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Encyclopedia of the Ancient World Babylonia Date: 1900-1500 b.c.e. Locale: The Fertile Crescent, the region between the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers, in southeastern Mesopotamia Significance Babylonia was the site of an empire that developed a formal law code, made strides in medicine and mathematics, and used a system of writing that produced an epic poem. Babylonia covers the stretch of land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, both of which originate in the Armenian highlands and flow into the Persian Gulf. In early times, the southern section of Babylonia was known as Sumer and the northern section as Akkad. Following the unification of Sumer and Akkad by Amorite kings who set up their capital at Babylon in the late eighteenth century b.c.e., the entire region of the Euphrates Valley came to be called Babylonia. History The earliest human occupation of the area seems to have occurred in Sumer, perhaps around 5000 b.c.e. The region, inhabited by people who may have been the ancestors of the Sumerians, exhibited the characteristic features of Mesopotamian civilizations—cities, temples, a rudimentary system of writing, and metalwork—during the Protoliterate Era (c. 3500-3100 b.c.e.). The Early Dynastic Period, the first civilized era, began in 3100 b.c.e. under the Sumerians, who remained dominant in the region to about 2350 b.c.e. During the period of Sumerian hegemony, Babylonia consisted of independent city-states ruled by kings who often fought one another over land and water rights. Over time, the victors began to incorporate the territories of the conquered enemy into their own. In about 2334 b.c.e., a Semitic conqueror from the north called Sargon created a full-fledged empire and established his capital in the northern city of Akkad. The region of Babylonia came to be known as Akkad, the seat of the Sargonid Empire until about 2200 b.c.e. Though Sargon of Akkad set up inscriptions in Sumerian and in Old Akkadian (his native tongue) boasting of imperial conquests of the outlying territories, nothing is known definitely about his achievements that earned him the sobriquet of “True King.” About 2100 b.c.e., a Sumerian revival occurred under the leadership of the kings of the Third Ur Dynasty who came from a mixed race of Sumerians and Semites. In the reign of the monarch Ur-Namma (r. c. 2112-2095 b.c.e.), Sumer-Akkad extended its sway over the Assyrians of the upper Euphrates region, the Elamites, and some cities on the middle Euphrates. Ur-Namma is known as the promulgator of a law code, perhaps the earliest of its kind in the world. About 2000 b.c.e., the Third Ur Dynasty collapsed under attacks from two directions: the Elamites from the east and the Amorites from the west. The Elamites sacked Ur, and the Amorites occupied Babylonia, conquering most of Mesopotamia by 1900 b.c.e. After a period of disunity during which the lower Euphrates Valley was divided into three kingdoms—the Amorite in the north, the Elamite in the south, and a middle kingdom called Isin and ruled by a semi-Sumerian government—the Amorites, led by their sixth king in Babylon, Hammurabi (r. 1792-1750 b.c.e.), unified lower Mesopotamia by subduing Isin and wresting the city of Larsa from the Elamites. Under the Amorites, Babylonia became a great empire, and its capital city Babylon became a political and commercial center. Hammurabi created a code of law and encouraged science and learning. Following Hammurabi’s long reign, Babylonia lost its political momentum, and the empire disintegrated. The Old Babylonian kingdom could neither master the techniques of imperial government nor protect itself from the geographical hazards of the region—its openness. The city-state of Mari on the middle Euphrates seceded twenty years after Hammurabi’s death. A series of political disturbances to the south of Babylon, including a revolt in Larsa, resulted eventually (about eighty years later) in the loss of direct control of the profitable gulf trade and some of the rich areas in the extreme south, in particular the date-groves and the fishing areas of the marshes, with the establishment of the Sealand Dynasty. Meanwhile, Indo-European-speaking tribes, which had long ago left their homes in north-central Europe, were now invading the area. However, Babylonia maintained its political entity until its sacking in 1595 b.c.e. by Mursilis I, the king of the Hittites. In about 1550 b.c.e., the Kassites from the Armenian mountains established themselves in Babylonia and ruled the land until about 1200 b.c.e. By this time, however, the center of political gravity had shifted to the north, where the Hittites and the Assyrians were to develop a powerful empire. Government and Law. The Sumerian kings (lugal) ruled