LikeAssyria, the Babylonian state retained the writtenAkkadian language for official use, despite itsNorthwest Semitic-speaking Amorite founders andKassite successors, who spoke alanguage isolate. The state retained theSumerian language insacred texts for theBabylonian religion, but already by the time Babylon was founded, this was no longer a spoken language, having been replaced by Akkadian. The earlier Akkadian andSumerian traditions played a major role in the descendant Babylonian culture, and the region would remain an important cultural center, even under its protracted periods of outside rule.
During the 3rd millennium BC, an intimate cultural symbiosis occurred between Sumerian and Akkadian-speakers, which included widespreadbilingualism.[4] The influence 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.[4] This has prompted scholars to refer to Sumerian and Akkadian in the third millennium as asprachbund.[4]Akkadian gradually replaced Sumerian as the spoken language of Mesopotamia somewhere around the turn of the third and the second millennium BC (the precise timeframe being a matter of debate).[5] Fromc. 5400 BC until the rise of the Akkadian Empire in the 24th century BC, Mesopotamia had been dominated by largelySumerian cities and city states, such asUr,Lagash,Uruk,Kish,Isin,Larsa,Adab,Eridu,Gasur,Assur,Hamazi,Akshak,Arbela andUmma, although Semitic Akkadian names began to appear on the king lists of some of these states (such asEshnunna andAssyria) between the 29th and 25th centuries BC. Traditionally, the major religious center of all Mesopotamia was the city ofNippur where the godEnlil was supreme, and it would remain so until replaced byBabylon during the reign of Hammurabi in the mid-18th century BC.[citation needed] TheAkkadian 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 ancientNear East. The empire eventually disintegrated due to economic decline, climate change, and civil war, followed by attacks by the language isolate speakingGutians from theZagros Mountains to the northeast. Sumer rose up again with the Third Dynasty of Ur (Neo-Sumerian Empire) in the late 22nd century BC, and ejected the Gutians from southern Mesopotamia in 2161 BC as suggested by surviving tablets and astronomy simulations.[6] They also seem to have gained ascendancy over much of the territory of the Akkadian speaking kings of Assyria in northern Mesopotamia for a time.
Followed by the collapse of the Sumerian "Ur-III" dynasty at the hands of theElamites in 2002 BC, theAmorites ("Westerners"), a foreignNorthwest Semitic-speaking people, began to migrate into southern Mesopotamia from the northernLevant, gradually gaining control over most of southern Mesopotamia, where they formed a series of small kingdoms, while the Assyrians reasserted their independence in the north. The states of the south were unable to stem the Amorite advance, and for a time may have relied on their fellow Akkadians in Assyria for protection.[citation needed]
The freedom[n 1] of the Akkadians and their children I established. I purified their copper. I established their freedom from the border of the marshes and Ur and Nippur,Awal, and Kish,Der of the goddessIshtar, as far as the City of (Ashur).[7]
Past scholars originally extrapolated from this text that it means he defeated the invading Amorites to the south and Elamites to the east, but there is no explicit record of that, and some scholars believe the Assyrian kings were merely giving preferential trade agreements to the south.
These policies, whether military, economic or both, were continued by his successorsErishum I andIkunum.
However, whenSargon I (1920–1881 BC) succeeded as king in Assyria in 1920 BC, he eventually withdrew Assyria from the region, preferring to concentrate on continuing the vigorous expansion of Assyrian colonies inAnatolia at the expense of theHurrians andHattians and theAmorite inhabitedLevant, and eventually southern Mesopotamia fell to the Amorites. During the first centuries of what is called the "Amorite period", the most powerfulcity-states in the south wereIsin,Eshnunna andLarsa, together with Assyria in the north.
First Babylonian dynasty – Amorite dynasty, 1894–1595 BC
Hammurabi (standing), depicted as receiving his royal insignia fromShamash (or possiblyMarduk). Hammurabi holds his hands over his mouth as a sign of prayer[8] (relief on the upper part of the stele ofHammurabi's code of laws).
Around 1894 BC, an Amorite chieftain namedSumu-abum appropriated a tract of land which included the then relatively small city of Babylon from the neighbouring minor city-state ofKazallu, of which it had initially been a territory, turning his newly acquired lands into a state in its own right. His reign was concerned with establishing statehood amongst a sea of other minor city-states and kingdoms in the region. However, Sumu-abum appears never to have bothered to give himself the title ofKing of Babylon, suggesting that Babylon itself was still only a minor town or city, and not worthy of kingship.[9]
He was followed bySumu-la-El,Sabium, andApil-Sin, each of whom ruled in the same vague manner as Sumu-abum, with no reference to kingship of Babylon itself being made in any written records of the time.[10]Sin-Muballit was the first of these Amorite rulers to be regarded officially as aking of Babylon, and then on only one single clay tablet. Under these kings, Babylonia remained a small nation which controlled very little territory, and was overshadowed by neighbouring kingdoms that were both older, larger, and more powerful, such as; Isin, Larsa, Assyria to the north and Elam to the east in ancient Iran.[11] The Elamites occupied huge swathes of southern Mesopotamia, and the early Amorite rulers were largely held in vassalage to Elam.
Babylon remained a minor town in a small state until the reign of its sixth Amorite ruler,Hammurabi, during 1792–1750 BC (orc. 1728–1686 BC in theshort chronology).[11] He conducted major building work in Babylon, expanding it from a small town into a great city worthy of kingship. A very efficient ruler, he established a bureaucracy, with taxation and centralized government. Hammurabi freed Babylon from Elamite dominance, and indeed drove the Elamites from southern Mesopotamia entirely, invading Elam itself. He then systematically conquered southern Mesopotamia, including the cities of Isin, Larsa, Eshnunna, Kish,Lagash, Nippur,Borsippa, Ur, Uruk, Umma, Adab,Sippar,Rapiqum, and Eridu.[12] His conquests gave the region stability after turbulent times, and coalesced the patchwork of small states into a single nation; it is only from the time of Hammurabi that southern Mesopotamia acquired the nameBabylonia.[13]
Hammurabi turned his disciplined armies eastwards and invaded the region which a thousand years later becameIran, conqueringElam,Gutium,Lullubi,Turukku andKassites. To the west, he conquered the Amorite states of the Levant (modernSyria andJordan) including the powerful kingdoms ofMari andYamhad.
