what does the average person know about babylon probably they've heard the phrase [ __ ] of
babylon they also know them as villains from the bible for bringing one of god's punishments to
israel maybe they'll remember something about hammurabi's code of laws from history class or
playing civilization if you like video games there's so much more to babylonian
civilization though that's true even if you limit the scope of your analysis to the amorite dynasty
they were the first dynasty of the empire and this particular dynasty lasted from 1894 bc
to 1595 bc they came to an end more than a millennium before babylon became one of
history's villain figures for eons by destroying israel around 586 bc
so even the hardcore abrahamic faithful can find these particular people interesting without guilt
number 10 math pioneers many people don't find it particularly exciting for someone to be good at
geometry trigonometry and algebra yet these are some of the most significant contributions that
the babylonian empire made to civilization this is firmly established because they were considerate
enough to record their mathematical tables on clay tablets known as cuneiform which were used as
teaching aids for elite students what's more first dynasty babylonians were able to do something with
advanced mathematics that the majority of students today have never been able to do
find practical applications for it they were able to design name cutting-edge siege equipment for
their era which was invaluable for conquering such rivals as the acadian empire it also found use
in portioning limited arable land for maximizing agricultural yields indeed they were so celebrated
for their math accomplishments that a particular cuneiform known as plinton 322 was speculated in
2017 as potentially offering superior trigonometry to those in common use today though scientific
american in august 2017 aggressively threw some cold water on that notion when they told everyone
doe fall for the hype 9. the sometimes bewildering code of laws as implied earlier hammurabi the
sixth king of the dynasty is best known for codifying a system of laws since he reigned
from 1792 to 1750 his code of laws predates the ten commandments of moses by centuries curiously
existing clay tablets of his code date long after you've probably heard that it contains a law that
a successful surgeon was to be paid 10 shekels but if the patient died the surgeon was to lose
a hand as it happens that's by no means the most alien law to modern thinking for example one of
hammurabi's laws basically states that someone found guilty of burglary after they were executed
their body was to be buried on the premises of the home that they'd broken into which seems
just a little bit of a hassle for the family that just went through such an ordeal if no burglar
was caught essentially the community became the household's insurance provider as the homeowner
was to declare their losses under oath and then the community was to collectively compensate them
another law said that if the wife of a soldier taken prisoner during the war had children
with another man after her house run out of food then she had to return to her husband if he came
back but the paramour had custody of the children while it's understandable that it was punishable
by death to be a construction worker in a building that collapsed and killed a homeowner it's perhaps
less understandable that if in the collapse the child of the homeowner died that meant the
constructor known as child had to be put to death as well in neither case were they to be buried at
the site of the collapse even though that seemed much more appropriate than burying a burglar there
it was also punishable by death to be a female tab and keeper where a band of thieves met with
no stipulation stated that the table keeper had to be a knowing accessory to the crime number eight
the overlooked codifier of the empire there's a tendency to go overboard in giving hammurabi
credit for babylon's success as an empire with some acting as if the empire took a nosedive
immediately after he stepped out this might seem supported by the fact that literally dozens of
cities rose up in rebellion comprising pretty much everything hammurabi had conquered as it happens
while he is much less famous than his father samsu ayana did a commendable job of his own
keeping his father's realm intact during his reign from 1750 to 1712 bc when pretty much every other
major city in the southern region of the empire rebelled initially caught samsuyana off guard
but he rallied quickly within two years he had put down the rebellion and made allies of rival kings
such as rim a numb of the major city of aruk ironically it was the arrival of a great enemy
to the babylonian empire that dated him greatly the cascites invaded the south and what had once
been an opposition population in large part turned into a mass of refugees for samsuyana to take in
not that tamsionana was particularly merciful in putting down the rebellion and driving out
the calcites the infrastructure of the southern regions were damaged to an extent where they were
never fully repaired during the first dynasty in all 26 enemy kings were put down by samsuana while
hammurabi had invaded and beaten the leaders of these regions it was his much overlooked son who
showed that the first dynasty would last as a major power for the region 7. the war dam
while the situation was much more stabilized by the time samsuana's son abhiesh took the throne
he had rebellions of his own to deal with and in one case he adopted a solution that would seem
millennia ahead of its time during the 19th year of his reign having routed the rebel armies of
the alamites abiash desperately wanted to capture an enemy king that was said to be from sea land
instead of relying on an army abysh turned to engineering he had the tigris river damned so
the enemy's escape route was disrupted by flooding surprisingly while the babylonians were successful
in altering the flow of one of the two major rivers that made mesopotamia the fertile crescent
it was history records that he didn't capture the king that he was after that's an astonishing level
of embarrassing honesty as far as official records go as his very materialistic and indirect solution
to a military challenge implied the surviving records of abyss imply that he concerned himself
much more with supply chains and goods such as grain shipments and pack animals for cities in
need and his success in those fields goes to show that his failure to capture an enemy king by now