through the ensi, the city-prince or the governor, assisted by the assembly of elders (ukkin). From the Third Ur Dynasty, the city-princes suffered a decline and were finally eliminated by Hammurabi. The kings exercised a sort of patriarchal despotism, dispensing justice and protecting the weak and the meek. Hammurabi prohibited the Babylonian practice of cultic divination of the king. His successors, however, continued to refer to him as “Hammurabi-ili” (“Hammurabi is my god”). In the third millennium b.c.e., the administration of state and temple probably coincided. Although officeholders with numerous titles existed, it is hard to define their functions precisely. Higher or lower state officials were often called on to oversee public works or to serve as officers and soldiers in times of war. The earliest Sumerian documents refer to the sukal or sukkallu, who often functioned as ministers but also as lower-ranking officers. As administrative officials of all ranks and types had to learn the art of writing, they were often simply referred to as dubsar, or scribe. Hammurabi’s surviving correspondence shows his unremitting zeal in supervising the bureaucracy and its various activities, including maintaining canals, defending the land, and dispensing justice. Most famous of all is Hammurabi’s law code carved on a basalt stele 7.3 feet (2.25 meters) high. Its 282 sections represent the king’s idea of justice and punishment for crimes. War and Weapons. The Sumerians used the phalanx for hand-to-hand combat. The Akkadians preferred a well-organized battle rank called sidru. About fifty-four hundred men were in perennial service to the king, and they often served as cadres for the formation of larger units. The infantry consisted of lancers, shield bearers, and archers and formed the core of the armies, which often included engineers for constructing roads and bridges. Chariots drawn by onagers (Asian wild asses) were used in battle. Siege warfare developed early on as a special category of warfare. Society Hammurabi’s laws distinguished three social groups: awilum (“man,” or a free citizen), muskenum (“dependent,” a royal retainer or a palace dependent), and wardum (“slave”). However, no hierarchical relation between awilum and muskenum could be inferred. The law viewed women essentially as property in regard to marriage rights. However, Hammurabi’s code refers to the daughters of high-ranking officials, the naditu of the city of Sipar, who were dedicated to the god Shamash, lived with their servants in the cloister, invested their dowry in profitable businesses, and could will their wealth to their preferred successors. Economy The government-sponsored canals expanded the amount of arable land. Ancient documents describe many small plots of land owned and worked by families or individuals. As time passed, the plots tended to be concentrated in large estates owned by nobles and palace officials. The small landholders were gradually crowded out, and many of them ended up as renters and sharecroppers on lands their forebears had once owned. Trade was controlled by individuals, families, and partnerships. Prosperous merchants with large amounts of capital became moneylenders (tamkarum) and collected interest on their loans. Hammurabi’s code regulated economic and business matters such as contracts, irrigation procedures, debts, and maximum wages. The wealthy merchants financed other traders, whom they supplied with silver or trade goods and with whom they shared the profits of a trading venture. By the middle of the Old Babylonian period, the traders in the big cities of Babylonia formed loose corporations supervised by the central government. Medicine and Mathematics The oldest medical text in Babylonia is a Third Ur Dynasty pharmacopoeia, written in Sumerian. It contains a dozen medical prescriptions that reveal a familiarity with elaborate chemical operations and procedures. The Babylonians attributed numerous diseases to evil powers, and numerous medical texts describe treatment by the exorcists (ashipu). Babylonian mathematics was based on the Sumerian sexagesimal system of notation. During the Old Babylonian period, a complex mathematical system developed, and many texts describe various algebraic operations and provide tables for multiplying and dividing and for calculating squares and square roots, cubes and cube roots, reciprocals, and exponential functions. Religion The Sumerians worshiped numerous deities, including craft gods, local civic gods, and gods with various specialized functions, although apparently a core of major deities were recognized as national gods throughout the region. The city of Nippur, located near the borders of Sumer and Akkad, was the great religious center for Babylonia. There the chief deity was Enlil, the creator of