had an
Indo-European elite similar to the Mitanni elite that ruled over the Hurrians of
central and eastern Asia Minor.
[9][10]
The Kassites renamed Babylon "Kar-Duniash", and their rule lasted for 576 years,
the longest dynasty in Babylonian history.
This new foreign dominion oers a striking analogy to the roughly contemporary
rule of the Semitic Hyksos in ancient Egypt. Most divine attributes ascribed to the
Semitic Amorite kings of Babylonia disappeared at this time; the title of God was
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never given to a Kassite sovereign. However, Babylon continued to be the capital
of the kingdom and one of the 'holy' cities of western Asia, where the priests of
Mesopotamian Religion were all-powerful, and the only place where the right to
inheritance of the short lived old Babylonian empire could be conferred.
Babylonia experienced short periods of power, but in general proved to be
relatively weak under the long rule of the Kassites, and spent long periods under
Assyrian and Elamite domination and interference.
It is not clear precisely when Kassite rule of Babylon began, but the
Indo-European Hittites from Asia Minor did not remain in Babylonia for long after
the sacking of the city, and it is likely the Kassites moved in soon afterwards.
Agum II took the throne for the Kassites in 1595 BC, and ruled a state that
extended from Iran to the middle Euphrates; The new king retained peaceful
relations with Assyria, but successfully went to war with the Hittite Empire of
Asia Minor, and twenty four years after the Hittites took the sacred statue of
Marduk, he recovered it and declared the god equal to the Kassite deity
Shuqamuna.
Burnaburiash I succeeded him and drew up a peace treaty with the Assyrian king
Puzur-Ashur III, and had a largely uneventful reign, as did his successor
Kashtiliash III.
Southern Mesopotamia (The Sealand Dynasty) remained independent of
Babylonia and in native Akkadian hands. However Ulamburiash managed to
attack it conquered parts of the land from Ea-gamil, a king with a distinctly
Sumerian name, around 1450 BC, whereupon Ea-Gamil ed to Elam. The Sealand
Dynasty region remained independent however, and the Kassite king seems to
have been unable to nally conquer it. Ulamburiash began making treaties with
the Egyptians then ruling in the southern Levant, and Assyria to the north.
Karaindash built a bas-relief temple in Uruk and Kurigalzu I (1415 BC-1390 BC)
built a new capital named after himself. Both of these kings continued to struggle
unsuccessfully against The Sealand Dynasty.
Agum II also campaigned against the Sealand Dynasty, nally wholly conquering
the far south of Mesopotamia for Babylon, destroying its capital Dur-Enlil in the
process. From there Agum III extended further south still, conquering the
pre-Arab state of Dilmun (in modern Bahrain).
Karaindash strengthened diplomatic ties with the Assyrian king Ashur-
bel-nisheshu and the Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmosis III and protected Babylonian
borders with Elam.
Kadaman-arbe I succeeded Karaindash, and briey invaded Elam before being
eventually ejected by its king Tepti Ahar. He then had to contend with the
Suteans, a Semitic people from the western Levant who invaded Babylonia and
sacked Uruk. He describes having annihilated their extensive forces", then
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constructed fortresses in a mountain region called ii, in the desert to the west
(modern Syria) as security outposts, and he dug wells and settled people on
fertile lands, to strengthen the guard.
[11]
Kurigalzu III succeeded the throne, and soon came into conict with Elam, to the
east. When ur-batila, the successor of Tepti Ahar took the throne of Elam, he
began raiding the Babylonia, taunting Kurigalzu to do battle with him at
Dr-ulgi. Kurigalzu launched a campaign which resulted in the abject defeat and
capture of ur-batila, who appears in no other inscriptions. He went on to
conquer the eastern lands of Susiana and Elam. This took his army to the Elamite
capital, the city of Susa, which was sacked. After this a puppet ruler was placed
on the Elamite throne. Kurigalzu III maintained friendly relations with Assyria,
Egypt and the Hittites throughout his reign. Kadashman-Enlil I (1374-1360 BC)
succeeded him, and continued his diplomatic policies.
Burnaburiash II ascended to the throne in 1359 BC, he retained friendly relations
with Egypt, but the resurgent Middle Assyrian Empire to the north was now
encroaching into northern Babylonia, and as a symbol of peace, the Babylonian
king took the daughter of the powerful Assyrian king Ashur-uballit I in marriage.
He also maintained friendly relations with Suppiluliuma I, ruler of the Hittite
Empire.
He was succeeded by Kara-hardash (who was half Assyrian, and the grandson of
the Assyrian king) in 1333 BC, however a usurper named Nazi-Bugash deposed
him, enraging Ashur-uballit I, who invaded and sacked Babylon, slew
Nazi-Bugash, annexed Babylonian territory for the Middle Assyrian Empire, and
installed Kurigalzu II (1345 BC-1324 BC) as his vassal ruler.
Soon after Arik-den-ili succeeded the throne of Assyria in 1327 BC, Kurigalzu III
attacked Assyria in an attempt to reassert Babylonian power. After some
impressive initial successes he was ultimately defeated, and lost yet more
territory to Assyria. Between 1307 BC and 1232 BC his successors, such as
Nazi-Maruttash, Kadashman-Turgu, Kadashman-Enlil II, Kudur-Enlil and
Shagarakti-Shuriash, allied with the empires of the Hittites and the Mitanni, (who
were both also losing swathes of territory to the Assyrians). in a failed attempt to
stop Assyrian expansion, which continued unchecked.
Kashtiliash IV's (1242 BC-1235 BC) reign ended catastrophically as the Assyrian
king Tukulti-Ninurta I routed his armies, sacked and burned Babylon and set
himself up as king, ironically becoming the rst native Mesopotamian to rule the
state, its previous rulers having all been non Mesopotamian Amorites and
Kassites.
[6]
Kashtiliash himself was taken to Ashur as a prisoner of war.
An Assyrian governor/king named Enlil-nadin-shumi was placed on the throne to
rule as viceroy to Tukulti-Ninurta I, and Kadashman-Harbe II and Adad-shuma-
iddina succeeded as Assyrian governor/kings, subject to Tukulti-Ninurta I until
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1216 BC.
Babylon did not begin to recover until late in the reign of Adad-shuma-usur (1216
BC-1189 BC), as he remained a vassal of Assyria until 1193 BC. However, he was
able to prevent the Assyrian king Enlil-kudurri-usur from retaking Babylonia,
which, apart from its northern reaches, had mostly shrugged o Assyrian
domination during a period of civil war in Assyria, in the years after the death of
Tukulti-Ninurta.
Meli-Shipak II (1188 BC-1172 BC) seems to have had a peaceful reign. Despite
not being able to regain northern Babylonia from Assyria, no further territory was
lost, Elam did not threaten, and the Bronze Age Collapse now aecting the
Levant, Canaan, Egypt, The Caucasus, Asia Minor, Mediterranean and Balkans
seemed to have little impact on Babylonia (or indeed Assyria).