One of Hammurabi's most important and lasting works was the compilation of theBabylonian law code, which improved the much earlier codes ofSumer,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 theCode of Hammurabi was discovered on astele byJacques de Morgan andJean-Vincent Scheil atSusa in Elam, where it had later been taken as plunder.[15] That copy is now in theLouvre.[16]
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. Hammurabi transferred this dominance to Babylon, makingMarduk supreme in the pantheon of southern Mesopotamia (with the godAshur, and to some degreeIshtar, remaining the long-dominant deity in northern Mesopotamian Assyria). The city of Babylon became known as a "holy city" where any legitimate ruler of southern Mesopotamia had to be crowned, and the city was also revered by Assyria for these religious reasons. Hammurabi turned what had previously been a minor administrative town into a large, powerful and influential city, extended its rule over the entirety of southern Mesopotamia, and erected a number of buildings.
The Amorite-ruled Babylonians, like their predecessor states, engaged in regular trade with the Amorite and Canaanite city-states to the west, with Babylonian officials or troops sometimes passing to the Levant and Canaan, and Amorite merchants operating freely throughout Mesopotamia. The Babylonian monarchy's western connections remained strong for quite some time.Ammi-Ditana, great-grandson of Hammurabi, still titled himself "king of the land of the Amorites". Ammi-Ditana's father and son also bore Amorite names:Abi-Eshuh andAmmi-Saduqa.
Cylinder seal, c. 18th–17th century BC. Babylonia.
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 successorSamsu-iluna (1749–1712 BC) the far south of Mesopotamia was lost to a native Akkadian-speaking kingIlum-ma-ili who ejected the Amorite-ruled Babylonians. The south became the nativeSealand Dynasty, remaining free of Babylon for the next 272 years.[17]
Amorite rule survived in a much reduced Babylon, Samshu-iluna's successorAbi-Eshuh made a vain attempt to recapture the Sealand Dynasty for Babylon, but met defeat at the hands of kingDamqi-ilishu II. By the end of his reign Babylonia had shrunk to the small and relatively weak nation it had been upon its foundation, although the city itself was far larger and opulent than the small town it had been prior to the rise of Hammurabi.
He was followed byAmmi-Ditana and thenAmmi-Saduqa, 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 theKassites, a people speaking an apparentlanguage isolate originating in the mountains of what is today northwest Iran. Babylon was then attacked by theIndo-European-speaking, Anatolia-basedHittites in 1595 BC. Shamshu-Ditana was overthrown following the "sack of Babylon" by the Hittite kingMursili I. The Hittites did not remain for long, but the destruction wrought by them finally enabled their Kassite allies to gain control.
The date of the sack of Babylon by the Hittites under kingMursili I is considered crucial to the various calculations of the earlychronology of the ancient Near East, as it is taken as a fixed point in the discussion. 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 much laterLate Bronze Age collapse, resulting in the shift of the entire Bronze Age chronology of Mesopotamia with regard to theEgyptian chronology. Possible dates for the sack of Babylon are:
ultra-short chronology: 1499 BC
short chronology: 1531 BC
low middle chronology: 1587 BC
middle chronology: 1595 BC (probably the most commonly used, and often seen as having the most support)[18][19][20][21][22][23]
long chronology: 1651 BC (favored by some astronomical events reconstruction)[6]
Mursili I, the Hittite king, first conqueredAleppo, capital ofYamhad kingdom, to avenge the death of his father, but his main geopolitical target was Babylon.[25] The MesopotamianChronicle 40, written after 1500 BC, mentions briefly the sack of Babylon as: "During the time ofSamsu-Ditana, the Hittites marched on Akkad." More details can be found in another source, theTelepinu Proclamation, a Hittite text from around 1520 BC, which states:[26]
And then he [Mursili I] marched to Aleppo, and he destroyed Aleppo and brought captives and possessions of Aleppo to Ḫattuša. Then, however, he marched to Babylon, and he destroyed Babylon, and he defeated the Hurrian troops, and he brought captives and possessions of Babylon toḪattuša.
The movement of Mursili's troops was around 800 km from the conquered Aleppo to reach the Euphrates, located to the east, skirting around Assyria, and then to the south along the course of the river to reach finally Babylon. His conquest of Babylon brought to an end the dynasty of Hammurabi, and although the Hittite text, Telipinu Proclamation, does not mention Samsu-ditana, and the BabylonianChronicle 20 does not mention a specific Hittite king either,Trevor Bryce concludes that there is no doubt that both sources refer to Mursili I andSamsu-ditana.[25]
The Hittites, when sacking Babylon, removed the images of the godsMarduk and his consortZarpanitu from theEsagil temple and they took them to their kingdom. The later inscription ofAgum-kakrime, the Kassite king, claims he returned the images; and another later text, theMarduk Prophesy, written long after the events, mentions that the image of Marduk was in exile around twenty-four years.[26]
After the conquest, Mursili I did not attempt to convert the whole region he had occupied from Aleppo to Babylon as a part of his kingdom; he instead made an alliance with theKassites, and then a Kassite dynasty was established in Babylonia.[27]
The extent of the Babylonian Empire during the Kassite dynasty.
The Kassite dynasty was founded byGandash of Mari. The Kassites, like the Amorite rulers who had preceded them, were not originally native to Mesopotamia. Rather, they had first appeared in theZagros Mountains of what is today northwestern Iran.
