The Mesopotamian city-state of Babylon twice expanded to become an important world empire before being absorbed by Persia. Its two great expansions were sufficiently remarkable to earn it a place in history beside the two other great Mesopotamian cultures, the Sumerians and Assyrians. The Babylonians took their name from their capital and only major city, Babylon, located on the Euphrates River west of Sumeria and south of Assyria. It was well-placed on the river for agriculture and for trade, but had no natural defenses. A strong leader and strong army were needed to defend it.
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Babylonia was founded as a kingdom around 1900 BC by Semitic Amorite barbarians who overran much of Canaan, Akkad, and Sumer one hundred years earlier. In 1792 BC the small kingdom was inherited by Hammurabi who ruled until 1750. During those 42 years, Hammurabi extended the kingdom to encompass all of Sumer to the east and Akkad to the north. He also defeated the barbarian Gutians in the Zagros Mountains to the northeast who had previously sacked Akkad. He also pushed back the Elamites and the Assyrians.
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The basic economy of Babylonia was typical for Mesopotamia at the time. Irrigation and dikes controlled the waters of the Euphrates River, providing bountiful harvests of grain, vegetables, and fruit in normal years. These foods were supplemented by herds of sheep and some cattle. The Babylonians traded food surpluses for raw materials like copper, gold, and wood, which they used to manufacture weapons, household objects, jewelry, and other items that could be traded.
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The Babylonians inherited the technical achievements of the Sumerians in irrigation and agriculture. Maintaining the system of canals, dikes, weirs, and reservoirs constructed by their predecessors demanded considerable engineering knowledge and skill. Preparation of maps, surveys, and plans involved the use of leveling instruments and measuring rods. For mathematical and arithmetical purposes they used the Sumerian sexagesimal system of numbers, which featured a useful device of so-called place-value notation that resembles the present-day decimal system. Measures of length, area, capacity, and weight, standardized earlier by the Sumerians, remained in use. Farming was a complicated and methodical occupation requiring foresight, diligence, and skill. A recently translated document written in Sumerian but used as a textbook in the Babylonian schools is a veritable farmer’s almanac; it records a series of instructions and directions to guide farm activities from the watering of the fields to the winnowing of the harvested crops.
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Babylonia was founded as a kingdom around 1900 BC by Semitic Amorite barbarians who overran much of Canaan, Akkad, and Sumer one hundred years earlier. In 1792 BC the small kingdom was inherited by Hammurabi who ruled until 1750. During those 42 years, Hammurabi extended the kingdom to encompass all of Sumer to the east and Akkad to the north. He also defeated the barbarian Gutians in the Zagros Mountains to the northeast who had previously sacked Akkad. He also pushed back the Elamites and the Assyrians.
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The basic economy of Babylonia was typical for Mesopotamia at the time. Irrigation and dikes controlled the waters of the Euphrates River, providing bountiful harvests of grain, vegetables, and fruit in normal years. These foods were supplemented by herds of sheep and some cattle. The Babylonians traded food surpluses for raw materials like copper, gold, and wood, which they used to manufacture weapons, household objects, jewelry, and other items that could be traded.
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The Babylonians inherited the technical achievements of the Sumerians in irrigation and agriculture. Maintaining the system of canals, dikes, weirs, and reservoirs constructed by their predecessors demanded considerable engineering knowledge and skill. Preparation of maps, surveys, and plans involved the use of leveling instruments and measuring rods. For mathematical and arithmetical purposes they used the Sumerian sexagesimal system of numbers, which featured a useful device of so-called place-value notation that resembles the present-day decimal system. Measures of length, area, capacity, and weight, standardized earlier by the Sumerians, remained in use. Farming was a complicated and methodical occupation requiring foresight, diligence, and skill. A recently translated document written in Sumerian but used as a textbook in the Babylonian schools is a veritable farmer’s almanac; it records a series of instructions and directions to guide farm activities from the watering of the fields to the winnowing of the harvested crops.