War resumed under subsequent kings such as Marduk-apla-iddina I (11711159
BC) and Zababa-shuma-iddin (1158 BC). The Assyrian king Ashur-Dan I
conquered further parts of northern Babylonia from both kings, and the Elamite
ruler Shutruk-Nahhunte eventually conquered most of eastern Babylonia. Enlil-
nadin-ahhe (1157-1155 BC) was nally overthrown and the Kassite Dynasty ended
after Ashur-Dan I conquered yet more of northern and central Babylonia, and the
Elamite king Shutruk-Nahhunte pushed deep into the heart of Babylonia itself,
sacking the city and slaying the king. Poetical works have been found lamenting
this disaster.
Despite the loss of territory, military weakness, and evident reduction in literacy
and culture, the Kassite dynasty was the longest-lived dynasty of Babylon, lasting
until 1157 BC, when Babylon was conquered by Shutruk-Nahhunte of Elam, and
reconquered a few years later by the native Akkadian-Babylonian Nebuchadrezzar
I, part of the larger Bronze Age collapse.
Early Iron Age - Native Rule, Second Dynasty of Isin (1155 -
1026 BC)
The Elamites did not remain in control of Babylonia long, and Marduk-kabit-
ahheshu (1155 BC-1139 BC) established the Second Dynasty of Isin. This was the
very rst native Akkadian speaking south Mesopotamian dynasty to rule Babylon,
and was to remain in power for some 125 years. The new king successfully drove
out the Elamites and prevented any possible Kassite revival. Later in his reign he
went to war with Assyria, and had some initial success, briey capturing the city
of Ekallatum before suering defeat at the hands of the Assyrian king Ashur-Dan
I.
Itti-Marduk-balatu succeeded his father in 1138 BC, and successfully repelled
Elamite attacks on Babylonia during his 8 year reign. He too made attempts to
attack Assyria, but also met with failure.
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Ninurta-nadin-shumi took the throne in 1137 BC, and also attempted an invasion
of Assyria, his armies seem to have skirted through eastern Syria and then made
an attempt to attack the Assyrian city of Arbela (modern Erbil) from the west.
However this bold move met with defeat at the hands of Ashur-resh-ishi I who
then forced a treaty in his favour upon Babylon.
Nebuchadnezzar I (1124 BC-1103 BC) was the most famous ruler of this dynasty.
He fought and defeated the Elamites and drove them from Babylonian territory,
invading Elam itself, sacking the Elamite capital Susa, and recovering the sacred
statue of Marduk that had been carried o from Babylon. Shortly afterwards, the
king of Elam was assassinated and his kingdom disintegrated into civil war.
However, Nebuchadnezzar failed to extend Babylonian territory further, being
defeated a number of times by Ashur-resh-ishi I, king of the Assyrians for control
of formerly Hittite controlled territories in Aramea (Syria). The Hittite Empire had
been largely annexed by Assyria, and its heartland nally overrun by invading
Phrygians. In the later years of his reign, he devoted himself to peaceful building
projects and securing Babylonia's borders.
Nebuchadnezzar was succeeded by his two sons, rstly Enlil-nadin-apli
(11031100), who lost territory to Assyria. The second of them, Marduk-
nadin-ahhe (1098 BC-1081 BC) also went to war with Assyria. Some initial
success in these conicts gave way to catastrophic defeat at the hands of Tiglath-
pileser I who annexed huge swathes of Babylonian territory, thus further
expanding the Assyrian Empire. Following this a terrible famine gripped Babylon,
inviting attacks from Semitic Aramean tribes from the west.
In 1072 BC Marduk-shapik-zeri signed a peace treaty with Ashur-bel-kala of
Assyria, however his successor Kadaman-Buria was not so friendly to Assyria,
prompting the Assyrian king to invade Babylonia and depose him, placing
Adad-apla-iddina on the throne as his vassal. Assyrian domination continued until
c. 1050 BC, with Marduk-ahhe-eriba and Marduk-zer-X regarded as vassals of
Assyria. After 1050 BC Assyria descended into a period of civil war, followed by
constant warfare with the Arameans and Phrygians, allowing Babylonia to once
more largely free itself from the Assyrian yoke for a few decades.
However Babylonia soon began to suer repeated incursions from Semitic
nomadic peoples migrating from the west, and large swathes of Babylonia were
appropriated and occupied by these newly arrived Arameans, Chaldeans and
Suteans. The Chaldeans (not to be confused with modern Chaldean Catholics)
settled in south east Babylonia, the Arameans much of the countryside in eastern
and central Babylonia and the Suteans in the western deserts.
Period of Chaos 1026 - 911 BC
The native dynasty, then ruled by Nabu-shum-libur was deposed by marauding
Arameans in 1026 BC, and the heart of Babylonia, including the capital city itself
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descended into anarchic state, and no king was to rule Babylon for over 20 years.
However, in southern Mesopotamia (a region corresponding with the old Dynasty
of the Sealand), Dynasty V (1025 BC-1004 BC) arose, this was ruled by Simbar-
shipak, leader of a Kassite clan, and was in eect a separate state from Babylon.
The state of anarchy allowed the Assyrian ruler Ashur-nirari IV the opportunity to
attack Babylonia in 1018 BC, and he invaded and captured the Babylonian city
of Atlila and some northern regions for Assyria.
This dynasty was replaced by another Kassite Dynasty (Dynasty VI) 1003 BC-984
BC) which also seems to have regained control over Babylon. The Elamites
deposed this brief Kassite revival, with king Mar-biti-apla-usur founding Dynasty
VII (984 BC-977 BC). However, this dynasty too fell, when the Arameans once
more ravaged Babylon.
Native rule was restored by Nabu-mukin-apli in 977 BC, ushering in Dynasty VIII.
Dynasty IX begins with Ninurta-kudurri-usur II, who ruled from 941 BC. Babylonia
remained weak during this period, with whole areas of Babylonia now under rm
Chaldean, Aramean and Sutean control and its rulers often bowing to pressure
from Assyria and Elam, both of which had appropriated Babylonian territory.
Assyrian Rule 911 BC - 620BC
From 911 BC with the founding of the Neo-Assyrian Empire by Adad-nirari II,
Babylon found itself under the domination and rule of its fellow Mesopotamian
state for the next three centuries. Adad-nirari II twice attacked and defeated
Shamash-mudammiq of Babylonia, annexing a large area of land north of the
Diyala River and the towns of Ht and Zanqu in mid Mesopotamia. He made
further gains over Babylonia under Nabu-shuma-ukin I later in his reign. Tukulti-
Ninurta II and Ashurnasirpal II also forced Babylonia into vassalage, and
Shalmaneser III sacked Babylon itself, slew king Nabu-apla-iddina and installed
Marduk-zakir-shumi I (855 819 BC) followed by Marduk-balassu-iqbi (819 813
BC) as his vassals.
Upon the death of Shalmaneser II, Baba-aha-iddina was reduced to vassalage by
the Assyrian queen Shammuramat, acting as regent to his successor Adad-nirari
III who was merely a boy. Adad-nirari III eventually killed him and ruled there
directly until 800 BC until Ninurta-apla-X was crowned. However he too was
subjugated by Adad-Nirari II. The next Assyrian king, Shamshi-Adad V then made
a vassal of Marduk-bel-zeri.