The ethnic affiliation of the Kassites is unclear. Still, their language was notSemitic orIndo-European, and is thought to have been either a language isolate or possibly related to theHurro-Urartian language family of Anatolia,[28] although the evidence for its genetic affiliation is meager due to the scarcity of extant texts. That said, several Kassite leaders may have borneIndo-European names, and they may have had anIndo-European elite similar to theMitanni elite that later ruled over the Hurrians of central and eastern Anatolia, while others had Semitic names.[29][30]
The Kassites renamed BabylonKarduniaš and their rule lasted for 576 years, the longest dynasty in Babylonian history.
This new foreign dominion offers a striking analogy to the roughly contemporary rule of the SemiticHyksos inancient Egypt. Most divine attributes ascribed to the Amorite kings of Babylonia disappeared at this time; the title "god" was never given to a Kassite sovereign. Babylon continued to be the capital of the kingdom and one of theholy cities of western Asia, where the priests of theancient Mesopotamian religion were all-powerful, and the only place where the right to inheritance of the short lived old Babylonian empire could be conferred.[31]
Babylonia experienced short periods of relative power, but in general proved to be relatively weak under the long rule of the Kassites, and spent long periods underAssyrian andElamite domination and interference.
It is not clear precisely when Kassite rule of Babylon began, but the Indo-European Hittites from Anatolia 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 withErishum III, the native Mesopotamian king of Assyria, but successfully went to war with theHittite Empire, and twenty-four years after, the Hittites took the sacredstatue of Marduk, he recovered it and declared the god equal to theKassite deityShuqamuna.
TheSealand Dynasty of southern Mesopotamia remained independent of Babylonia and like Assyria was in native Akkadian-speaking hands.Ulamburiash managed to attack it and conquered parts of the land fromEa-gamil, a king with a distinctly Sumerian name, around 1450 BC, whereuponEa-Gamil fled to his allies in Elam. The Sealand Dynasty region still remained independent, and the Kassite king seems to have been unable to finally conquer it. Ulamburiash began making treaties withancient Egypt, which then was ruling southernCanaan, and Assyria to the north.Agum III also campaigned against the Sealand Dynasty, finally wholly conquering the far south of Mesopotamia for Babylon, destroying its capital Dur-Enlil in the process. From there Agum III extended farther south still, invading what was many centuries later to be called theArabian Peninsula orArabia, and conquering thepre-Arab state ofDilmun (in modernBahrain).
Karaindash built a bas-relief temple in Uruk andKurigalzu I (1415–1390 BC) built a new capitalDur-Kurigalzu named after himself, transferring administrative rule from Babylon. Both of these kings continued to struggle unsuccessfully against the Sealand Dynasty.Karaindash also strengthened diplomatic ties with the Assyrian kingAshur-bel-nisheshu and the Egyptian PharaohThutmose III and protected Babylonian borders with Elam.
Kadashman-Harbe I succeeded Karaindash, and briefly invaded Elam before being eventually defeated and ejected by its king Tepti Ahar. He then had to contend with theSuteans,ancient Semitic-speaking peoples from the southeastern Levant who invaded Babylonia and sacked Uruk. He describes having "annihilated their extensive forces", then constructed fortresses in a mountain region calledḪiḫi, in the desert to the west (modernSyria) as security outposts, and "he dug wells and settled people on fertile lands, to strengthen the guard".[32]
Kurigalzu I succeeded the throne, and soon came into conflict with Elam, to the east. WhenḪur-batila, the successor ofTepti Ahar took the throne of Elam, he began raiding Babylonia, taunting Kurigalzu to do battle with him atDūr-Šulgi. Kurigalzu launched a campaign which resulted in the abject defeat and capture of Ḫur-batila, who appears in no other inscriptions. He went on to conquer the eastern lands of 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, subject to Babylonia. Kurigalzu I 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.
Burna-Buriash II ascended to the throne in 1359 BC, he retained friendly relations with Egypt, but the resurgentMiddle Assyrian Empire (1365–1050 BC) 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 kingAshur-uballit I in marriage. He also maintained friendly relations withSuppiluliuma I, ruler of theHittite Empire.
He was succeeded byKara-ḫardaš (who was half Assyrian, and the grandson of the Assyrian king) in 1333 BC, a usurper namedNazi-Bugaš deposed him, enragingAshur-uballit I, who invaded and sacked Babylon, slew Nazi-Bugaš, annexed Babylonian territory for the Middle Assyrian Empire, and installedKurigalzu II (1345–1324 BC) as his vassal ruler of Babylonia.
Map of Eurasia around 1300 BC showing the Babylonian Empire under the Kassite dynasty.
Soon afterArik-den-ili succeeded the throne of Assyria in 1327 BC, Kurigalzu II 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 asNazi-Maruttash,Kadashman-Turgu,Kadashman-Enlil II,Kudur-Enlil andShagarakti-Shuriash, allied with the empires of the Hittites and theMitanni (who were both also losing swathes of territory to the resurgent Assyrians), in a failed attempt to stop Assyrian expansion. This expansion, nevertheless, continued unchecked.
Kashtiliash IV's (1242–1235 BC) reign ended catastrophically as the Assyrian kingTukulti-Ninurta I (1243–1207 BC) routed his armies, sacked and burned Babylon and set himself up as king, ironically becoming the firstnative Mesopotamian to rule the Mesopotamian populated state, its previous rulers having all beennon-Mesopotamian Amorites and Kassites.[17] Kashtiliash himself was taken to Ashur as a prisoner of war.
An Assyrian governor/king namedEnlil-nadin-shumi was placed on the throne to rule as viceroy to Tukulti-Ninurta I, andKadashman-Harbe II andAdad-shuma-iddina succeeded as Assyrian governor/kings, also subject to Tukulti-Ninurta I until 1216 BC.
Babylon did not begin to recover until late in the reign ofAdad-shuma-usur (1216–1189 BC), as he too remained a vassal of Assyria until 1193 BC. However, he was able to prevent the Assyrian kingEnlil-kudurri-usur from retaking Babylonia, which, apart from its northern reaches, had mostly shrugged off Assyrian domination during a short period ofcivil war in the Assyrian empire, in the years after the death of Tukulti-Ninurta.
