Ancient Babylonia

During its two thousand years of history Babylon was twice the capital of a great empire, famous for its magnificence. The Babylonians made great contributions to the intellectual and scientific development of humankind.

Compared to other major cities which have arisen in Mesopotamia such as Sumer and Akkad, Babylon emerged relatively late - in 23th century BC. It was not until 19th century BC that the city gained importance when a group of Semitic tribes, known as Amorites, conquered Sumer. Within a few years Babylon turned into the capital of a small kingdom, which gradually began to expand, culminating during the reign of Hammurabi (1792-1750 BC) as an empire controlling the entire southern Mesopotamia and Assyria located further to the north.

Babylon was at that time a wealthy city with well organized community, as evidenced by written gypsum plates found in Hammurabi's palace in Mari. Another proof of this is one of the oldest legal codes, issued by Hammurabi in the form of text engraved on stone slabs (stelae), placed throughout the empire. Even though Hammurabi's empire broke up soon after his death, Babylon retained its role of a major city in the region - its importance is reflected in that the entire southern Mesopotamia became commonly referred to as Babylonia. The city's status resulted from its wealth - its strategic location by the Euphrates river meant that it controlled the trade routes running through the area. In addition, Babylon was a religious and scientific center. After the conquest of Mesopotamia, the Babylonians and their northern neighbors from Assyria absorbed the culture of Sumer and Akkad, adopting the Akkadian language as well as Sumerian myths and religions. There were some modifications though - Hammurabi changed the official religious dogmas by promoting Marduk, a local deity of Babylon, to the role of the head of the Sumerian pantheon. His explanation of the move was simple - it was the will of deities belonging to the pantheon. Marduk's godly primacy gained common acceptance, thus making the wealthy Bablyon also a holy city.

Babylon enjoyed this position for a long time - until 12th century BC when the city was under control of Kassites and - politically speaking - its role got diminished. Under the rule of Nebuchadnezzar I (ca. 1124-1103 BC) and his successors Babylon was again the capital of an independent kingdom until the 10th century BC when the Assyrians captured Mesopotamia. For more than three centuries Babylon was ruled by the Assyrian rulers or governors. At the same time raids of nomadic Semitic peoples - Syrians and Chaldeans - intensified.

Owing to its reputation of a holy city, Babylon was treated relatively well by the Assyrians. In return, it assisted them in the efforts to fight against invaders. However, in 689 BC the Assyrian king Sennacherib, annoyed by continuing instability in the region, destroyed Babylon. The next king made efforts to make it up for the Babylonians, but they never forgave the sacrilege and switched sides, supporting enemies of the Assyrians ever since. Finally, under the command of the Chaldean king Nabopolassar II, Babylonians allied with peoples of Iranian origin - the Medes - defeated Assyria in late 7th century BC.

New Babylon

Nabopolassar's son, Nebuchadnezzar II (605 - 562 years BC), was one of the greatest conquerors in history. He created an empire stretching from Suez to Iran. He took away Syria and Palestine from Egypt, conquered the kingdom of Judah and destroyed Jerusalem. Just like the Assyrians, Nebuchadnezzar tried to subdue hostile nations using the policy of displacement. The most famous case - because it is described in the Bible – was the "Babylonian captivity" of the Jews.

Under the rule of Nebuchadnezzar Babylonia was at the peak of its power. Archaeologic findings for this period include the ruins of hanging gardens and a temple with an impressive tower which is believed have given rise to the famous biblical legend of the Tower of Babel.

At that time, Babylon was certainly the largest city in the world and for the next few centuries it met with universal admiration. In addition to maintaining the culture of Sumer, Babylonians made advances in mathematics and astronomy. This knowledge was later transferred to the Greeks, and through them – to modern science. Their sexagesimal system has survived to this day - we still divide one hour into 60 minutes, one minute into 60 seconds and the full angle into 360 degrees.

In 539 BC Babylon was conquered by the Persians under the command of Cyrus the Great. A legend has it that Cyrus was victorious because he changed the course of the Euphrates that flows through the city and then just walked his troops through the riverbed.

The abrupt fall of Babylon marks the end of the period when Mesopotamia was the cradle of great powers. Although reduced to a provincial city within the Persian empire, Babylon remained one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Alexander the Great intended to make it the capital of his empire, but he died before he managed to stabilize the situation in the country. When his successors in the Middle East - the Seleucids - built their capital upon the Tigris river, Babylon lost all its importance and eventually collapsed.

Important dates

• 1900 BC
  The Amorites conquer Sumer
• 1894 - 1595 BC
  Babylonian Empire (created by Hammurabi)
• ca. 1124 - 1103 BC
  Assyrian domination in Mesopotamia
• 626 BC
  Babylon occupied by Nabopolassar
• 612 BC
  Babylonians led by Nabopolassar and assisted by the Medes conquer Assyria
• 605 - 562 BC
  Nebuchadnezzar II establishes new Babylonian empire
• 587 BC
  Nebuchadnezzar destroys Jerusalem, Jewish exile begins
• 539 BC
  Persians conquer Babylon
• 323 BC
  Alexander the Great dies in Babylon
• ca. 300 BC
  Seleucids establish their capital on the Tigris River; Babylon's decline begins

First cities

The first major urban settlements arose in the Middle East - more specifically, in Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley. These regions became the cradle of a great civilization.