Babylonia briey fell to another foreign ruler when Marduk-apla-usur ascended
the throne in 780 BC, taking advantage of a period of civil war in Assyria. He was
a member of the Chaldean tribe who had two centuries earlier settled in the far
south east of Mesopotamia. Shamshi-Adad V attacked him and retook northern
Babylonia, forcing a border treaty in Assyria's favour upon him. However he was
12 of 30 2014-05-09 20:50
able to remain on the throne, and successfully stabilised Babylonia. Eriba-
Marduk, another Chaldean, succeeded him in 769 BC and his son, Nabu-shuma-
ishkun in 761 BC. Babylonia appears to have been in a state of chaos during this
time, with the north occupied by Assyria and civil unrest in the south.
A native Babylonian king named Nabonassar overthrew the Chaldeans in 748 BC,
and successfully stabilised Babylonia, remaining untroubled by Ashur-nirari V of
Assyria. However with the accession of Tiglath-Pileser III (745-727 BC) Babylonia
came under renewed attack. Babylon was invaded and sacked and Nabonassar
reduced to vassalage. His successors Nabu-nadin-zeri, Nabu-suma-ukin II and
Nabu-mukin-zeri were also in servitude to Tiglath-Pileser III, until in 729 BC the
Assyrian king decided to rule Babylon directly as its king instead of allowing
Babylonian kings to remain as vassals of Assyria as his predecessors had done for
two hundred years.
It was during this period that an Akkadian inuenced form of eastern Aramaic
was introduced by the Assyrians as the lingua franca of their vast empire, and
Mesopotamian Aramaic began to supplant Akkadian as the spoken language of
the general populace of both Assyria and Babylonia.
The Assyrian king Shalmaneser V was declared king of Babylon in 727 BC, but
died whilst besieging Samaria in 722 BC.
Revolt was then fomented against Assyrian domination by Merodach-Baladan, a
Chaldean malka (chieftain) of the far south east of Mesopotamia, with Elamite
help. Merodach-Baladan managed to take the throne of Babylon itself between
721- 710 BC whilst the Assyrians were otherwise occupied in defeating the
Scythians and Cimmerians who had attacked Assyria's Persian and Median vassal
colonies in Iran. Merodach-Baladan was eventually defeated and ejected by
Sargon II of Assyria, and ed to Elam. Sargon II was then declared king in
Babylon.
Sennacherib succeeded Sargon II, and after ruling directly for a while, he placed
his son Ashur-nadin-shumi on the throne. However Merodach-Baladan and the
Elamites continued to unsuccessfully agitate against Assyrian rule. Nergal-
ushezib, an Elamite, murdered the Assyrian prince and briey took the throne.
This led to the infuriated Assyrian king Sennacherib invading and subjugating
Elam and sacking Babylon, laying waste to and largely destroying the city.
Babylon was regarded as a sacred city by all Mesopotamians, including Assyrians,
and this act led Sennacherib to be murdered by his own sons while praying to the
god Nisroch. A puppet king Marduk-zakir-shumi II was placed on the throne by
the new Assyrian king Esarhaddon. However, Merodach-Baladan returned from
exile in Elam, and briey deposed him, forcing Esarhaddon to attack and defeat
him, whereupon he once more ed to Elam where he died in exile.
Esarhaddon (681 669 BC) ruled Babylon personally, he completely rebuilt the
13 of 30 2014-05-09 20:50
city, bringing rejuvenation and peace to the region. Upon his death, and in an
eort to maintain harmony within his vast empire (which stretched from the
Caucasus to Nubia and from Cyprus to Iran), he installed his eldest son Shamash-
shum-ukin as a subject king in Babylon, and his youngest, Ashurbanipal in the
more senior position as king of Assyria and overlord of Shamash-shum-ukin.
Shamash-shum-ukin, after decades peacefully subject to his brother Ashurbanipal,
eventually became infused with Babylonian nationalism, declaring that the city of
Babylon (and not the Assyrian city of Nineveh) should be the seat of the immense
empire. He raised a major revolt against his brother, Ashurbanipal. He led a
powerful coalition of peoples resentful of Assyrian subjugation and rule,
including; Elam, the Babylonians, Chaldeans and Suteans of southern
Mesopotamia, the Arameans of the Levant and southwest Mesopotamia, the Arabs
of the Arabian Peninsula and the Nabateans of southern Canaan. After a bitter
struggle Babylon was sacked and its allies vanquished, Shamash-shum-ukim being
killed in the process. Elam was destroyed, and the Chaldeans, Arabs, Arameans,
Suteans and Nabateans were violently subjugated, with Assyrian troops exacting
savage revenge on the rebelling peoples. An Assyrian governor named Kandalanu
was placed on the throne to rule on behalf of the Assyrian king.
[6]
Upon
Ashurbanipal's death in 627 BC, his son Ashur-etil-ilani became ruler of Babylon
and Assyria.
However, Assyria descended into a series of brutal internal civil wars, Ashur-
etil-ilani was deposed by one of his own generals, named Sin-shumu-lishir in 623
BC, who also set himself up as king in Babylon. After only one year on the throne
and yet another brutal civil war, Sin-shar-ishkun ousted him as ruler of Assyria
and Babylonia in 622 BC. However, he too was beset by constant unremitting civil
war in the Assyrian heartland. Babylonia took advantage of this and rebelled
under Nabopolassar, a malka (chieftain) of the Chaldeans, who had settled in
south eastern Mesopotamia c. 1000 BC.
It was during the reign of Sin-shar-ishkun that Assyria's vast empire began to
unravel, and many of its former subject peoples ceased to pay tribute, most
signicantly the Babylonians, Chaldeans, Medes, Persians, Scythians and
Cimmerians.
Neo-Babylonian Empire (Chaldean Era)
Main articles: Neo-Babylonian Empire and Chaldea
In 620 BC Nabopolassar seized control over much of Babylonia with the support
of most of the inhabitants, with only the city of Nippur and some northern regions
showing any loyalty to the Assyrian king.
[6]
Nabopolassar was unable to yet
utterly secure Babylonia, and for the next 4 years he was forced to contend with
an occupying Assyrian army encamped in Babylonia trying to unseat him.
14 of 30 2014-05-09 20:50
The Neo-Babylonian Empire
However, the Assyrian king, Sin-shar-
ishkun was plagued by constant revolt
among his own people in Nineveh, and
was thus unable to eject Nabopolassar.
The stalemate ended in 616 BC, when
Nabopolassar entered into alliance with
Cyaxares, king of the Medes and
Persians, (who had also taken advantage
of the Assyrian destruction of Elam and
the subsequent anarchy in Assyria to free
the Iranic peoples from three centuries
of the Assyrian yoke and regional
Elamite domination) and also the
Arameans, Scythians and Cimmerians
who had also been subjugated by
Assyria. After 4 years of erce ghting
Nineveh was sacked in 612 BC after a
bitter prolonged siege in which Sin-shar-ishkun was killed. House to house
ghting continued in Nineveh, and the last Assyrian king, Ashur-uballit II was
oered the chance of accepting a position of vassalage according to the
Babylonian Chronicle. However he refused and managed to successfully ght his
way out of Nineveh and to the northern Assyrian city of Harran where he founded
a new capital. Fighting continued, as he held out until 608 BC, when he was
eventually ejected by the Babylonians and their allies and prevented in an attempt
to regain the city the same year.