Meli-Shipak II (1188–1172 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 theLate Bronze Age collapse now affecting the Levant,Canaan,Egypt, theCaucasus, Anatolia,Mediterranean,North Africa, northern Iran andBalkans seemed (initially) to have little impact on Babylonia (or indeed Assyria and Elam).
War resumed under subsequent kings such asMarduk-apla-iddina I (1171–1159 BC) andZababa-shuma-iddin (1158 BC). The long reigning Assyrian kingAshur-dan I (1179–1133 BC) resumed expansionist policies and conquered further parts of northern Babylonia from both kings, and the Elamite rulerShutruk-Nakhunte eventually conquered most of eastern Babylonia.Enlil-nadin-ahhe (1157–1155 BC) was finally overthrown and the Kassite dynasty ended after Ashur-dan I conquered yet more of northern and central Babylonia, and the equally powerful 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, general military weakness, and evident reduction in literacy and culture, the Kassite dynasty was the longest-lived dynasty of Babylon, lasting until 1155 BC, when Babylon was conquered by Shutruk-Nakhunte of Elam, and reconquered a few years later by theNebuchadnezzar I, part of the larger Late 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, instead entering into an ultimately unsuccessful war with Assyria, allowingMarduk-kabit-ahheshu (1155–1139 BC) to establish theDynasty IV of Babylon, from Isin, with the first native Akkadian-speaking south Mesopotamian dynasty to rule Babylonia, with Marduk-kabit-ahheshu becoming only the second native Mesopotamian to sit on the throne of Babylon, after the Assyrian kingTukulti-Ninurta I. His dynasty 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, briefly capturing the south Assyrian city ofEkallatum before ultimately suffering defeat at the hands ofAshur-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 at the hands of the still reigning Ashur-Dan I.
Ninurta-nadin-shumi took the throne in 1127 BC, and also attempted an invasion of Assyria, his armies seem to have skirted through easternAramea (modern Syria) and then made an attempt to attack the Assyrian city ofArbela (modernErbil) from the west. However, this bold move met with defeat at the hands ofAshur-resh-ishi I who then forced a treaty in his favour upon the Babylonian king.
Nebuchadnezzar I (1124–1103 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 capitalSusa, and recovering the sacred statue of Marduk that had been carried off from Babylon during the fall of the Kassites. 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 byAshur-resh-ishi I (1133–1115 BC), king of theMiddle Assyrian Empire, for control of formerly Hittite-controlled territories inAram and Anatolia. The Hittite Empire of the northern and western Levant and eastern Anatolia had been largely annexed by the Middle Assyrian Empire, and its heartland finally overrun by invadingPhrygians from theBalkans. In the later years of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar I devoted himself to peaceful building projects and securing Babylonia's borders against the Assyrians, Elamites and Arameans.
Nebuchadnezzar was succeeded by his two sons, firstlyEnlil-nadin-apli (1103–1100 BC), who lost territory to Assyria. The second of them,Marduk-nadin-ahhe (1098–1081 BC) also went to war with Assyria. Some initial success in these conflicts gave way to a catastrophic defeat at the hands of the powerful Assyrian kingTiglath-Pileser I (1115–1076 BC), who annexed huge swathes of Babylonian territory, thus further expanding the Assyrian Empire. Following this a terrible famine gripped Babylon, inviting attacks and migrations from the northwest Semitic tribes ofAramaeans andSuteans from the Levant.
In 1072 BCMarduk-shapik-zeri signed a peace treaty withAshur-bel-kala (1075–1056 BC) of Assyria, however, his successorKadašman-Buriaš was not so friendly to Assyria, prompting the Assyrian king to invade Babylonia and depose him, placingAdad-apla-iddina on the throne as his vassal. Assyrian domination continued untilc. 1050 BC, withMarduk-ahhe-eriba andMarduk-zer-X regarded as vassals of Assyria. After 1050 BC the Middle Assyrian Empire descended into a period of civil war, followed by constant warfare with theArameans,Phrygians,Neo-Hittite states andHurrians, allowing Babylonia to once more largely free itself from the Assyrian yoke for a few decades.
However,East Semitic-speaking Babylonia soon began to suffer further repeated incursions fromWest Semitic nomadic peoples migrating from the Levant during theBronze Age collapse, and during the 11th century BC large swathes of the Babylonian countryside was appropriated and occupied by these newly arrivedArameans andSuteans. Arameans settled much of the countryside in eastern and central Babylonia and the Suteans in the western deserts, with the weak Babylonian kings being unable to stem these migrations.
The ruling Babylonian dynasty ofNabu-shum-libur was deposed by marauding Arameans in 1026 BC, and the heart of Babylonia, including the capital city itself 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 (1025–1004 BC) arose, this was ruled bySimbar-shipak, leader of a Kassite clan, and was in effect a separate state from Babylon. The state of anarchy allowed the Assyrian rulerAshur-nirari IV (1019–1013 BC) the opportunity to attack Babylonia in 1018 BC, and he invaded and captured the Babylonian city ofAtlila and some south central regions of Mesopotamia for Assyria.
The south Mesopotamian dynasty was replaced by another Kassite Dynasty (Dynasty VI; 1003–984 BC) which also seems to have regained control over Babylon itself. The Elamites deposed this brief Kassite revival, with kingMar-biti-apla-usur founding Dynasty VII (984–977 BC). However, this dynasty too fell, when the Arameans once more ravaged Babylon.
Babylonian rule was restored byNabû-mukin-apli in 977 BC, ushering in Dynasty VIII. Dynasty IX begins withNinurta-kudurri-usur II, who ruled from 941 BC. Babylonia remained weak during this period, with whole areas of Babylonia now under firm Aramean and Sutean control. Babylonian rulers were often forced to bow to pressure from Assyria and Elam, both of which had appropriated Babylonian territory.