Cities could emerge only once people learned how to settle down and actually live in one place (which was not at all obvious thousands of years ago). The process started some 10,000-12,000 years ago over a large area of the Middle East stretching from present-day Turkey to Iran. The region's population were previously hunters and gatherers, but gradually they began to engage in farming and accumulate in small communities, keeping livestock and cultivating corn.

However, these settlements were not cities in the modern sense. A city is not only a settlement larger than a village - what sets it apart is that most of its inhabitants are involved in non-farming activities: they are artisans, merchants, priests, soldiers and officials. Thus, to make it possible for the cities to exist at all, farmers must be able to produce surplus crops to feed the people who are not involved in agricultural production and whose specific skills are necessary for the development of what we call civilization.

Large settlements emerged surprisingly early in human history. A city known from the Bible under the name of Jericho was continuously inhabited long before 8000 BC and Çatal Hiiyiik, an ancient settlement discovered in Turkey, flourished between circa 6500 BC and 5500 BC. Unfortunately our knowledge of these cities is limited because of sparse written records.

Sumer

Unlike in lands farther to the north, in Sumer there was no land readily available for cultivation. Fertile soil could yield good crops only after draining wetlands and careful irrigation. The creation and maintenance of the irrigation system needed a well-organized effort of the entire population. In Sumer, this quickly evolved into an efficient economic system that has brought prosperity. It would soon split into independent wall-protected city-states, among which were Ur, Uruk, Kish, Lagash and Nippur, each being the "capital" of their satellite settlements and villages.

There were few natural resources in Sumer. Shortage of wood and stone, too heavy to import them from far away in large volumes had an impact on housing - most of the houses were made of mud bricks, dried in the sun or fired in kilns. Considering limited durability of the material, it is surprising how many of these brittle structures actually survived. They are ziggurats - tall pyramids with steps on the walls that once led to the temple or shrine of some deity. Each city had its own god and was built around the dominant sacred building. Sumerian priests probably enjoyed significant power. It is also there that the oldest known forms of monarchy developed. In the city of Ur, during the reign of King Ur-Nammu, the first code of law was written down.

Other Sumerian contributions to the development of civilization were the invention of the first vehicles on wheels, pottery wheel, and - above all - writing itself. Starting from simple lists and picture writing, the Sumerians eventually came up with cuneiform - the disctinctive signs engraved with a special chisel in wet clay which was then dried, providing a relatively permanent record of information. The cuneiform record preserved the oldest works of world literature based on the myths and legends of the Sumerians.

Indus

The Sumerian civilization developed hundreds of years before the more widely known ancient Egypt. Prior to 2000 BC, except the Sumerians, there was only one more major civilization - the mysterious culture of cities in the Indus Valley (modern-day Pakistan) that existed around 2500 BC. Except the ruins of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa city-states, little has been left of these amazing early civilizations. Since the few remaining fragments of picture writing created there have not been deciphered, we do not know who were the ancients of the Indus Valley and how they managed to build these great cities.

They were built on a grid plan, with straight streets intersecting at right angles. Such technically advanced solution indicates that the construction must have been finished before the actual settlement began. They highly organized Indus Valley civilization collapsed around 1700 BC and it remains a mistery how or why this happened.

Sumer disappeared too. The city-states fought each other and this may have encouraged intruders to invade. The Sumerians repeatedly repelled the invaders and during the reign of the third dynasty of Ur founded by King Ur-Nammu the civilization enjoyed perhaps its most brilliant period. Unfortunately nothing lasts forever and around 1900 BC, the Sumerian state was conquered by the Amorites.

Important dates

• ca. 10000-3500 BC
  Neolithic: the beginnings of agriculture, domestication of animals, pottery
• ca. 8000 BC
  Establishment of a permanent settlement of Jericho on the east bank of the Jordan River (modern-day Israel/Palestine)
• ca. 6500-5500 BC
  Urban-like settlement in Çatal Hüyük
• ca. 3500 BC
  Bronze age: first settlements in Sumer
• ca. 2500 BC
  The first Sumerian dynasty of Ur - items found in royal tombs indicate high development of culture and wealth; the beginnings of civilization in the Indus Valley
• ca. 2350 BC
  Semites led by king Sargon of Akkad conquer Sumer
• ca. 2130 BC
  Sumer destroyed by Gutians
• ca. 2100 BC
  Establishment of the third dynasty of Ur
• ca. 1900 BC
  The Amorites conquer Sumer; Sumerian civilization absorbed by Babylon