The Egyptian Pharaoh Necho II, whose dynasty had been installed as vassals of
Assyria decades before, belatedly tried to aid Egypt's former Assyrian masters,
possibly out of fear that Egypt would be next to succumb to the new powers. The
Assyrians fought on with Egyptian aid until a nal victory was achieved at
Carchemish in 605 BC. The seat of empire was thus transferred to Babylonia for
the rst time since Hammurabi over a thousand years before.
Nabopolassar was followed by his son Nebuchadnezzar II (605 BC 562 BC),
whose reign of 43 years made Babylon once more the mistress of much of the
civilized world, taking over a fair portion of the former Assyrian Empire once
ruled by its Assyrian brethren, the eastern and north eastern portion being taken
by the Medes and the far north by the Scythians.
The Scythians and Cimmerians, erstwhile allies of Babylonia under Nabopolassar,
now became a threat, and Nebuchadnezzar II was forced to march into Asia
Minor and rout their forces, ending the northern threat to his Empire.
The Egyptians attempted to remain in the Near East, possibly in an eort to aid in
restoring Assyria as a secure buer against Babylonia and the Medes and
15 of 30 2014-05-09 20:50
Persians, or to carve out an empire of their own. Nebuchadnezzar II campaigned
against the Egyptians and drove them back over the Sinai. However an attempt to
take Egypt itself as his Assyrian predecessors had succeeded in achieving failed,
mainly due to a series of rebellions among the Judeans, Phoenicians and
Arameans of Caanan and the Levant. The Babylonian king crushed these
rebellions, deposed Jehoiakim, the king of Judah and deported a sizeable part of
the population to Babylonia. The Phoenician states of Tyre and Sidon were also
subjugated, as was the Aramean state of Aram-Damascus. The Arabs who dwelt in
the deserts to the south of the borders of Mesopotamia were then also
subjugated.
In 567 BC he went to war with Pharaoh Amasis, and briey invaded Egypt itself.
After securing his empire, which included marrying a Median princess, he
devoted himself to maintaining the empire and conducting numerous impressive
building projects in Babylon. He is credited with building the fabled Hanging
Gardens of Babylon.
[12]
Amel-Marduk succeeded to the throne and reigned for only two years. Little
contemporary record of his rule survives, though Berosus later stated that he was
deposed and murdered in 560 BC by his successor Neriglissar for conducting
himself in an improper manner.
Neriglissar (560 - 556 BC) also had a short reign. He was the son in law of
Nebuchadnezzar II, and it is unclear if he was a Chaldean or native Babylonian
who married into the dynasty. He campaigned in Aram and Phoenicia, successfully
maintaining Babylonian rule in these regions. Neriglissar died young however,
and was succeeded by his son Labashi-Marduk (556 BC), who was still a boy. He
was deposed and killed during the same year in a palace conspiracy.
Of the reign of the last Babylonian king, Nabonidus (Nabu-na'id, 556 - 539 BC)
who is the son of the Assyrian priestess Adda-Guppi and who managed to kill the
last Chaldean king, Labashi-Marduk, and took the reign, there is a fair amount of
information available. Nabonidus (hence his son, the regent Belshazzar) was, at
least from the mother's side, neither Chaldean nor Babylonian, but ironically
Assyrian, hailing from its nal capital of Harran (Kharranu). Information
regarding Nabonidus is chiey derived from a chronological tablet containing the
annals of Nabonidus, supplemented by another inscription of Nabonidus where he
recounts his restoration of the temple of the Moon-god Sin at Harran; as well as
by a proclamation of Cyrus issued shortly after his formal recognition as king of
Babylonia.
A number of factors arose which would ultimately lead to the fall of Babylon. The
population of Babylonia became restive and increasingly disaected under
Nabonidus. He excited a strong feeling against himself by attempting to
centralize the religion of Babylonia in the temple of Marduk at Babylon, and while
he had thus alienated the local priesthoods, the military party also despised him
16 of 30 2014-05-09 20:50
on account of his antiquarian tastes. He seemed to have left the defense of his
kingdom to Belshazzar (a capable soldier but poor diplomat who alienated the
political elite), occupying himself with the more congenial work of excavating the
foundation records of the temples and determining the dates of their builders. He
also spent time outside Babylonia, rebuilding temples in the Assyrian city of
Harran, and also among his Arab subjects in the deserts to the south of
Mesopotamia. Nabonidus and Belshazzar's Assyrian heritage is also likely to have
added to this resentment. In addition, Mesopotamian military might had usually
been concentrated in the martial state of Assyria. Babylonia had always been
more vulnerable to conquest and invasion than its northern neighbour, and
without the might of Assyria to keep foreign powers in check, Babylonia was
ultimately exposed.
It was in the sixth year of Nabonidus (549 BC) that Cyrus the Great, the
Achaemenid Persian "king of Anshan" in Elam, revolted against his suzerain
Astyages, "king of the Manda" or Medes, at Ecbatana. Astyages' army betrayed
him to his enemy, and Cyrus established himself at Ecbatana, thus putting an end
to the empire of the Medes and making the Persian faction dominant among the
Iranic peoples. Three years later Cyrus had become king of all Persia, and was
engaged in a campaign to put down a revolt among the Assyrians. Meanwhile,
Nabonidus had established a camp in the desert of his colony of Arabia, near the
southern frontier of his kingdom, leaving his son Belshazzar (Belsharutsur) in
command of the army.
In 539 BC Cyrus invaded Babylonia. A battle was fought at Opis in the month of
June, where the Babylonians were defeated; and immediately afterwards Sippar
surrendered to the invader. Nabonidus ed to Babylon, where he was pursued by
Gobryas, and on the 16th day of Tammuz, two days after the capture of Sippar,
"the soldiers of Cyrus entered Babylon without ghting." Nabonidus was dragged
from his hiding place, where the services continued without interruption. Cyrus
did not arrive until the 3rd of Marchesvan (October), Gobryas having acted for
him in his absence. Gobryas was now made governor of the province of Babylon,
and a few days afterwards Belshazzar the son of Nabonidus died in battle. A
public mourning followed, lasting six days, and Cyrus' son Cambyses
accompanied the corpse to the tomb.
One of the rst acts of Cyrus accordingly was to allow the Jewish exiles to return
to their own homes, carrying with them the images of their god and their sacred
vessels. The permission to do so was embodied in a proclamation, whereby the
conqueror endeavored to justify his claim to the Babylonian throne.
Cyrus now claimed to be the legitimate successor of the ancient Babylonian kings
and the avenger of Bel-Marduk, who was assumed to be wrathful at the impiety of
Nabonidus in removing the images of the local gods from their ancestral shrines
to his capital Babylon.