Babylonia remained in a state of chaos as the 10th century BC drew to a close. A further migration of nomads from the Levant occurred in the early 9th century BC with the arrival of theChaldeans, another nomadic Northwest Semitic-speaking people described in Assyrian annals as the "Kaldu". The Chaldeans settled in the far southeast of Babylonia, joining the already long extant Arameans and Suteans. By 850 BC the migrant Chaldeans had established a small territory in the extreme southeast of Mesopotamia.
From 911 BC with the founding of theNeo-Assyrian Empire (911–605 BC) byAdad-nirari II, Babylon found itself once again under the domination and rule of its fellow Mesopotamian state for the next three centuries. Adad-nirari II twice attacked and defeatedShamash-mudammiq of Babylonia, annexing a large area of land north of theDiyala River and the towns ofHīt andZanqu in mid Mesopotamia. He made further gains over Babylonia underNabu-shuma-ukin I later in his reign.Tukulti-Ninurta II andAshurnasirpal II also forced Babylonia into vassalage, andShalmaneser III (859–824 BC) sacked Babylon itself, slew kingNabu-apla-iddina, subjugated the Aramean, Sutean and Chaldean tribes settled within Babylonia, and installedMarduk-zakir-shumi I (855–819 BC) followed byMarduk-balassu-iqbi (819–813 BC) as his vassals. It was during the late 850s BC, in the annals ofShalmaneser III, that theChaldeans andArabs dwelling in some northern regions of theArabian Peninsula are first mentioned in the pages of written recorded history.
Upon the death of Shalmaneser II,Baba-aha-iddina was reduced to vassalage by the Assyrian queenShammuramat (known asSemiramis to the Persians, Armenians and Greeks), acting as regent to his successorAdad-nirari III who was merely a boy. Adad-nirari III eventually killed Baba-aha-iddina and ruled there directly until 800 BC untilNinurta-apla-X was crowned. However, he too was subjugated by Adad-Nirari III. The next Assyrian king,Shamshi-Adad V then made a vassal ofMarduk-bel-zeri.
Babylonia briefly fell to another foreign ruler whenMarduk-apla-usur ascended the throne in 780 BC, taking advantage of a period of civil war in Assyria. He was a member of theChaldean tribe who had a century or so earlier settled in a small region in the far southeastern corner of Mesopotamia, bordering thePersian Gulf and southwestern Elam.Shalmaneser IV attacked him and retook northern Babylonia, forcing a border treaty in Assyria's favour upon him. However, he was allowed to remain on the throne, and successfully stabilised the part of Babylonia he controlled.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, its throne occupied by foreign Chaldeans, and civil unrest prominent throughout the land.
The Babylonian kingNabonassar overthrew the Chaldean usurpers in 748 BC, and successfully stabilised Babylonia, remaining untroubled byAshur-nirari V of Assyria. However, with the accession ofTiglath-Pileser III (745–727 BC) Babylonia came under renewed attack. Babylon was invaded and sacked and Nabonassar reduced to vassalage. His successorsNabu-nadin-zeri,Nabu-suma-ukin II andNabu-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 thatEastern Aramaic was introduced by the Assyrians as thelingua franca of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, and the still spoken (by Assyrians and Mandeans) Mesopotamian Aramaic began to slowly overlay and supplant Akkadian as the spoken language of the general populace of both Assyria and Babylonia.
The Assyrian kingShalmaneser V was declared king of Babylon in 727 BC, but died whilst besiegingSamaria in 722 BC.
Marduk-apla-iddina II, a Chaldean malka (chieftain) of the far southeast of Mesopotamia, then fomented revolt against Assyrian domination, assisted by strong Elamite support. Marduk-apla-iddina managed to take the throne of Babylon itself between 721 and 710 BC whilst the Assyrian kingSargon II (722–705 BC) were otherwise occupied in defeating theScythians andCimmerians who had attacked Assyria'sPersian andMedian vassal colonies in ancient Iran. Marduk-apla-iddina II was eventually defeated and ejected bySargon II of Assyria, and fled to his protectors in Elam.Sargon II was then declared king in Babylon.
Sennacherib (705–681 BC) succeeded Sargon II, and after ruling directly for a while, he placed his sonAshur-nadin-shumi on the throne. However, Merodach-Baladan and his Elamite protectors continued to unsuccessfully agitate against Assyrian rule.Nergal-ushezib, an Elamite, murdered the Assyrian prince and briefly took the throne. This led the infuriated Assyrian kingSennacherib to invade and subjugate Elam and to sack Babylon, laying waste to the region and largely destroying the city. While praying to the godNisroch inNineveh in 681 BC, Sennacherib was soon murdered by his own sons. The new Assyrian kingEsarhaddon placed a puppet kingMarduk-zakir-shumi II on the throne in Babylon. However, Marduk-apla-iddina returned from exile in Elam, and briefly deposed Marduk-zakir-shumi, whereupon Esarhaddon was forced to attack and defeat him. Marduk-apla-iddina once more fled to his masters in Elam, where he died in exile.
Esarhaddon (681–669 BC) ruled Babylon personally, he completely rebuilt the city, bringing rejuvenation and peace to the region. Upon his death, and in an effort to maintain harmony within his vast empire (which stretched from theCaucasus toEgypt andNubia and fromCyprus toPersia and theCaspian Sea), he installed his eldest sonShamash-shum-ukin as a subject king in Babylon, and his youngest, the highly educatedAshurbanipal (669–627 BC), in the more senior position as king of Assyria and overlord of Shamash-shum-ukin.
