Babylon is Akkadian “babilani” which means “the Gate of God ( s ) ” and it became the capital of the land of Babylonia. The etymology of the name Babel in the Bible agencies “confused” ( Gen 11:9 ) and throughout the Bible. Babylon was a symbol of the confusion caused by atheism. The name Babylon is the Grecian signifier of the Hebrew name Babel.
The Early Growth of Babylon
There is grounds that adult male has lived in this country of Mesopotamia since the beginning of civilisation. The first records indicate that Babylon was established as a metropolis around the twenty-third century BC. Before this it was a provincial capital ruled by the male monarchs of the metropolis of Ur. Then came the migration of the Amorites.
Quick Overview of Babylonian History
Babylonia ( pronounced babilahnia ) was an ancient imperium that existed in the Near East in southern Mesopotamia between the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers. Throughout much of their history their chief challenger for domination were their neighbours. the Assyrians. It was the Babylonians. under King Nebuchadnezzar II. who destroyed Jerusalem. the capital of the Kingdom of Judah. and carried God’s compact people into imprisonment in 587 BC.
The Bible reveals much about the Babylonians all the manner back from the clip of Hammurapi ( 2000 BC ) to the autumn of Babylon ( about 500 BC ) . Throughout the Old Testament there are mentions to the Babylonians. their people. civilization. faith. military power. etc.
Babylonia was a long. narrow state about 40 stat mis broad at its widest point and holding an country of about 8. 000 square stat mis. It was bordered on the North by Assyria. on the E by Elam. on the South and West by the Arabian desert. and on the sou’-east by the Persian Gulf.
The earliest known dwellers of Mesopotamia were the Sumerians. whom the Bible refers to as the people of the “land of Shinar” ( Gen 10:10 ) . Sargon. from one of the Sumerian metropoliss. united the people of Babylonia under his regulation about 2300 B. C. Many bookmans believe that Sargon might hold been the same individual as Nimrod ( Gen 10:8 ) .
Artists Depiction of the Ziggurat at Ur
Around 2000 BC Hammurapi emerged as the swayer of Babylonia. He expanded the boundary lines of the Empire and organized its Torahs into a written system. besides known as the Code of Hammurapi. About this clip Abraham left Ur. an ancient metropolis located in lower Babylon. and moved to Haran. a metropolis in the North. Later. Abraham left Haran and migrated into the land of Canaan under God’s promise that he would go the male parent of a great state ( Gen 12 ) .
Alongside of Babylonia there must besides be a reference of Assyria. which bordered Babylonia on the North. Assyria’s development was frequently intertwined with the class of Babylonian history. About 1270 BC. the Assyrians overpowered Babylonia. For the following 700 old ages. Babylonia was a lesser power as the Assyrians dominated the ancient universe.
Around 626 BC. Babylonian independency was eventually won from Assyria by a leader named Nabopolassar. Under his leading. Babylonia once more became the dominant imperial power in the Near East and therefore entered into her “golden age. ” In 605 BC. Nebuchadnezzar II. the boy of Nabopolassar. became swayer and reigned for 44 old ages. Under him the Babylonian Empire reached its greatest strength. Using the hoarded wealths which he took from other states. Nebuchadnezzar built Babylon. the capital metropolis of Babylonia. into one of the taking metropoliss of the universe. The celebrated hanging gardens of Babylon were known to the Greeks as one of the seven admirations of the universe.
As antecedently mentioned. in 587 BC. the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and carried the taking citizens of the Kingdom of Judah as captives to Babylon. The Hebrew prophesier Jeremiah had foretold that the Jews would be free to return place to Jerusalem after 70 old ages. The Lord had encouraged His people through Ezekiel and Daniel who were besides captives in Babylon. During this 70 twelvemonth period of imprisonment. the Persians conquered Babylonia. and the Babylonians passed from the scene as a universe power.
Throughout the long period of Babylonia history. the Babylonians achieved a high degree of civilisation that made an impact on the whole known universe. Sumerian civilization was its footing. which subsequently Babylonians regarded as traditional. In the country of faith. the Sumerians already had a system of Gods. each with a chief temple in each metropolis. The main Gods were Anu. God of Eden ; Enlil. God of the air ; and Enki or Ea. God of the sea. Others were Shamash. the sungod ; Sin. the moon-god ; Ishtar. goddess of love and war ; and Adad. the storm-god. The Amorites promoted the God Marduk at the metropolis of Babylon. so that he became the main God of the Babylonian faith. get downing around 1100 BC.
Babylonian faith was temple-centered. with luxuriant festivals and many different types of priests. particularly the exorcist and the diviner. who chiefly were trained to drive away evil liquors.