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The Chaldean tribe had lost control of Babylonia decades before the end of the
era that sometimes bears their name, and they appear to have blended into the
general populace of Babylonia, and during the Persian Achaemenid Empire
Chaldeans disappeared as a distinct people, and the term Chaldean ceased to
refer to a race of men and instead to a social class only, regardless of ethnicity.
Persian Babylonia
Further information: Achaemenid Assyria
Babylonia was absorbed into the Achaemenid Empire in 539 BC.
A year before Cyrus' death, in 529 BC, he elevated his son Cambyses II in the
government, making him king of Babylon, while he reserved for himself the fuller
title of "king of the (other) provinces" of the empire. It was only when Darius
Hystaspis acquired the Persian throne and ruled it as a representative of the
Zoroastrian religion, that the old tradition was broken and the claim of Babylon to
confer legitimacy on the rulers of western Asia ceased to be acknowledged.
Immediately after Darius seized Persia, Babylonia briey recovered its
independence under a native ruler, Nidinta-Bel, who took the name of
Nebuchadnezzar III, and reigned from October 522 BC to August 520 BC, when
Darius took the city by storm, during this period Assyria to the north also
rebelled. A few years later, probably 514 BC, Babylon again revolted under the
Armenian King Arakha; on this occasion, after its capture by the Persians, the
walls were partly destroyed. E-Saggila, the great temple of Bel, however, still
continued to be kept in repair and to be a center of Babylonian religious feelings.
Alexander the Great conquered Babylon in 333 BC for the Greeks, and died there
in 323 BC. Babylonia and Assyria then became part of the Greek Seleucid Empire.
It has long been maintained that the foundation of Seleucia diverted the
population to the new capital of Babylonia, and that the ruins of the old city
became a quarry for the builders of the new seat of government, but the recent
publication of the Babylonian Chronicles of the Hellenistic Period has shown that
urban life was still very much the same well into the Parthian age (150 BC to 226
AD). The Parthian king Mithridates conquered the region into the Arsacid Empire
in 150 BC, and the region became something of a battleground between Greeks
and Parthians.
There was a brief interlude of Roman conquest (Roman Assyria, Roman
Mesopotamia; AD 116 to 118) under Trajan, after which the Parthians reasserted
control.
The name of the satrapy was changed to Asuristan (Assyria) in the Sassanid
period, which began in 226 AD, and by this time Eastern Rite Christianity (which
emerged in the 1st century AD) had become the dominant religion among the
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Old Babylonian Cylinder Seal, hematite, The
king makes an animal oering to Shamash.
This seal was probably made in a workshop at
Sippar.
[13]
native populace, who had never adopted the Zoroastrian or Hellenic religions of
their rulers. Apart from the independent Assyrian state of Adiabene in the north,
Mesopotamia remained under largely Persian control until the Arab Islamic
conquest in the 7th century AD. After this Asuristan-Assyria was also dissolved as
a geopolitical entity, and the native Aramaic speaking and largely Christian
populace gradually underwent a process of Arabisation and Islamication, with
only the Assyrians of the north (known as Ashuriyun by the Arabs) and Mandeans
of the south retaining their religions and a distinct Mesopotamian identity and
language, which they still do to this day.
Babylonian culture
Bronze Age to Early Iron Age Mesopotamian culture is sometimes summarized as
"Assyro-Babylonian", because of the close cultural interdependence of the two
political centers. The term "Babylonia", especially in writings from around AD
1900, was formerly used to include Southern Mesopotamia's earliest history, and
not only in reference to the later city-state of Babylon proper. This geographic
usage of the name "Babylonia' has generally been replaced by the more accurate
term Sumer in more recent writing.
Old Babylonian culture
Art and architecture
Further information:
Architecture of Mesopotamia and
Art of Mesopotamia
In Babylonia, an abundance of clay,
and lack of stone, led to greater use
of mudbrick; Babylonian temples
were massive structures of crude
brick, supported by buttresses, the
rain being carried o by drains. One
such drain at Ur was made of lead.
The use of brick led to the early
development of the pilaster and
column, and of frescoes and
enameled tiles. The walls were brilliantly coloured, and sometimes plated with
zinc or gold, as well as with tiles. Painted terra-cotta cones for torches were also
embedded in the plaster. In Babylonia, in place of the bas-relief, there was greater
use of three-dimensional guresthe earliest examples being the Statues of
Gudea, that are realistic if somewhat clumsy. The paucity of stone in Babylonia
made every pebble precious, and led to a high perfection in the art of
19 of 30 2014-05-09 20:50
gem-cutting.
Astronomy
Main article: Old Babylonian astronomy
Tablets dating back to the Old Babylonian period document the application of
mathematics to the variation in the length of daylight over a solar year. Centuries
of Babylonian observations of celestial phenomena are recorded in the series of
cuneiform tablets known as the 'Enma Anu Enlil'. The oldest signicant
astronomical text that we possess is Tablet 63 of 'Enma Anu Enlil', the Venus
tablet of Ammi-saduqa, which lists the rst and last visible risings of Venus over a
period of about 21 years and is the earliest evidence that the phenomena of a
planet were recognized as periodic. The oldest rectangular astrolabe dates back
to Babylonia c. 1100 BC. The MUL.APIN, contains catalogues of stars and
constellations as well as schemes for predicting heliacal risings and the settings
of the planets, lengths of daylight measured by a water-clock, gnomon, shadows,
and intercalations. The Babylonian GU text arranges stars in 'strings' that lie
along declination circles and thus measure right-ascensions or time-intervals, and
also employs the stars of the zenith, which are also separated by given right-
ascensional dierences.
[14]
Medicine
Medical diagnosis and prognosis
We nd [medical semiotics] in a whole constellation of disciplines....
There was a real common ground among these [Babylonian] forms of
knowledge... an approach involving analysis of particular cases,
constructed only through traces, symptoms, hints.... In short, we can
speak about a symptomatic or divinatory [or conjectural] paradigm
which could be oriented toward past present or future, depending on
the form of knowledge called upon. Toward future... that was the
medical science of symptoms, with its double character, diagnostic,
explaining past and present, and prognostic, suggesting likely future....
Carlo Ginzburg
[15]
The oldest Babylonian texts on medicine date back to the First Babylonian
Dynasty in the rst half of the 2nd millennium BC. The most extensive Babylonian
medical text, however, is the Diagnostic Handbook written by the ummn, or
chief scholar, Esagil-kin-apli of Borsippa,
[16]
during the reign of the Babylonian
king Adad-apla-iddina (1069-1046 BC).
[17]
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Along with contemporary ancient Egyptian medicine, the Babylonians introduced
the concepts of diagnosis, prognosis, physical examination, and prescriptions. In
addition, the Diagnostic Handbook introduced the methods of therapy and
aetiology and the use of empiricism, logic and rationality in diagnosis, prognosis
and therapy. The text contains a list of medical symptoms and often detailed
empirical observations along with logical rules used in combining observed
symptoms on the body of a patient with its diagnosis and prognosis.