Babylonian prisoners under the surveillance of an Assyrian guard, reign of Ashurbanipal 668–630 BC, Nineveh,British Museum ME 124788
Despite being an Assyrian himself, Shamash-shum-ukin, after decades subject to his brotherAshurbanipal, declared that the city of Babylon (and not the Assyrian city ofNineveh) should be the seat of the immense empire. He raised a major revolt against his brother, Ashurbanipal. He led a powerful coalition of peoples also resentful of Assyrian subjugation and rule, including Elam, thePersians,Medes, the Babylonians, Chaldeans and Suteans of southern Mesopotamia, the Arameans of the Levant and southwest Mesopotamia, theArabs andDilmunites of the Arabian Peninsula and the Canaanites-Phoenicians. After a bitter struggle Babylon was sacked and its allies vanquished, Shamash-shum-ukim being killed in the process. Elam was destroyed once and for all, and the Babylonians, Persians, Chaldeans, Arabs, Medes, Elamites, Arameans, Suteans and Canaanites were violently subjugated, with Assyrian troops exacting savage revenge on the rebelling peoples. An Assyrian governor namedKandalanu was placed on the throne to rule on behalf of the Assyrian king.[17] Upon Ashurbanipal's death in 627 BC, his sonAshur-etil-ilani (627–623 BC) became ruler of Babylon and Assyria.
However, Assyria soon descended into a series of brutal internal civil wars which were to cause its downfall. Ashur-etil-ilani was deposed by one of his own generals, namedSin-shumu-lishir in 623 BC, who also set himself up as king in Babylon. After only one year on the throne amidst continual civil war,Sinsharishkun (622–612 BC) 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 underNabopolassar, a previously unknownmalka (chieftain) of the Chaldeans, who had settled in southeastern Mesopotamia by c. 850 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 significantly for the Assyrians; the Babylonians, Chaldeans,Medes,Persians,Scythians, Arameans andCimmerians.
TheNeo-Babylonian EmpirePanorama view of the reconstructed Southern Palace of Nebuchadnezzar II, 6th century BC, Babylon, Iraq
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 beleaguered Assyrian king.[17] Nabopolassar was unable to utterly secure Babylonia, and for the next four years he was forced to contend with an occupying Assyrian army encamped in Babylonia trying to unseat him. However, the Assyrian king, Sin-shar-ishkun was plagued by constant revolts among his people inNineveh, and was thus prevented from ejecting Nabopolassar.
The stalemate ended in 615 BC, when Nabopolassar entered the Babylonians and Chaldeans into alliance withCyaxares, an erstwhile vassal of Assyria, and king of theIranian peoples; theMedes,Persians,Sagartians andParthians. Cyaxares had also taken advantage of the Assyrian destruction of the formerly regionally dominant pre-Iranian Elamite andMannean nations and the subsequent anarchy in Assyria to free theIranic peoples from three centuries of the Assyrian yoke and regional Elamite domination. TheScythians from north of theCaucasus, and theCimmerians from theBlack Sea who had both also been subjugated by Assyria, joined the alliance, as did regional Aramean tribes.
In 615 BC, while the Assyrian king was fully occupied fighting rebels in both Babylonia and Assyria itself, Cyaxares launched a surprise attack on the Assyrian heartlands, sacking the cities ofKalhu (the BiblicalCalah,Nimrud) andArrapkha (modernKirkuk), Nabopolassar was still pinned down in southern Mesopotamia and thus not involved in this breakthrough.
From this point on the coalition of Babylonians, Chaldeans, Medes, Persians, Scythians, Cimmerians and Sagartians fought in unison against a civil war ravaged Assyria. Major Assyrian cities such as Ashur, Arbela (modernIrbil),Guzana,Dur Sharrukin (modernKhorsabad),Imgur-Enlil,Nibarti-Ashur,Gasur,Kanesh,Kar Ashurnasipal andTushhan fell to the alliance during 614 BC. Sin-shar-ishkun somehow managed to rally against the odds during 613 BC, and drove back the combined forces ranged against him.
The alliance launched a renewed combined attack the following year, and after five years of fierce fightingNineveh was sacked in late 612 BC after a prolonged siege, in which Sin-shar-ishkun was killed defending his capital.
House to house fighting continued in Nineveh, and an Assyrian general and member of the royal household, took the throne asAshur-uballit II (612–605 BC). He was offered the chance of accepting a position of vassalage by the leaders of the alliance according to theBabylonian Chronicle. He refused and managed to successfully fight his way out of Nineveh and to the northern Assyrian city ofHarran inUpper Mesopotamia where he founded a new capital. The fighting continued, as the Assyrian king held out against the alliance until 607 BC, when he was eventually ejected by the Medes, Babylonians, Scythians and their allies, and prevented in an attempt to regain the city the same year.
Stele ofNabonidus exhibited in the British Museum. The king is shown praying to theMoon, theSun andVenus and is depicted as being the closest to the Moon.
TheEgyptian PharaohNecho II, whose dynasty had been installed as vassals of Assyria in 671 BC, belatedly tried to aid Egypt's former Assyrian masters, possibly out of fear that Egypt would be next to succumb to the new powers without Assyria to protect them, having already been ravaged by theScythians. The Assyrians fought on with Egyptian aid until what was probably a final decisive victory was achieved against them atCarchemish in northwestern Assyria in 605 BC. The seat of empire was thus transferred to Babylonia[33] for the first time since Hammurabi over a thousand years before.
Nabopolassar was followed by his sonNebuchadnezzar II (605–562 BC), whose reign of 43 years made Babylon once more the ruler of much of the civilized world, taking over portions of the former Assyrian Empire, with the eastern and northeastern portion being taken by the Medes and the far north by theScythians.[33]
Nebuchadnezzar II may have also had to contend with remnants of the Assyrian resistance. Some sections of the Assyrian army and administration may have still continued in and aroundDur-Katlimmu in northwest Assyria for a time, however, by 599 BC Assyrian imperial records from this region also fell silent. The fate of Ashur-uballit II remains unknown, and he may have been killed attempting to regain Harran, at Carchemish, or continued to fight on, eventually disappearing into obscurity.
TheScythians andCimmerians, erstwhile allies of Babylonia under Nabopolassar, now became a threat, and Nebuchadnezzar II was forced to march into Anatolia and rout their forces, ending the northern threat to his Empire.
