Have you ever pondered over the origins of daily things we do and have today? Ancient civilizations have the answers. Early lives carve a pathway to our future. One in particular holds key reasons of why things exist today, like for example, zodiac signs. The Babylonian culture is not just intriguing, but gives you that lightbulb moment that people seek. Babylonia is located in Mesopotamia, around 4000 B.C., now the Middle East. It was surrounded by the Tigris and Euphrates River, now present day Iraq. Babylonia was made up of barren plains, hot summers and springs, and cold, harsh winters. Babylonians, being corrupted by Sumer, are vastly inspired by the Sumerians. Early settlers irrigated the land along the banks of rivers in order for …show more content…
The people of Babylon were split up into three social groups: the Awilu, the Muskenu, and the Wardu. The Awilu were the first class, or highest class, and had more freedom, value, and were the richest of all the people. These people were the priests, and the King. The next class, or middle class, were the Muskenu. They were compared frequently against the Awilu in value, and didn’t have as many equal rights as the Awilu. These people were the Nobles, and people of low income, aka the merchants and scribes. Lastly are the Wardu, the lowest class. These people had no equal rights whatsoever, and consisted of slaves, and occasionally prisoners of war. Education was a big thing to Babylonians as well. Only boys, no girls, went to school to become a scribe. They could begin at about 8 years of age, and instead of writing in copybooks like we do today, they wrote on wet clay tablet. The Babylonian’s religion, based off of Sumerian beliefs, is Babylonian mythology. Mainly made up of worship of nature, such as the wind and water. Over time, the human form became associated with those forces, and Gods in human form were now seen to have control over nature. Religion was written on clay tabs inscribed with script derived from Sumerian Cuneiform. The Sumerian Cuneiform writing system writing began as …show more content…
Their inventions are even more significant to our lives today than any other. The Babylonians created an accurate calendar, the months written in Hebrew, invented by priests that became astronomers. Much similar to ours, it consists of 12 months. Another invention is that of place value and roman numerals. Their mathematics was based on a numeric system, which could be counted physically using the twelve knuckles on one hand the five fingers on the other hand. Another contribution is architecture. The Ishtar Gate was one of the major gates of Babylon, sort of like a pathway to a new land, or the entryway into a cathedral. The Etemenaki, or more famously, the Tower of Babel, famous from Book of Genesis, was a major building to Mesopotamia. Next, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon were tiered gardens containing shrubbery and various types of plants, about 320 feet high, built by King Neb. It represents sort of like a very flora-filled mountainside, when in reality is gorgeous pants running down the side of a large, descending building. Finally, the last architecture building, the Double Walls of Babylon, as I mentioned before. The double walls of Babylon surrounding the city were made of bricks dried in the sun, and laid in a type of cement with occasional layers of reeds between the courses. Externally it was protected by a deep moat. The last contributor is astronomy. Here is the talk of zodiac signs, again
Imagine a world without the wheel. Picture a world without math. Now, without knowing time. Well, these are some of the many contributions that the Mesopotamians made to society.
Mesopotamian society was stratified into classes and social differences. It was composed of nobles, free clients of the nobility, commoners and slaves. Slave women participated in the textile industry. Free women did exist, however, men dominated the women in Mesopotamia. The nobles consisted of the king, his family, the chief priests, and high palace officials. The king was a war leader elected by the citizens. He established an army and led it into battle. Kingship was hereditary. Commoners were free citizens.
There is a lot about Babylonian society that can be learned through reading the Code of Hammurabi. In the very least, the document itself and the materials used to produce it tell a lot about how advanced the empire was. In some cases, punishment was left to the gods to determine. The code is interpreted by beginning and ending addressing the gods . Law codes were regarded as a subject for prayer. However, to truly gain an understanding of Mesopotamia in the 17th Century BC, we should take a closer look at the penalties rather than the laws themselves.
They destroyed the Kassite in Akkad and Sumer. Not long after the Assyrians new capital Nineveh was built. It was very beautiful with a library, and a zoo. The water supply was poor. The Assyrians were very hated. The Medes took over Assyrian in 612 BCE and invades Anatolia. The Chaldeans (New Babylonians) became the new masters of Mesopotamia. Their greatest cultural accomplishments were in astronomy. They studied the sky because they believed gods lived there.
Much can be learned about Babylonian society through reading the Code of Hammurabi. At a very basic level, the document itself and the materials used to produce it tell a lot about how advanced the empire was.