[18]
The symptoms and diseases of a patient were treated through therapeutic means
such as bandages, creams and pills. If a patient could not be cured physically, the
Babylonian physicians often relied on exorcism to cleanse the patient from any
curses. Esagil-kin-apli's Diagnostic Handbook was based on a logical set of axioms
and assumptions, including the modern view that through the examination and
inspection of the symptoms of a patient, it is possible to determine the patient's
disease, its aetiology and future development, and the chances of the patient's
recovery.
[16]
Esagil-kin-apli discovered a variety of illnesses and diseases and described their
symptoms in his Diagnostic Handbook. These include the symptoms for many
varieties of epilepsy and related ailments along with their diagnosis and
prognosis.
[19]
Later Babylonian medicine resembles early Greek medicine in many
ways. In particular, the early treatises of the Hippocratic Corpus show the
inuence of late Babylonian medicine in terms of both content and form.
[20]
Literature
Main article: Assyro-Babylonian literature
There were libraries in most towns and temples; an old Sumerian proverb averred
that "he who would excel in the school of the scribes must rise with the dawn."
Women as well as men learned to read and write,
[21]
and in Semitic times, this
involved knowledge of the extinct Sumerian language, and a complicated and
extensive syllabary.
A considerable amount of Babylonian literature was translated from Sumerian
originals, and the language of religion and law long continued to be written in the
old agglutinative language of Sumer. Vocabularies, grammars, and interlinear
translations were compiled for the use of students, as well as commentaries on
the older texts and explanations of obscure words and phrases. The characters of
the syllabary were all arranged and named, and elaborate lists of them were
drawn up.
There are many Babylonian literary works whose titles have come down to us.
One of the most famous of these was the Epic of Gilgamesh, in twelve books,
21 of 30 2014-05-09 20:50
translated from the original Sumerian by a certain Sin-liqi-unninni, and arranged
upon an astronomical principle. Each division contains the story of a single
adventure in the career of Gilgamesh. The whole story is a composite product,
and it is probable that some of the stories are articially attached to the central
gure.
Neo-Babylonian culture
The brief resurgence of a "Babylonian" identity in the 7th to 6th centuries BC was
accompanied by a number of important cultural developments.
Astronomy
Main article: Babylonian astronomy
Among the sciences, astronomy and astrology still occupied a conspicuous place
in Babylonian society. Astronomy was of old standing in Babylonia. The zodiac was
a Babylonian invention of great antiquity; and eclipses of the sun and moon could
be foretold. There are dozens of cuneiform records of original Mesopotamian
eclipse observations.
[22]
Babylonian astronomy was the basis for much of what was done in Greek and
Hellenistic astronomy, in classical Indian astronomy, in Sassanian, Byzantine and
Syrian astronomy, in medieval Islamic astronomy, and in Central Asian and
Western European astronomy.
[23]
Neo-Babylonian astronomy can thus be
considered the direct predecessor of much of ancient Greek mathematics and
astronomy, which in turn is the historical predecessor of the European (Western)
scientic revolution.
[24]
During the 8th and 7th centuries BC, Babylonian astronomers developed a new
approach to astronomy. They began studying philosophy dealing with the ideal
nature of the early universe and began employing an internal logic within their
predictive planetary systems. This was an important contribution to astronomy
and the philosophy of science and some scholars have thus referred to this new
approach as the rst scientic revolution.
[25]
This new approach to astronomy
was adopted and further developed in Greek and Hellenistic astronomy.
In Seleucid and Parthian times, the astronomical reports were of a thoroughly
scientic character; how much earlier their advanced knowledge and methods
were developed is uncertain. The Babylonian development of methods for
predicting the motions of the planets is considered to be a major episode in the
history of astronomy.
The only Babylonian astronomer known to have supported a heliocentric model of
22 of 30 2014-05-09 20:50
planetary motion was Seleucus of Seleucia (b. 190 BC).
[26][27][28]
Seleucus is
known from the writings of Plutarch. He supported the heliocentric theory where
the Earth rotated around its own axis which in turn revolved around the Sun.
According to Plutarch, Seleucus even proved the heliocentric system, but it is not
known what arguments he used.
Mathematics
Main article: Assyro-Babylonian mathematics
Babylonian mathematical texts are plentiful and well edited.
[24]
In respect of time
they fall in two distinct groups: one from the First Babylonian Dynasty period
(1830-1531 BC), the other mainly Seleucid from the last three or four centuries
BC. In respect of content there is scarcely any dierence between the two groups
of texts. Thus Babylonian mathematics remained stale in character and content,
with very little progress or innovation, for nearly two millennia.
[24]
The Babylonian system of mathematics was sexagesimal, or a base 60 numeral
system (see: Babylonian numerals). From this we derive the modern day usage of
60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, and 360 (60 x 6) degrees in a
circle. The Babylonians were able to make great advances in mathematics for two
reasons. First, the number 60 has many divisors (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, and
30), making calculations easier. Additionally, unlike the Egyptians and Romans,
the Babylonians had a true place-value system, where digits written in the left
column represented larger values (much as in our base-ten system: 734 = 7100
+ 310 + 41). Among the Babylonians' mathematical accomplishments were the
determination of the square root of two correctly to seven places (YBC 7289 clay
tablet (http://it.stlawu.edu/%7Edmelvill/mesomath/tablets/YBC7289.html)). They
also demonstrated knowledge of the Pythagorean theorem well before
Pythagoras, as evidenced by this tablet translated by Dennis Ramsey and dating
to c. 1900 BC:
4 is the length and 5 is the diagonal. What is the breadth? Its size is not
known. 4 times 4 is 16. And 5 times 5 is 25. You take 16 from 25 and
there remains 9. What times what shall I take in order to get 9? 3 times
3 is 9. 3 is the breadth.
The ner of 600 and the sar of 3600 were formed from the unit of 60,
corresponding with a degree of the equator. Tablets of squares and cubes,
calculated from 1 to 60, have been found at Senkera, and a people acquainted
with the sun-dial, the clepsydra, the lever and the pulley, must have had no mean
knowledge of mechanics. A crystal lens, turned on the lathe, was discovered by
Austen Henry Layard at Nimrud along with glass vases bearing the name of
Sargon; this could explain the excessive minuteness of some of the writing on the
Assyrian tablets, and a lens may also have been used in the observation of the
23 of 30 2014-05-09 20:50
heavens.
The Babylonians might have been familiar with the general rules for measuring
the areas. They measured the circumference of a circle as three times the
diameter and the area as one-twelfth the square of the circumference, which
would be correct if were estimated as 3. The volume of a cylinder was taken as
the product of the base and the height, however, the volume of the frustum of a
cone or a square pyramid was incorrectly taken as the product of the height and
half the sum of the bases. Also, there was a recent discovery in which a tablet
used as 3 and 1/8. The Babylonians are also known for the Babylonian mile,
which was a measure of distance equal to about seven miles today. This
measurement for distances eventually was converted to a time-mile used for
measuring the travel of the Sun, therefore, representing time. (Eves, Chapter 2)
Philosophy
Further information: Babylonian literature: Philosophy
The origins of Babylonian philosophy can be traced back to early Mesopotamian
wisdom literature, which embodied certain philosophies of life, particularly ethics,
in the forms of dialectic, dialogs, epic poetry, folklore, hymns, lyrics, prose, and
proverbs. Babylonian reasoning and rationality developed beyond empirical
observation.
