Early civilizations babylonia map9/11/2023 ![]() That made it a prime spot for the Neolithic Revolution, also called the Agricultural Revolution, that began to take place almost 12,000 years ago. The regular flooding along the Tigris and the Euphrates made the land around them especially fertile and ideal for growing crops for food. The presence of those rivers had a lot to do with why Mesopotamia developed complex societies and innovations such as writing, elaborate architecture and government bureaucracies. Mesopotamia’s name comes from the ancient Greek word for “the land between the rivers.” That’s a reference to the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, the twin sources of water for a region that lies mostly within the borders of modern-day Iraq, but also included parts of Syria, Turkey and Iran. “We see the first cities, the first writing and first technologies originating in Mesopotamia,” says Kelly-Anne Diamond, a visiting assistant history professor at Villanova University, whose expertise includes ancient Near Eastern history and archaeology. All rights reserved.While human civilization developed in many places around the world, it first emerged thousands of years ago in the ancient Middle East. Copyright © 2023, Columbia University Press. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Saggs, Everyday Life in Babylonia and Assyria (1965, repr. Driver et al., The Babylonian Laws (1952–55) H. Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia (1926–27) G. Rogers, A History of Babylonia and Assyria (6th ed. Babylonia became an important region of the Persian Empire. The steady growth of Persian power spelled the end of Babylonia, and in 538 BC the last of the Babylonian rulers surrendered to Cyrus the Great (see also Belshazzar). The empire seemed secure, but it was actually transitory. Egypt had already been defeated by Nebuchadnezzar in the great battle of Carchemish (605) while Nabopolassar was still alive. The recalcitrant Hebrews were defeated and punished with the Babylonian captivity. Under his son, Nebuchadnezzar, the new empire reached its height (see Babylon). He established what is generally known as the Chaldaean or New Babylonian Empire. He allied himself with the Medes and Persians and helped to bring about the capture of Nineveh (612 BC) and the fall of the Assyrian Empire. It was the key area in the attempted uprising against the Assyrian king, Sennacherib, and Babylon was sacked (c.689 BC) in his reign.Īfter the death of Assurbanipal, the last great Assyrian monarch, Nabopolassar, the ruler of Babylonia, established (625 BC) his independence. As a subsidiary state of the Assyrian Empire (after the 9th cent. Babylonia degenerated into anarchy c.1180 BC with the fall of the Kassites. The nomadic Kassites (Cassites), a tribe from Elam, took the city shortly thereafter and held it precariously for centuries. BC the Hittites sacked Babylon and held it briefly. The wealth of Babylonia tempted nomadic and seminomadic neighbors even under Hammurabi's successor Babylonia was having to stave off assaults. All these Babylonian institutions influenced the civilization of Assyria and so contributed to the later history of the Middle East and of Western Europe. The Babylonian religion (see Middle Eastern religions) was inherited from the older Sumerian culture. The quasifeudal society was divided into classes-the wealthy landowners and merchants and the priests the less wealthy merchants, peasants, and artisans and the slaves. Babylonian cuneiform writing was derived from the Sumerians. Hammurabi, who had his capital at Babylon, issued the code of laws for the management of his large empire-for he was in control of most of the Tigris and Euphrates region even before he defeated the Elamites. The name is sometimes given to the whole civilization of S Mesopotamia, including the states established by the city rulers of Lagash, Akkad (or Agade), Uruk, and Ur in the 3d millennium BC Historically it is limited to the first dynasty of Babylon established by Hammurabi (c.1750 BC), and to the Neo-Babylonian period after the fall of the Assyrian Empire. Babylonia băbĭlō´nēə, ancient empire of Mesopotamia.
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