Babylon was originally a small city by the name of "Semitic Akkadan" but was later founded around 2334 BCE by Sargon The Great who built temples during his reign from 2334-2279 BCE and gave it the name Babylon after the Akkadian language. The word Babylon meant 'Gate of Gods '. It was fertile land that was located right between the Euphrates and Tigris river. With Babylon being positioned right between two rivers it became a port town for the city-state. It was built on the Euphrates land but was split into two with steep embankments. The city was built with steep embankments because it was built to retain water from the rivers seasonal floods. Babylon was also a small kingdom opposed to larger neighboring kingdoms of Larsa, Assyria, Eshnunna,
It is obvious that there was a hierarchical system, meaning some members of the society were more important than others. The most elite members of society were the king and the nobles. Following the nobles were the commoners, who were most likely farmers, merchants, or artisans. It can be noted that common class farmers played a major role in Babylonian society because of how much of the laws relate to farming and agriculture. The lowest members were slaves, who were most likely criminals or prisoners of war (Judge and Langdon, 25). The way a person was legally treated depended on their social rank. Social classes can easily be distinguished from one another when examining the laws in the code that deal with punishments for crimes. For example, one law states that if a man kills a freeborn pregnant woman, his daughter must be killed in return. However, if the woman was a servant, he would only have to pay a fine (“The Code of Hammurabi”). This suggests that a servant’s life is not as important as a freed person’s life, thus establishing a social
Mesopotamia was the first primordial, and influential cradle of civilization. Nestled in the valleys of the vehement Tigris-Euphrates Rivers around the time of the Lower Paleolithic period
A consistent characteristic among the first civilizations was social stratification. In most of the first civilizations, social hierarchies included kings, the elites, the working class, and slaves. Social stratification was evident in the Mesopotamian and Egyptian societies based off of the documents from the Babylonian Empire, The Law Code of Hammurabi, and the Egyptian student text, Be a Scribe. In the document The Law Code of Hammurabi, soldiers, farmers, salves, and other jobs are mentioned (96-97). In the document Be a Scribe, farmers, cobblers, soldiers, and various other jobs are mentioned (100-101). It is significant that these jobs are mentioned in both documents because it illustrates the similarities in these civilization’s social hierarchies. But, the similarities in their social structures do not end there. Special treatment based off of social standing was a consistent factor in both of these civilizations as well. This is clearly exemplified in Mesopotamia with the harshness of punishments for crimes being dependent on class (97). In Egypt, evidence of special treatment based off of social stratification is insinuated in the document Be a Scribe. This document delves into the negatives of having low class jobs and encourages people to become educated to grow in class rank (101). Despite these similarities, these two civilizations still held vastly different values and
The Mesopotamian peoples zealously enslaved their lives to serving the gods through admiration and obedience. However, absent from their faith was any established code of ethics or morality that distinguished righteousness from treachery. The Mesopotamian people knew solely of one purpose: to satisfy the gods, and the rulers formed codes of laws to affect societies in certain ways under the label deeming it as the will of the gods. Sumerians and Akkadians both inhabited the Fertile Crescent of Mesopotamia, sharing a common polytheistic faith in many gods. The Sumerians built ziggurats to respect the gods and openly display their humbleness to them.
Soon after the Akkadians came the Amorites. They were also known as the old Babylonians. They built the city of Babylon and made it one of the biggest trade centers in the Middle East. Hammurabi was the King of the Amorites and was famous for the code of Hammurabi.
Around 300 of the tablets recovered contain mathematical astronomy however, it has been estimated about a thousand more tablets copied by Pinches and Sachs (1900-1955) containing qualitative astronomical descriptions have added to these texts. The lunar theory appears to be the most predominant area of Babylonian astronomy with over half the texts relating to the subject. The Babylonian calendar was thought to be truly lunar, meaning they based their months, beginning on the first visibility of the new crescent and subsequently, their days began in the evening at first visibility. Furthermore, the Babylonians observed decades of eclipses and they had knowledge that solar eclipses only occurred at the end of the month at the new crescent and lunar eclipses occur only at full moon. Cycles were used by the Babylonians which consisted of 12, sometimes 13 months depending on the harves...
There were three social classes in Mesopotamia. There was the aristocracy, the working class, and the slaves. The aristocracy was made up of the rich and powerful who owned much land. The working class was made up of high priests, counselors, and generals in the army. The slaves were made up of very poor people who owned houses, gardens, and fishery farms. The Code of Hammurabi included many rules about slaves. The fact that there are so many rules regarding slaves tells us that they like to be in control and have lots of rules in which they use to control people. Having so ma...
The name Babylon means “Gate of God”. The location of the ancient city was along the Euphrates River and today is marked by a long stretch of ruins east of the river. Which is ninety kilometres south of Baghdad, Iraq. This was one of the main trading points of the ancient world because of its central location.
Ancient Mesopotamia was one of the first of the ancient civilizations. It formed in present-day northeastern Egypt, in the Fertile Crescent. The Fertile Crescent is a crescent-shaped region of good farmland created by the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. The first people to settle in Mesopotamia made important contributions to the world, such as wheeled vehicles, and an early form of writing called Cuneiform. Later, the Phoenicians here developed an alphabet much like the one we use today. Also, the Sumerians of this region developed algebra and geometry. Most importantly, the Sumerians made extensive irrigation systems, dikes, and canals to protect their crops from floods. The Great Hammurabi of Babylon, another empire in the Fertile Crescent, made the Code of Hammurabi. It was the first significant set of laws in history. Also, the Hittites and the Lydians settled in Mesopotamia. The Hittites developed a way to produce strong plows and weapons. The Lydians created a system of coined money. The contributions from the region of Mesopotamia in ancient times are still used today and are very useful.