The Egyptians attempted to remain in the Near East, possibly in an effort to aid in restoring Assyria as a secure buffer against Babylonia and the Medes and Persians, or to carve out an empire of their own. Nebuchadnezzar II campaigned against the Egyptians and drove them back over theSinai. However, an attempt to take Egypt itself as his Assyrian predecessors had succeeded in doing failed, mainly due to a series of rebellions from theIsraelites ofJudah and the former kingdom ofEphraim, thePhoenicians ofCaanan and theArameans of the Levant. The Babylonian king crushed these rebellions, deposedJehoiakim, the king ofJudah, anddeported a sizeable part of the population to Babylonia. Cities likeTyre,Sidon andDamascus were also subjugated. TheArabs and other South Arabian peoples 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 PharaohAmasis, and briefly invadedEgypt 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 fabledHanging Gardens of Babylon.[34]
Eurasia around 600 BC, showingNeo-Babylonian Empire (Chaldean Empire) and its neighbors
Amel-Marduk succeeded to the throne and reigned for only two years. Little contemporary record of his rule survives, thoughBerosus later stated that he was deposed and murdered in 560 BC by his successorNeriglissar 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 sonLabashi-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 theAssyrian priestessAdda-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 regentBelshazzar) was, at least from the mother's side, neither Chaldean nor Babylonian, but ironically Assyrian, hailing from its final capital ofHarran (Kharranu). His father's origins remain unknown. Information regarding Nabonidus is chiefly 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-godSin at Harran; as well as by a proclamation of Cyrus issued shortly after his formal recognition as king of Babylonia.[33]
A number of factors arose which would ultimately lead to the fall of Babylon. The population of Babylonia became restive and increasingly disaffected under Nabonidus. He excited a strong feeling against himself by attempting to centralize the polytheistic 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 on account of his antiquarian tastes. He seemed to have left the defense of his kingdom to his sonBelshazzar (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.[33] 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 and Mesopotamia dominant, Babylonia was exposed.
It was in the sixth year of Nabonidus (549 BC) thatCyrus the Great, the Achaemenid Persian "king ofAnshan" in Elam, revolted against his suzerainAstyages, "king of the Manda" or Medes, atEcbatana. 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.[35] 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 sonBelshazzar (Belsharutsur) in command of the army.
In 539 BC Cyrus invaded Babylonia. A battle was fought atOpis in the month of June, where the Babylonians were defeated; and immediately afterwards Sippar surrendered to the invader. Nabonidus fled to Babylon, where he was pursued byGobryas, and on the 16th day ofTammuz, two days after the capture of Sippar, "the soldiers of Cyrus entered Babylon without fighting". Nabonidus was dragged from his hiding place, where the services continued without interruption. Cyrus did not arrive until the 3rd ofMarchesvan (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' sonCambyses accompanied the corpse to the tomb.[36]
One of the first acts of Cyrus accordingly was to allow theJewish exiles to return to their own homes, carrying with them their sacred temple vessels. The permission to do so was embodied in a proclamation, whereby the conqueror endeavored to justify his claim to the Babylonian throne.[36]
Cyrus now claimed to be the legitimate successor of the ancient Babylonian kings and the avenger ofBel-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.[36]
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 even before this (for example, Nabopolassar, Nebuchadnezzar II and their successors always referred to themselves asShar Akkad and never asShar Kaldu on inscriptions), and during the PersianAchaemenid Empire the termChaldean ceased to refer to a race of people, and instead specifically to a social class of priests educated in classical Babylonian literature, particularly Astronomy and Astrology. By the midSeleucid Empire (312–150 BC) period this term too had fallen from use.
A year before Cyrus' death, in 529 BC, he elevated his sonCambyses II in the government, making him king of Babylon. He reserved for himself the fuller title of "king of the (other) provinces" of the empire. It was only whenDarius I acquired the Persian throne and ruled it as a representative of theZoroastrian religion that the old tradition was broken and the claim of Babylon to confer legitimacy on the rulers ofWest Asia ceased to be acknowledged.[36]
Immediately after Darius seized Persia, Babylonia briefly recovered its independence under a native ruler, Nidinta-Bel, who took the name ofNebuchadnezzar 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 theUrartian kingNebuchadnezzar IV; on this occasion, after its capture by the Persians, the walls were partly destroyed. TheEsagila, the great temple ofMarduk, however, still continued to be kept in repair and to be a center of Babylonian religious feelings.[36]
Alexander the Great conquered Babylon in 333 BC for theMacedonians, and died there in 323 BC. Babylonia and Assyria then became part of the GreekSeleucid Empire.[citation needed] It has long been maintained that the foundation ofSeleucia diverted the population to the new capital ofLower Mesopotamia and that the ruins of the old city became a quarry for the builders of the new seat of government,[36] but the recent publication of theBabylonian Chronicles has shown that urban life was still very much the same well into theParthian Empire (150 BC to 226 AD). The Parthian kingMithridates conquered the region into the Parthian Empire in 150 BC, and the region became something of a battleground between Greeks and Parthians.
There was a brief interlude ofRoman conquest (the provinces ofAssyria andMesopotamia; 116–118 AD) underTrajan, after which the Parthians reasserted control.
Bronze Age to Early Iron Age Mesopotamian culture is sometimes summarized as "Assyro-Babylonian", because of the close ethnic, linguistic and cultural interdependence of the two political centers. The term "Babylonia", especially in writings from around the early 20th century, was formerly used to also include Southern Mesopotamia's earliestpre-Babylonian 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 termSumer orSumero-Akkadian in more recent writing, referring to the pre-Assyro-Babylonian Mesopotamian civilization.