heaven and earth and the god who directed the activities of the other gods. Major Sumerian deities were connected with astral bodies, something that may have prompted the study of both astronomy and astrology. Samash, the Sun god, was the source of law and Sin or Nanna, the Moon goddess, of wisdom and astronomy. Anu, the sky god, was once the chief deity at Uruk; he later shed some of his attributes, which were taken over by his son Enlil and subsequently by Marduk. Other gods included a god of earth and the underworld ocean, Enki (or Ea), and a god of pestilence, Nergal. Innana (later called Ishtar) was the goddess of love, war, and fertility, and her consort was a young god called Tammuz (or Dumuzi), who died in summer and was reborn with the autumn rains. The gods were visualized in human shape and were represented in statues. In some temples (ziggurats), statues of rulers shared the sanctum with those of gods. Architecture and Sculpture Lacking ready sources of wood and stone, the Babylonians used sun-dried bricks for building homes and temples. Temples were built on high platforms because of the dangers from the ubiquitous and uncontrollable floods. Painted stucco and colored glazed bricks were used for architectural decoration. Lack of stone also affected Sumerian sculpture, which could never compare with the massive creations of the Egyptians. Nevertheless, Babylonian craftspeople achieved excellence in metal and clay works. The remains of the royal graves from the First Dynasty of Ur, dating from 2500 b.c.e., provide eloquent testimony to Sumerian craftsmanship in gold, silver, bronze, and lapis lazuli. Myths Sumerian priests wrote myths to explain how things came to be and why things are as they are. Among these myths were a creation story, a story of Innana’s stealing civilization from Enki and bringing it to humans, and a flood story, the enuma elish (“when on high”), that may have influenced the one in the Old Testament. Writing System and Literature Writing in Babylonia was done in wedge-shaped (cuneiform) characters etched on clay tablets by a stylus with a triangular-shaped point. In the Old Babylonian period, Sumerian dialogical and didactic texts (adaman-dug-ga, or “man against man”) were used as school texts. Didactic literature developed during the second millennium b.c.e. as a result of rising concern with moral and ethical problems. A little later, philosophical literature developed, emphasizing the assumption that the universe was ruled by the gods, who punished those who neglected them and rewarded those who served them dutifully. The theme of the righteous sufferer who could never distinguish between good and bad because of the remoteness of the gods was reflected in a class of writings known ludlul bel nemeqi (“I will praise the lord of wisdom”). The Babylonians looked for no rewards in the afterlife and longed for immortality. This theme is expressed in the Gilgamesh epic, one of the great achievements of the Old Babylonian period. In later ages, the grace and magnitude of this epic, based on the ancient Sumerian ballads, earned it a favorable comparison with Homer’s Iliad (c. 800 b.c.e.; English translation, 1616) and Odyssey (c. 800 b.c.e.; English translation, 1616). Current Views After the pioneering researches of Heinrich Zimmern, Bruno Meissner, François Thureau-Dangin, and James Pritchard, specialists have come a long way in modifying much of the thinking about Babylon, thanks in part to the field activities of the State Organization of Antiquities and Heritage at Babylon and of the archaeologists from many countries now working in Iraq. The proliferation of research makes it increasingly difficult to write a general commentary on the history and culture of Babylonia. Additional Resources Kuhrt, Amelie. The Ancient Near East, c. 3000-330 b.c. 2 vols. London: Routledge, 1995. Oates, Joan. Babylon. Rev. ed. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1986. Pritchard, James B., ed. The Ancient Near East: An Anthology in Texts and Pictures. Translated by William F. Albright. 2 vols. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1973. Saggs, H. W. F. Babylonians. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000. Snell, Daniel C. Life in the Ancient Near East 3100-332 b.c.e. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1997. Starr, Chester G. A History of the Ancient World. 4th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991. Von Soden, Wolfram. The Ancient Orient: An Introduction to the Study of the Ancient Near East. Translated by Donald G. Schley. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1994. See Also Akkadian Dynasty; Fertile Crescent; Gilgamesh epic; Hammurabi’s code; Hittites; Kassites; Sargon of Akkad; Sumerians; Ur-Namma. |
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