GROUP 2: BABYLONIAN CIVILIZATION

HANGING GARDENS OF BABYLON

 ETEMENANKI ZIGGURAT

A. Name, Function, and Components

The Etemenanki ziggurat or Ziggurat Babel was a gigantic, stone ziggurat built at the center of
Babylon on the banks of the Euphrates River. It was finished in the sixth century B.C.E. and was
dedicated to the patron god of Babylon, Marduk. Built to be a passageway up to heaven, its
Sumerian name translates to “house of the foundation of heaven on earth”.
Considered by some as the inspiration or the actual Tower of Babel mentioned in the Bible, the
Etemenanki was believed to have been built at the center of the world as the axis of the universe
where a straight line was said to connect earth and heaven. This concept was cited in the Bible
where the builders state “let us build a tower whose top may reach unto heaven”. Furthermore, it
was in this spot that the Babylonians believed that their god Marduk created the world.
The best description of the blueprint of the colossal tower can be found in a cuneiform tablet from
Uruk (229 BCE). It states that the tower was made up of seven terraces, rising up to seven stocks -
91 meters in total. The ground floor measured 91 x 91 meters, which was confirmed by
archaeological excavations operated by Robert Koldewey after 1913. It was stated by
Nebuchadnezzer (one of the credited builders) that mud brick, burnt brick, asphalt, mud, and
mighty cedars of Lebanon were used as materials
The floor was filled with extravagant bedrooms bearing the names of the god the Babylonian
priests believed would spend the night there. Above the top level was a temple with nothing but a
couch and a table made of pure gold. Only a woman chosen by god Marduk to be his lover was
allowed passage.
Aside from this function of serving as a resting place for the gods, it is possible that the famous
Babylonian astronomers, the Chaldaeans, did their observations at the topmost level of the
building.
In 1913, Robert Koldewey began the excavation of the Etemenanki. Now, only four channels can
be seen; the rest of the site is overgrown with weeds. The remains of Babylon are in Iraq, about 50
miles south of Baghdad.

B. Precursors to Invention
The Etemenanki was one of the brick mountain structures that the ancient Babylonians called a
ziqqurratu or ziggurat, which can be translated as "rising building" (Akkadian zaqâru, "to rise high").
This kind of temple tower is the oriental counterpart of the Egyptian pyramid and just as old,
although there are two differences: the ziggurat was not a tomb, and ziggurats were built during
the Seleucid age, whereas the building of pyramids came to an end after c.1640 BCE. Ziggurats
played a role in the cults of many cities in ancient Mesopotamia. Archaeologists have found
nineteen of these buildings in sixteen cities; the existence of another ten is known from literary
sources.
In the age of king Hammurabi (1792-1750), there were ziggurats in lesser towns like Qatara,
Aššur, Sippar, Kish, Borsippa, Nippur, Uruk, Larsa, Ur, and Eridu. Though often assumed to have
been the king during the building of the Etemenanki, it is worth noting that the creation epic Enûma
êliš with reference to the building of the Esagila (and the implication of the existence of the
Etemenanki) had already been written.
C. Context during invention
The Etemenanki was cited for the first time in the Annals of the Assyrian king Sennacherib, who
was claimed to have destroyed the temple tower of his Babylonian enemies in 689 BCE. Although
he certainly sacked Babylon, it is impossible that his looting soldiers destroyed the Etemenanki
because ancient armies were incapable of destroying large buildings. After numerous construction
phases, king Nebuchadnezzar (605-562) was recorded as one of the builders of this ziggurat.
The building history suggests that it took the Babylonians over a century to construct this ziggurat.
For a long time, the tower must have looked unfinished, which may explain how the Biblical story
came into being. It is definitely possible that it was never finished at all.
By the time of Alexander, the ziggurat had fallen into disrepair. Brick buildings easily fell apart and
needed permanent care in the hot climate of the Near East. To systematically clear the building
ground, Alexander ordered 10,000 soldiers to remove the remains of the old building, taking up a
period of over two months.
Although the area was now cleared, the tower was never rebuilt. After the death of Alexander, civil
war broke out between his generals and during the next years, Babylon saw several armies lasting
until peace conditions were restored by Seleucus Nicator. However, he instituted another capital
for the new Seleucid empire, Seleucia. Babylon was never restored to its old status, and that
meant the end of the efforts to rebuilt the Etemenanki.
Arabic authors were accountable for keeping the memory of the Etemenanki alive. However, they
presumed that the ancient royal palace, which was the largest ruin on the site, was the tower of
Babel. The inhabitants of Bâbil passed on this information to the first Western visitors in the
sixteenth century. In the nineteenth century, the real Etemenanki was rediscovered by the native
Arab population.