[29]
It is possible that Babylonian philosophy had an inuence on Greek philosophy,
particularly Hellenistic philosophy. The Babylonian text Dialogue of Pessimism
contains similarities to the agonistic thought of the sophists, the Heraclitean
doctrine of contrasts, and the dialogs of Plato, as well as a precursor to the
maieutic Socratic method of Socrates.
[30]
The Milesian philosopher Thales is also
known to have studied philosophy in Mesopotamia.
Legacy
Babylonia, and particularly its capital city Babylon, has long held a place in
Abrahamic religions as a symbol of excess and dissolute power. Many references
are made to Babylon in the Bible, both literally and allegorically. The mentions in
the Tanakh tend to be historical or prophetic, while New Testament references
are more likely gurative, or cryptic references possibly to pagan Rome, or some
other archetype. The legendary Hanging Gardens of Babylon and the Tower of
Babel are seen as symbols of luxurious and arrogant power respectively.
See also
Ancient Near East
24 of 30 2014-05-09 20:50
Assyriology
Babylonian law
Babylonian numerals
Babylonian calendar
Chaldean mythology
Chronology of Babylonia and Assyria
Cuneiform script
Geography of Mesopotamia
History of Sumer
Kings of Babylon
Social life in Babylonia and Assyria
Many of these articles were originally based on information from the 1911
edition of Encyclopdia Britannica.
Notes
^ Freedom = addurru. 1.
References
^
a b c
Deutscher, Guy (2007).
Syntactic Change in Akkadian: The
Evolution of Sentential
Complementation
(http://books.google.com
/?id=XFwUxmCdG94C). Oxford
University Press US. pp. 2021.
ISBN 978-0-19-953222-3.
1.
^ Woods C. 2006 Bilingualism,
Scribal Learning, and the Death of
Sumerian. In S.L. Sanders (ed)
Margins of Writing, Origins of Culture:
91-120 Chicago [1]
(http://oi.uchicago.edu/pdf/OIS2.pdf)
2.
^ A. K. Grayson (1972). Assyrian Royal
Inscriptions, Volume 1. Otto
Harrassowitz. pp. 78.
3.
^ Robert William Rogers, A History of
Babylonia and Assyria, Volume I, Eaton
and Mains, 1900.
4.
^ Oppenheim Ancient Mesopotamia 5.
^
a b c d
Georges Roux - Ancient Iraq 6.
^ Eder, Christian., Assyrische
Distanzangaben und die absolute
Chronologie Vorderasiens, AoF 31,
191-236, 2004.
7.
25 of 30 2014-05-09 20:50
^ Schneider, Thomas (2003).
"Kassitisch und Hurro-Urartisch. Ein
Diskussionsbeitrag zu mglichen
lexikalischen Isoglossen".
Altorientalische Forschungen (in
German) (30): 372381.
8.
^ "India: Early Vedic period"
(http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked
/topic/285248/India/46842/Early-Vedic-
period). Encyclopdia Britannica
Online. Encyclopdia Britannica, Inc.
Retrieved 8 September 2012.
9.
^ "Iranian art and architecture"
(http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked
/topic/293553/Iranian-art-and-
architecture/37848/Median-period).
Encyclopdia Britannica Online.
Encyclopdia Britannica, Inc.
Retrieved 8 September 2012.
10.
^ H. W. F. Saggs (2000). Babylonians.
British Museum Press. p. 117.
11.
^ "World Wide Sechool"
(http://www.worldwideschool.org
/library/books/hst/ancient
/HistoryofPhoenicia/chap22.html).
History of Phoenicia Part IV.
Retrieved 2007-01-09.
12.
^ Al-Gailani Werr, L., 1988. Studies in
the chronology and regional style of
Old Babylonian Cylinder Seals.
Bibliotheca Mesopotamica, Volume 23.
13.
^ Pingree (1998)
Rochberg (2004)
Evans (1998)
14.
^ Ginzburg, Carlo (1984). "Morelli,
Freud, and Sherlock Holmes: Clues
and Scientic Method". In Eco,
Umberto; Sebeok, Thomas. The Sign of
Three: Dupin, Holmes, Peirce.
Bloomington, IN: History Workshop,
Indiana University Press. pp. 81118.
ISBN 978-0-253-35235-4.
LCCN 82049207 (http://lccn.loc.gov
/82049207). OCLC 9412985
(https://www.worldcat.org
/oclc/9412985). Ginzburg stresses the
signicance of Babylonian medicine in
his discussion of the conjectural
paradigm as evidenced by the methods
of Giovanni Morelli, Sigmund Freud
and Sherlock Holmes in the light of
Charles Sanders Peirce's logic of
making good guesses or abductive
reasoning
15.
^
a b
H. F. J. Horstmansho, Marten
Stol, Cornelis Tilburg (2004), Magic
and Rationality in Ancient Near
Eastern and Graeco-Roman Medicine,
p. 99, Brill Publishers, ISBN
90-04-13666-5.
16.
^ Marten Stol (1993), Epilepsy in
Babylonia, p. 55, Brill Publishers, ISBN
90-72371-63-1.
17.
^ H. F. J. Horstmansho, Marten Stol,
Cornelis Tilburg (2004), Magic and
Rationality in Ancient Near Eastern
and Graeco-Roman Medicine, p. 97-98,
Brill Publishers, ISBN 90-04-13666-5.
18.
^ Marten Stol (1993), Epilepsy in
Babylonia, p. 5, Brill Publishers, ISBN
90-72371-63-1.
19.
26 of 30 2014-05-09 20:50
^ M. J. Geller (2004). "West Meets
East: Early Greek and Babylonian
Diagnosis". In H. F. J. Horstmansho,
Marten Stol, Cornelis Tilburg. Magic
and rationality in ancient Near Eastern
and Graeco-Roman medicine (Brill
Publishers). pp. 11186.
ISBN 90-04-13666-5.
20.
^ Tatlow, Elisabeth Meier Women,
Crime, and Punishment in Ancient Law
and Society: The ancient Near East
Continuum International Publishing
Group Ltd. (31 March 2005) ISBN
978-0-8264-1628-5 p.75 [2]
(http://books.google.co.uk
/books?id=ONkJ_Rj1SS8C&pg=PA75&
dq=women+men+literate+babylonia&
as_brr=3#PPA75,M1)
21.
^ See Chronology of Babylonia and
Assyria.
22.
^ Pingree (1998) 23.
^
a b c
Aaboe, Asger. "The culture of
Babylonia: Babylonian mathematics,
astrology, and astronomy." The
Assyrian and Babylonian Empires and
other States of the Near East, from the
Eighth to the Sixth Centuries B.C. Eds.
John Boardman, I. E. S. Edwards, N. G.
L. Hammond, E. Sollberger and C. B. F.
Walker. Cambridge University Press,
(1991)
24.