Babylonian literature was chiefly dominated by mythology and fables. Among these was a creative activity myth written to laud their God Marduk. Harmonizing to this myth. Marduk created heaven and Earth from the cadaver of the goddess Tiamat. Another work was the Gilgamesh Epic. a flood narrative written about 2000 BC. Scientific literature of the Babylonians included treatises on uranology. mathematics. medical specialty. chemical science. vegetation. and nature. One of the chief facets of Babylonian civilization was a statute system of jurisprudence.
Hammurapi’s celebrated codification was the replacement of earlier aggregations of Torahs traveling back to about 2050 BC. The Babylonians used art for the national jubilation of great events and glory of the Gods. It was marked by conventionalized and symbolic representations. but it expressed pragmatism and spontaneousness in the word picture of animate beings. The Old Testament contains many mentions to Babylonia. Gen 10:10 references four Babylonian metropoliss. Babel ( Babylon ) . Erech ( Uruk ) . Accad ( Agade ) and Calneh. These. along with Assyria. were ruled by Nimrod.
Ancient Babylonia – Monarchy
The Babylonian political construction was a monarchy. The male monarch ruled through a figure of functionaries who were straight under and responsible to him but he could step in personally at any degree of authorities and disposal. Therefore Hammurapi ( 1792-1750 BC ) took a direct manus in covering with belongings claims in Larsa after he had captured that city state. The monarchy was familial and maleprimogeniture seems to hold been the steering rule. Babylonian historiographers designated a uninterrupted line of male monarchs a “dynasty” .
The male monarch was an absolute sovereign and in the really early period there were a few cheques to his authorization in that he had to esteem usage and tradition. private belongings. the esthesias of the Lords. faith and divination. The male monarch was the ultimate authorization in all countries except faith where he was capable to the dictates of the main God as represented by his head priest. Therefore in the New Year’s festival the king’s function included being slapped in the face by the main priest and pulled by the ears as a mark of his subservience to the God.
Ancient Babylonia – Communication. Roads and Scribes
Efficient disposal of the state depended upon good communications through a system of roads and relay Stationss for couriers. Written communications passed back and Forth in great figure and required a big organic structure of trained Scribes. Most people. including the male monarch and his functionaries. were illiterate so that they were to a great extent dependent upon the Scribes both to compose and construe their bids and studies in an appropriate mode. Many of these letters have been discovered in modern times and they provide a absorbing glance of the existent events and human relationships of the twenty-four hours. in contrast to the official versions found in royal letterings.
Ancient Babylonia – Nebuchadnezzar II
Nebuchadnezzar II marched back to Babylon and was crowned male monarch. which inaugurated one of the most powerful periods in Babylonian history. Nebuchadnezzar continued his superb runs concentrating his military manoeuvres on the West. which he efficaciously brought under his control. It was the land of Judah who had called upon Egypt to help them against the Babylonians. King Nebuchadnezzar continued his onslaughts and on his 2nd conquest the conquered Jerusalem in 586 BC taking the subsisters as captives back to Babylon.
This was known in Judaic history has “the Babylonian captivity”and “the exile” . After he destroyed Jerusalem. Nebuchadnezzar focused his onslaughts upon Egypt and he conquered it in 568 BC though there has been no elaborate history of this invasion of all time discovered. it remains a enormous success for the male monarch of Babylon and the first clip any Chaldean male monarch had of all time conquered Egypt.
After Nebuchadnezzar’s decease his replacements remained vague untilNabonidus ( 555-539 BC ) . the last of the dynasty. ascended the throne. Harmonizing to history Nabonidus. for some ground. lived throughout 10 of the 17 old ages that he ruled. at an Arab desert oasis called Tema. which was a huge distance from Babylon. In Babylon he left his boy Belshazzar. to govern on his behalf. Nabonidus and his female parent were from Harran and claimed to hold been a loyal topic to the last of the Assyrian male monarchs. Both he and his female parent were avid worshippers of the moon-god Sin. the custodial divinity of Harran. but when Nabonidus tried to advance this cult in Babylonia. the native priests. particularly those who followed Marduk. became angered. This spiritual contention split Babylonia in two. Some of this literary propaganda of the clip has been recovered.
Babylonian civilization flourished during the pax Assyriaca of the seventh century BC and once more under the Chaldean dynasty of the 6th century BC. Their god Nabu. boy of Marduk and God of authorship and acquisition became really popular throughout that period. The pattern of star divination permeated the Babylonian society to the point that there were every night watches by the astrologists throughout the land. Archeologists have late recovered monolithic elaborate records of the motions of celestial organic structures.