In Babylonia, an abundance ofclay, and lack ofstone, led to greater use ofmudbrick; Babylonian, Sumerian and Assyrian temples were massive structures of crude brick which were supported bybuttresses, the rain being carried off by drains. One such drain atUr was made oflead. The use of brick led to the early development of thepilaster and column, and offrescoes and enameled tiles. The walls were brilliantly coloured, and sometimes plated withzinc orgold, as well as withtiles. Paintedterracotta cones for torches were also embedded in the plaster. In Babylonia, in place of therelief, there was greater use of three-dimensional figures—the earliest examples being theStatues 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 gem-cutting.[38]
Tablets dating back to theOld 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 ofcuneiform script tablets known as the 'Enūma Anu Enlil'. The oldest significant astronomical text that we possess is Tablet 63 of 'Enūma Anu Enlil', the Venus tablet ofAmmi-Saduqa, which lists the first 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 rectangularastrolabe dates back to Babyloniac. 1100 BC. TheMUL.APIN, contains catalogues of stars and constellations as well as schemes for predictingheliacal risings and the settings of the planets, lengths of daylight measured by awater clock,gnomon, shadows, andintercalations. 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 differences.[39][40][41]
Medical recipe concerning poisoning. Terracotta tablet, from Nippur, Iraq, 18th century BC. Ancient Orient Museum, Istanbul
We find [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. ...
The oldest Babylonian (i.e., Akkadian) texts onmedicine date back to theFirst Babylonian dynasty in the first half of the2nd millennium BC[43] although the earliest medical prescriptions appear in Sumerian during the Third Dynasty of Ur period.[44] The most extensive Babylonian medical text, however, is theDiagnostic Handbook written by theummânū, or chief scholar,Esagil-kin-apli ofBorsippa,[45] during the reign of the Babylonian kingAdad-apla-iddina (1069–1046 BC).[46]
The symptoms and diseases of a patient were treated through therapeutic means such asbandages,creams andpills. If a patient could not be cured physically, the Babylonian physicians often relied onexorcism to cleanse the patient from anycurses. Esagil-kin-apli'sDiagnostic Handbook was based on a logical set ofaxioms 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'sdisease, its aetiology and future development, and the chances of the patient's recovery.[45]
Esagil-kin-apli discovered a variety of illnesses and diseases and described their symptoms in hisDiagnostic Handbook. These include the symptoms for many varieties ofepilepsy and related ailments along with their diagnosis and prognosis.[48] Later Babylonian medicine resembles earlyGreek medicine in many ways. In particular, the early treatises of theHippocratic Corpus show the influence of late Babylonian medicine in terms of both content and form.[49]
There were libraries and temples in most towns; 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,[50][51] and in Semitic times, this involved knowledge of the extinct Sumerian language, and a complicated and extensivesyllabary.[50]
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.[50]
There are many Babylonian literary works whose titles have come down to us. One of the most famous of these was theEpic of Gilgamesh, in twelve books, translated from the original Sumerian by a certainSin-liqi-unninni, and arranged upon an astronomical principle. Each division contains the story of a single adventure in the career ofGilgamesh. The whole story is a composite product, and it is probable that some of the stories are artificially attached to the central figure.[50]
Among the sciences,astronomy andastrology still occupied a conspicuous place in Babylonian society. Astronomy was of old standing in Babylonia. Thezodiac was a Babylonian invention of great antiquity; andeclipses of thesun andmoon could be foretold.[50] There are dozens of cuneiform records of original Mesopotamian eclipse observations.
During the 8th and 7th centuries BC, Babylonian astronomers developed a new approach to astronomy. They began studyingphilosophy dealing with the ideal nature of the earlyuniverse and began employing aninternal logic within their predictive planetary systems. This was an important contribution to astronomy and thephilosophy of science and some scholars have thus referred to this new approach as the first scientific revolution.[53] This new approach to astronomy was adopted and further developed in Greek and Hellenistic astronomy.
InSeleucid and Parthian times, the astronomical reports were of a thoroughly scientific character;[50] 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 thehistory of astronomy.
The only Babylonian astronomer known to have supported aheliocentric model of planetary motion wasSeleucus of Seleucia (b. 190 BC).[54][55][56] Seleucus is known from the writings ofPlutarch. He supported the heliocentric theory where theEarth rotated around its own axis which in turn revolved around theSun. According toPlutarch, Seleucus even proved the heliocentric system, but it is not known what arguments he used.
Babylonian mathematical texts are plentiful and well edited.[52] In respect of time they fall in two distinct groups: one from theFirst Babylonian dynasty period (1830–1531 BC), the other mainlySeleucid from the last three or four centuries BC. In respect of content there is scarcely any difference 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.[dubious –discuss][52]
The Babylonian system of mathematics wassexagesimal, or a base 60numeral system. From this we derive the modern-day usage of 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, and 360 (60 × 6) degrees in a circle. The Babylonians were able to make great advances in mathematics for two reasons. First, the number 60 has manydivisors (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 = 7×100 + 3×10 + 4×1). Among the Babylonians' mathematical accomplishments were the determination of thesquare root of two correctly to seven places (YBC 7289). They also demonstrated knowledge of thePythagorean theorem well before Pythagoras.
Thener of 600 and thesar of 3600 were formed from the unit of 60, corresponding with a degree of theequator. Tablets of squares and cubes, calculated from 1 to 60, have been found atSenkera, and a people acquainted with the sun-dial, the clepsydra, the lever and the pulley, must have had no mean knowledge of mechanics. Acrystal lens, turned on thelathe, was discovered byAusten Henry Layard atNimrud 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 heavens.[57]
The Babylonians might have been familiar with the general rules for measuring area. They are also known for the Babylonian mile, which was a measure of distance equal to about 11 kilometres (7 mi) 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) The Babylonians used also space time graphs to calculate the velocity of Jupiter. This is an idea that is considered highly modern, traced to the 14th century England and France and anticipating integral calculus.[58]
Babylonia, and particularly its capital city Babylon, has long held a place in theAbrahamic religions as a symbol of excess and dissolute power. Many references are made to Babylon in theBible, both literally (historical) and allegorically. The mentions in theTanakh tend to be historical or prophetic, whileNew Testament apocalyptic references to theWhore of Babylon are more likely figurative, or cryptic references possibly to pagan Rome, or some other archetype. The legendaryHanging Gardens of Babylon and theTower of Babel are seen as symbols of luxurious and arrogant power respectively.
^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]Archived 2013-04-29 at theWayback Machine
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