^ D. Brown (2000), Mesopotamian
Planetary Astronomy-Astrology , Styx
Publications, ISBN 90-5693-036-2.
25.
^ Otto E. Neugebauer (1945). "The
History of Ancient Astronomy
Problems and Methods", Journal of
Near Eastern Studies 4 (1), p. 1-38.
26.
^ George Sarton (1955). "Chaldaean
Astronomy of the Last Three Centuries
B. C.", Journal of the American
Oriental Society 75 (3), p. 166-173
[169].
27.
^ William P. D. Wightman (1951,
1953), The Growth of Scientic Ideas,
Yale University Press p.38.
28.
^ Giorgio Buccellati (1981), "Wisdom
and Not: The Case of Mesopotamia",
Journal of the American Oriental
Society 101 (1), p. 35-47.
29.
^ Giorgio Buccellati (1981), "Wisdom
and Not: The Case of Mesopotamia",
Journal of the American Oriental
Society 101 (1), p. 35-47 [43].
30.
Further reading
Ascalone, Enrico (2007). Mesopotamia: Assyrians, Sumerians, Babylonians.
University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-25266-0.
Bryant, Tamera (2005). The Life and Times of Hammurabi. Mitchell Lane.
27 of 30 2014-05-09 20:50
ISBN 978-1-58415-338-2.
Eves, Howard (1990). An Introduction to the History of Mathematics (6th
ed.). Brooks Cole. ISBN 978-0-03-029558-4.
Ginzburg, Carlo (1984). "Morelli, Freud, and Sherlock Holmes: Clues and
Scientic Method". In Eco, Umberto; Sebeok, Thomas. The Sign of Three:
Dupin, Holmes, Peirce. Bloomington, IN: History Workshop, Indiana
University Press. pp. 81118. ISBN 978-0-253-35235-4. LCCN 82049207
(http://lccn.loc.gov/82049207). OCLC 9412985 (https://www.worldcat.org
/oclc/9412985). Ginzburg stresses the signicance of Babylonian medicine in
his discussion of the conjectural paradigm as evidenced by the methods of
Giovanni Morelli, Sigmund Freud and Sherlock Holmes in the light of
Charles Sanders Peirce's logic of making good guesses or abductive
reasoning.
Leonard William (2003). Babylonian Religion and Mythology. Fredonia
Books. ISBN 978-1-4102-0459-2.
Leick, Gwendolyn (2003). The Babylonians: An Introduction. Routledge.
Leick, Gwendolyn (2003). Mesopotamia. Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-026574-3.
Lloyd, Seton (1978). The Archaeology of Mesopotamia: From the Old Stone
Age to the Persian Conquest. Thames & Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-78007-7.
Mieroop, Marc Van de (2004). King Hammurabi Of Babylon: A Biography.
Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978-1-4051-2659-5.
Nemet-Nejat, Karen Rhea (2002). Daily Life in Ancient Mesopotamia.
Hendrickson. ISBN 978-1-56563-712-2.
Oates, Joan (1986). Babylon. Thames & Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-27384-5.
Oppenheim, A. Leo (1977). Ancient Mesopotamia : Portrait of a Dead
Civilization. University Of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-63187-5.
Pallis, Svend Aage (1956). The antiquity of Iraq: A handbook of Assyriology.
Ejnar Munksgaard.
Roux, Georges (1993). Ancient Iraq (3rd ed.). Penguin.
ISBN 978-0-14-012523-8.
Saggs, Henry W.F. (1995). Babylonians. University of Oklahoma.
ISBN 978-0-8061-2765-1.
Saggs, Henry W.F. (1988). The Greatness That Was Babylon: A Survey of the
Ancient Civilization of the Tigris-Euphrates Valley. Sidgwick & Jackson.
28 of 30 2014-05-09 20:50
ISBN 978-0-283-99623-8.
Schomp, Virginia (2005). Ancient Mesopotamia: The Sumerians, Babylonians,
And Assyrians. Franklin Watts. ISBN 978-0-531-16741-0.
Spence, Lewis (1995). Myths and Legends of Babylonia and Assyria.
Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 978-1-56459-500-3.
Le Journal des Mdecines Cuniformes (published twice-yearly from 2003
onwards)
External links
From under the Dust of Ages (http://wisdomlib.org/mesopotamian/book/from-
under-the-dust-of-ages/index.html) by William St. Chad Boscawen
The Chaldean account of Genesis (http://wisdomlib.org/mesopotamian
/book/the-chaldean-account-of-genesis/index.html) by George Smith
Babylonian Mathematics (http://www.math.tamu.edu/~don.allen/history
/babylon/babylon.html)
Babylonian Numerals (http://www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~history
/HistTopics/Babylonian_numerals.html)
Babylonian Astronomy/Astrology (http://www.halloran.com/babylon1.htm)
Bibliography of Babylonian Astronomy/Astrology
(http://www.sta.science.uu.nl/~gent0113/babylon/babybibl.htm)
Theophilus G. Pinches, The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria
(http://www.sacred-texts.com/ane/rbaa.htm) (Many deities' names are now
read dierently, but this detailed 1906 work is a classic.)
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Babylonia and Assyria". Encyclopdia
Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Babylonian and Assyrian Religion".
Encyclopdia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
"Babylonia". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
1913.
The History Files Ancient Mesopotamia (http://www.historyles.co.uk
/MainFeaturesMesopotamia.htm)
Legends of Babylon and Egypt in Relation to Hebrew Tradition
(http://fax.libs.uga.edu/BM530xK531l/), by Leonard W. King, 1918 (a
29 of 30 2014-05-09 20:50
searchable facsimile at the University of Georgia Libraries; DjVu & layered
PDF (http://fax.libs.uga.edu/BM530xK531l
/1f/legends_of_babylon_and_egypt.pdf) format)
The Babylonian Legends of the Creation (http://fax.libs.uga.edu/BL1620xB7/)
and the Fight between Bel and the Dragon, as told by Assyrian Tablets from
Nineveh, 1921 (a searchable facsimile at the University of Georgia Libraries;
DjVu & layered PDF (http://fax.libs.uga.edu/BL1620xB7
/1f/babylonian_legends_of_creation.pdf) format)
The Civilization of Babylonia and Assyria (http://fax.libs.uga.edu
/DS71xJ39C/); its remains, language, history, religion, commerce, law, art,
and literature, by Morris Jastrow, Jr. ... with map and 164 illustrations, 1915
(a searchable facsimile at the University of Georgia Libraries; DjVu & layered
PDF (http://fax.libs.uga.edu/DS71xJ39C
/1f/civilization_of_babylonia_and_assyria.pdf) format or Readable HTML
(http://wisdomlib.org/mesopotamian/book/the-civilization-of-babylonia-
and-assyria/index.html))
Recordings of modern scholars reading Babylonian poetry in the original
language (http://www.speechisre.com (http://www.speechisre.com/)).
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Babylonia&
oldid=607346638"
Categories: Babylonia Mesopotamia Fertile Crescent History of the Levant
History of Iraq History of Kuwait Civilizations Former monarchies of Asia
States and territories established in the 17th century BC
History of Western Asia
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