Literature was copied and studied and many new composings were created. In art and architecture the most impressive remains that have been unearthed by archaeologists are in Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon. The metropolis seemingly had non changed much when the Greek historianHerodotus wrote about it less than a century subsequently and called its Hanging Gardens one of the 7 admirations of the universe. In 539 BC Cyrus the Great of Persia conquered Babylon.
Ancient Babylonia – Houses and Farms
Around the temple were bunchs of houses made of sundried brickand inhabited by husbandmans and craftsmans. The populations of the Babylonian metropoliss can non be estimated with any sensible grade of truth. because the governments. so far as extant paperss reveal. took no nose count. The figure of dwellers of a metropolis likely ranged from 10. 000 to 50. 000. The metropolis streets were narrow. twist. and rather irregular. with high. windowless walls of houses on both sides.
The streets were unpaved and undrained. The mean house was a little. one-story. mud-brick construction. dwelling of several suites grouped around a tribunal. The house of a comfortable Babylonian. on the other manus. was likely a two-story brick home of about a twelve suites and was plastered and whitewashed both indoors and out.
The land floor consisted of a response room. kitchen. toilet. servants’ quarters. and. sometimes. even a private chapel. Furnitureconsisted of low tabular arraies. high-backed chairs. and beds with wooden frames. Family vass were made of clay. rock. Cu. and bronze. and baskets and thoraxs of reed and wood. Floors and walls were adorned with reed mats. tegument carpet. and woollen hangings.
Below the house was frequently located a mausoleum in which the household dead were buried. The Babylonians believed that the psyche of the dead traveled to the nether universe. and that. at least to some extent. life continued at that place every bit on Earth. For this ground. pots. tools. arms. and gems were buried with the dead.
Agribusiness formed the economic base of Babylonian civilisation with production of barley. wheat. fruits. veggies. with cowss and sheep predominating.
The chief harvest in the clip of the ancient Babylonians was barley. The husbandman would seed his seed with a tool known as a “seeder plough” The Big Dipper would make a furrow into which a seed would be dropped utilizing a funnel. A adult male would hold to walk beside the seeder Big Dipper and drop the seeds in at regular intervals. This would intend that all the seeds would be at precisely the right deepness.
It would hold taken considerable accomplishment to accomplish undertakings such as irrigationand the sifting. If the husbandman got the irrigation wrong he could deluge the field or allow it acquire excessively dry to let the workss to turn. Similarly if the husbandman did the sifting in excessively strong a air current the grain would besides blow off but if he did in excessively weak a air current there would be chaff and soil still assorted in. The husbandman would hold likely followed his male parent in his trade and would hold been taught by him. The husbandman would about surely have been “apprenticed” by his male parent.
Ancient Babylonia – Social Hierarchy
There were several degrees in the societal hierarchy with the male monarch at the top and the slaves at the underside. In between. in falling order. were the Lords. the free citizens and those in military and civil service. The category construction was by and large stiff although some mobility from one degree to another was possible. The debt slave had the possibility of paying his debts and recovering his freedom but the lone hope for the foreign prisoner was flight or decease.
Therefore in Babylonian society there were chiefly three categories in society. theawilu. a free individual of the upper category ; the wardu. or slave ; and themushkenu. a free individual of low estate. who ranked lawfully between the awilu and the wardu. Most slaves were captives of war. but some were recruited from the Babylonian people every bit good. For illustration. free individuals might be reduced to slavery as penalty for certain discourtesies ; parents could sell their kids as slaves in clip of demand ; or a adult male might even turn over his full household to creditors in payment of a debt. but for no longer than three old ages.
Ancient Babylonia – Schools
For the most portion the lone instruction that a immature Babylonian might hold received would hold been of a scribal type. Those who were sent to school to develop as a Scribe had to be kids of wealthy or influential parents. Boys were admitted and perchance misss every bit good. There is no uncertainty that rich adult females frequently had a batch of freedom and influence.
By the clip of Hammurapi ( 1792-60 ) the linguistic communication of Sumerian had been replaced by Akkadian as the normally spoken linguistic communication in Babylonia but Sumerian was still used for about all spiritual texts. It was hence necessary to develop pupils. non merely in the book. cuneiform. but in the linguistic communication every bit good.
The students’ instruction would get down when he was eight or nine old ages old. Each twenty-four hours he would acquire up at dawn and travel to school. which was normally known as the tablet house. At the tablet house there would be a adult male like a headmaster. His rubric literally meant “the Expert. ” There would be a figure of other instructors who would each specialise in a different facets of Sumerian and its authorship. To maintain order some of the senior pupils would be appointed as a assistant. A student’s work would dwell of copying tablets utilizing a slab of wet clay. Besides he would larn assorted texts by bosom. If he successfully passed an scrutiny the pupil became a Scribe.