D. Impacts
Partially due to the Etemenanki as a site for studying the heavens, Babylon had an incomparable
understanding of the movements of the stars. They had noted astronomical diaries that tracked
their movements. They had observed Venus as early as the 17th century BC; they had created
stellar catalogs by the 8th century BC; and, by the 7th century BC, they could even predict an
eclipse. Prehistoric Babylonian records are still used by modern-day astronomers to study how the
rotation of the Earth has changed.
 CODE OF HAMMURABI

a. Name of the invention, its components, and function.

- The Code of Hammurabi has a total collection of 282 rules, carved and engraved from a finger-
shaped black stone stele (diorite). It was established by a Babylonian King named Hammurabi for
commercial transactions and to set fines and punishments for the maintenance of justice.

b. What are the precursors of your chosen invention? What tools existed prior to it or how
did people carry out activities before its innovation?
- The Code of Hammurabi is a predecessor of the Code of Ur-Nammu, established by Sumerian
ruler, Ur-Nammu (ca. 2050 B.C.).

c. What were the social, political, cultural, or economic contexts in which the inventions
was made?
- It was established to maintain peace and order among the people of Babylonia and it was also a
retribution for justice or what we know as “an eye for an eye”. It served as a guide or law for the
people to follow. Each punishment given to the Babylonians were according to the Code of
Hammurabi and statuses of the accused and the accuser was a determinant of how light or heavy
the punishment was.

d. What were the social, political, cultural, or economic impacts of your chosen inventions?
- Order and justice were instilled on the people because of the fear of being punished and the fear
of death crept to them. But, it also hints the inequalities being given by these laws. The elite and
the low class are differentiated, thus creating that barrier between them. It manifested an uneven
balance of powers. When we speak for the modern times, these codes also helped countries and
states to develop their own laws to be established.

At its top is a two-and-a-half-foot relief carving of a standing Hammurabi receiving the law—
symbolized by a measuring rod and tape—from the seated Shamash, the Babylonian god of
justice. The rest of the seven-foot-five-inch monument is covered with columns of chiseled
cuneiform script.
 ISHTAR GATE

The Ishtar Gate is one of the architectural structures built during the Babylonian Civilization.
It is the 8th gate and the main entrance to the inner city of Babylon and was named after the
goddess Ishtar, a goddess of love, war, fertility and sex. On the walls of the gate, there are 575
reliefs of bulls, lions and dragons which represent and pay tribute to the deities; Adad, Ishtar and
Marduk. The walls of the gate are made of glazed bricks with inscribed prayers to chief God
Marduk. There is also a processional way used during New Year’s celebration where statues of
deities would parade down. And on the entrance wall of the gate, there is a dedication plaque that
explains the gate’s purpose and description. Before the gate was built, there were 7 entrances that
existed in Mesopotamia, which were built using sun-dried bricks. In addition, the Walls of Babylon
also circled and protected the city, made also of glazed bricks. The construction of the Ishtar Gate
was a part of the plan of Nebuchadnezzar including the temple of Marduk and the Hanging
Gardens to make Babylon a powerful empire. These structures, including the Ishtar Gate shed light
on the religious beliefs and customs of the Babylonians because they believed that Babylon was
protected and defended by gods. Because of these, the Babylonians had risen to power, became
an independent city and now, one of the wonders of the ancient world.
 EPIC OF GILGAMESH

The Epic of Gilgamesh is best known from a version called 'He who saw the Deep', which
circulated in Babylonia and Assyria in the first millennium BC. The Babylonians believed this poem
to have been the responsibility of a man called Sin-liqe-unninni, a learned scholar of Uruk whom
modern scholars consider to have lived sometime between 1300-1000 BC. However, we now
know that 'He who saw the Deep' is a revision of one or more earlier versions of the epic. The
oldest surviving fragments of the epic are the work of an anonymous Babylonian poet writing more
than 3700 years ago. The Babylonian epic was composed in Akkadian, but its literary origins lie in
five Sumerian poems of even greater antiquity. The Sumerian texts gained their final form probably
as court entertainments sung for King Shulgi of Ur of the Chaldees, who reigned in the 21st
century BC. Early Translations were given by German Assyriologist Arthur Ungnad and in turn
inspired a Poet Rainer Maria Rilke in 1916, believing that the epic is about the fear of death. The
fear of death may be one of the epic's principal themes but the poem deals with so much more. As
a story of one man's 'path to wisdom', of how he is formed by his successes and failures, it offers
many profound insights into the human condition, into life and death and the truths that touch us
all.