Ancient Babylonia – Astronomy and the Calendar
The observations of the astrologists. which were meticulously recorded on a every night footing over many centuries. led to accurate anticipations of assorted astronomical phenomena and the right computation of the solar and lunar twelvemonth. The Babylonian calendar was based upon the lunar twelvemonth but. thanks to the astrologer’s cognition. could be reconciled with the solar twelvemonth by agencies of intercalary months.
We owe much of our calendar system to the Babylonians. They were likely the first people after the Sumerians to hold a calendar. This calendar was really of import because without it agribusiness could non be planned decently.
There were 12s lunar months in the twelvemonth but as the months were shorter than our months frequently an excess month would hold to be added. This was called the 2nd Elul. Each hebdomad was divided into seven yearss. The twenty-four hours was divided into six parts each of two hours continuance and incorporating 30 parts. The Babylonians measured clip with a H2O or Sun clock.
One can see from this that the Babylonian calendar has markedsimilarities with our ain: for case the 12 months in the twelvemonth and seven yearss in a hebdomad.
Ancient Babylonia – Medicine
Medicine was practiced by two sorts of experts: the doctor ( asu ) . and the exorcist ( dsipu ) . and the endowments of either or both might be demanded at the ill bed. There was a whole set of diagnostic texts in which a battalion of possible symptoms was listed and the diagnosing. forecast and intervention given. Surgery was known and even delicate operations on the oculus were performed. The Babylonians had a brilliant cognition of homo and animate being anatomy and physiology and were cognizant. for illustration. of the circulation of the blood and the pulsation.
Ancient Babylonia – Cuneiform
The book of the Sumerians and all the other dwellers of Mesopotamia employed to compose their linguistic communication. up to the first century BC was cuneiform. The name cuneiform comes from theLatin word “cuneus” . significance cuneus.
Harmonizing to Babylonian beliefs Nabu. the God of scribal humanistic disciplines. who was besides the metropolis God of Borsippa. gave cuneiform to them.
When the Akkadians. Semite encroachers from the desert. adopted the Sumerian civilisation and portion of the Sumerian Territory they besides adopted cuneiform. They adapted the book to suit their ain. The following moving ridge of Semite encroachers. the Amorites. did similarly. but they continued to talk the Akkadian lingua. Thus we find Hammurapi ( 1792-1760 BC ) who was an Amorite. talking Akkadian and composing cuneiform. Since the clip of Hammurapi. consecutive Mesopotamian empires controlled immense imperiums in the Near East. Because of this cuneiform. Akkadian became the tongue franca of the Near East. as Latin was of Medieval Europe. This of class ended when Mesopotamian civilisation declined so that cuneiform was no longer being used by about the first century BC.
When the Sumerians first brought cuneiform into being it was nil like the book that it was to go. It was an ideogramatical book ( a symbol represented by a word ) . For illustration a image of sheep would intend sheep. When the Sumerians came into contact with the Akkadians they needed to accommodate their book to suit. This was necessary even to compose Akkadian names. Obviously it was far more of import for the Akkadians because they needed to compose their linguistic communication in it. Cuneiform so underwent a transmutation. It became a syllogramatical book where each symbol represented a sound. Therefore the symbol for a word such as ‘dig’ . if we took an English equivalent would be right used in the 2nd syllable of ‘indignant’ . This transmutation enabled cuneiform to be used with other linguistic communications.
As cuneiform changed from an ideogramatical to a syllogramatical scriptits symbols were simplified. The original pictograms were complicated and difficult to compose on clay tablets. The symbols developed. losing many of their lines and the staying lines were cuneus shaped and straight.
Cuneiform was originally written with a reed or stick stylus but this was rapidly developed into a preciseness tool. We have derived virtually all our cognition of the Babylonians from texts written in cuneiform on clay tablets. From these tablets we have been able to larn their jurisprudence. concern. disposal. faith and all other facets of Babylonian civilisation. Without these texts we would cognize small about the Babylonians.
hypertext transfer protocol: //www. bible-history. com/babylonia/BabyloniaBabylonia00000023. htm
History OF THE HITTITES
The first Indo-germanic imperium: seventeenth century BC
A group of folks. talking Indo-germanic linguistic communications and jointly known as the Hittites. set up themselves as the dominant power in Anatolia. Their capital is at Bogazkoy. a dramatically fortified metropolis on a steep incline among ravines ; its walls and towers enclose no fewer than five great temples.
The priest-king who makes this topographic point his capital in the seventeenth century BC is Hattusilis I. He has aspirations for his people. Traveling south and east with his ground forces. he reaches the Mediterranean and continues into northern Syria.
Eager to give his imperium full certificates. Hattusilis brings back from Syria a squad of Scribes. expert in cuneiform. They adapt the cuneiform book to a new intent. the recording of an Indo-germanic linguistic communication. and they lay the foundation for an of import province archive at Bogazkoy.
When the clay tablets of this archive are discovered. in the twentieth century. they provide the footing for our cognition of the Hittites.
The thaumaturgy of Fe: from 1500 BC
The Hittites are the first people to work Fe. in Anatolia from about 1500 BC. In its simple signifier Fe is less difficult than bronze. and hence of less usage as a arm. but it seems to hold had an immediate entreaty – possibly as the latest accomplishment of engineering ( with the cryptic quality of being mutable. through warming and pound ) . or from a certain intrinsic thaumaturgy ( it is the metal in meteorites. which autumn from the sky ) .
Quite how much value is attached to press can be judged from a celebrated missive of about 1250 BC. written by a Hittite male monarch to attach to an Fe dagger-blade which he is directing to a fellow sovereign
The furthest extent of the imperium: 16th – 12th century BC
In approximately 1600 the Hittites range and destroy Babylon. before withdrawing once more to their Anatolian heartland. In the fourteenth century they march once more to set up an imperium which reaches into northern Syria. E of the Euphrates. and extends down the Mediterranean seashore to face the Egyptians. A hard-fought but inconclusive battle at Kadesh in 1275 stablizes the frontier between the two power axis.
It is followed some old ages subsequently by a pact and the matrimony of the girl of the Hittite male monarch ( Hattusilis III ) to the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses II. In the twelfth century the Hittite imperium all of a sudden collapses – overwhelmed. it is thought. by the attack of the Sea Peoples. These terrorizing interlopers are described in Egyptian histories as ramping down the seashore to endanger the frontiers of Egypt in about 1218 and once more in 1182 BC hypertext transfer protocol: //www. historyworld. net/wrldhis/plaintexthistories. asp? historyid=ab66 # ixzz2HIAKxOZL The Hittites were an Ancient Anatolian people who spoke a linguistic communication of the Anatolian subdivision of the Indo-germanic linguistic communication household and established a land centered at Hattusa in on the cardinal Anatolian tableland in the eighteenth century BC. The HittiteEmpire reached its tallness around 1285 BC. embracing a big portion of Anatolia. north-westernSyria about as far south as the oral cavity of the Litani River. and eastward into upper Mesopotamia. After ca. 1180 BC. the imperium disintegrated into several independent “Neo-Hittite” city states. some lasting until every bit late as the eighth century BC.
The term “Hittites” was taken from the King James interlingual rendition of the Hebrew Bible. interpreting ??? HTY. or ???-?? BNY-HT “Children of Heth” ( Heth is a boy of Canaan ) . The archeologists who discovered the Anatolian Hittites in the nineteenth century ab initio identified them with these Biblical Hittites. Today the designation of the Biblical peoples with either the Hattusa-based imperium or the Neo-Hittite lands is a affair of difference.
The Hittite land was normally called the Land of Hatti by the Hittites themselves. The fullest look is “The Land of the City of Hattusa. ” This description could be applied to either the full imperium. or more narrowly merely to the nucleus district. depending on context. The word “Hatti” is really an Akkadogram. instead than Hittite ; it is ne’er declined harmonizing to Hittite grammatical regulations. Despite the usage of “Hatti” . the Hittites should be distinguished from the Hattians. an earlier people who inhabited the same part until the beginning of the 2nd millenary BC. and spoke a non-Indo-European linguistic communication called Hattic.
The Hittites themselves referred to their linguistic communication as Nesili ( or in one instance. Kanesili ) . an adverbial signifier significance “in the mode of ( Ka ) nesa” . presumptively reflecting a high concentration of Hittite talkers in the ancient metropolis of Kanesh ( modern Kultepe. Turkey ) . Many modern metropolis names in Turkey are foremost recorded under their Hittite names. such as Sinop and Adana. reflecting the adjacency of modernAnatolia with its antediluvian yesteryear.
Although belonging to the Bronze Age. the Hittites were precursors of the Iron Age. developing the industry of Iron artefacts from every bit early as the fourteenth century BC. when letters to foreign swayers reveal the demand for their Fe goods. Recent diggings. nevertheless. have discovered grounds of Fe tool production dating back at least every bit far as the twentieth century BC. Hittite arms were made from Bronzethough ; Fe was so rare and cherished