indicated that his reign was a failure overall number six the forgotten father while hammurabi's
successors by no means deserve to be overlooked in the way they largely have been by historians
his predecessors weren't exactly slouches either hammurabi's father sin mobility took the throne
for the city state of babylon in 1748 bc and the argument could be made that he was the first ruler
of the first dynasty since he was the first to declare himself king of babylon he faced
the dynasties of lasser and issen which had long been enemies of babylon in the 13th year of his
reign sin mubala defeated an attack from the city state of ur apparently no longer content for his
city state to hold its own sin mullet retained the initiative and struck out of the city of issa in
the 17th year of his reign he conquered it he had two more years of reign and consolidated power but
it was felt that he set babylon on the path of conquest that would make an empire of the city
it's perhaps a bit understandable that his reign is so overshadowed as he reigned a relatively
modest 19 years and babylon was not yet the sort of powerhouse that could afford to set
down the details of the life of the king in clay yet number five amorite conquest you might have
noticed in the intro that the word amorite was used to describe the first babylonian dynasty
and odds are you had no idea what it meant well it turns out that baolon became one of the largest
and easily most celebrated civilizations of ancient mesopotamia for a very surprising reason
a bunch of raiders needed to find a place to feed their horses the amorites were an amatic group
from what is today syria their chieftains led them into mesopotamia in no small part looking
for grazing land while many surviving sumerian accounts are dismissive of them for not even
advancing enough to no grain their primitives had the last laugh when they conquered the sumerians
and the babylonians as well this may sound similar to stories of the barbarians the sacked rome early
in its history or the mongols that created the largest empire in the world the amorites were
different in that while they weren't an agrarian society they set down roots in the cities they
conquered and reigned over them for centuries it could be said that their hot-blooded magic
tradition would turn the babylonians into a people that would create one of the first empires but
since there were five kings between their conquest of babylon and babylon's expansion into an empire
those must have been very recessive genes that caused that 4. greece took their astronomy many
people today associate ancient astronomy more with greece than any other ancient empire after
all the constellations we know have greek names the oldest astronomers we can name are individuals
like pythagoras as it happens that while the first dynasty was cursing future generations of students
with trigonometry and algebra they were also performing major innovations in astronomy such as
recording of the transit of venus during the reign of king amasadwa it would be the conquest of
babylon by alexander the great that would spread huge amounts of information regarding astronomy
throughout the greek empire and with such speed that there was no question babylon was
the impetus to be fair to the greeks they didn't just copy the babylonian's homework centuries
after alexander's conquest geographers such as strabov ammatia would give detailed tributes to
the astronomical in both senses of the word accomplishments of the babylonians still it
wouldn't hurt to give a consolation or two a babylonian name just to give them their due
number three the client priesthood when they weren't trying to expand the empire or
more often tried to keep the existing parts of the empire in the fold by putting down rebellions one
of the main preoccupations of the first dynasty was keeping the favor of the priests and paying
tribute to babylon's most esteemed god marduk the approval of mardoch supposedly endowed the
king of kings with his divine destiny this largely amounted to tithing like mad even
with all his military accomplishments hammurabi was particularly noted for
buying their favor though it was also noted for giving extremely strict laws for priests such as
making drinking by holy people a crime punishable by death a number of kings bribed the priesthood
to declare them immortal but since this was so clearly not the physical reality it tended
to be only done by the most desperate monarchs with so much wealth pouring into them over the
centuries the babylonian priesthood couldn't think big not only were many grand temples
built throughout the empire but technological innovations emerged as well babylonian temples
were among the first buildings in human history to incorporate columns into their design this was a
more practical decision than an aesthetic one as the bricks used at the time were still very crude
with it being a capital offense for a building collapsed to kill someone babylonian construction
workers had all the motivation in the world to be very very careful number two state-of-the-art
statues what is one of the defining features of a statue something so fundamental that it wouldn't
even occur to you as an aspect of the statute in the case of the babylonians it was to be a
freestanding three-dimensional structure before their masons came along statues were bass reliefs
meaning that they were essentially two-dimensional and extended from walls babylonians were the
first to build them as separate structures and introduce a high degree of realism to
them although considering that their statues were overwhelmingly of religious subjects maybe realism
isn't quite the right word here babylonian stone carvers favored alabaster diorite and limestone
since none of these materials were particularly abundant or easy to ship with the tools of the day
extremely skilled craftsmen were strongly favored over anything like mass production
their empire was also early in decorating such containers as clay pots with such a degree of
artistic development it's little surprise the babylonian was famous for perhaps the most
beautiful city in the world even centuries before the famed hanging gardens came and went number 1.
attack of the hittites while the cascites to the east of babylon inadvertently saved the first
dynasty for a time by disrupting the rebellion against samsung's lula ultimately they also
buried that dynasty too in 1595 a hittite army from what's now turkey under masulius the first
invaded babylon and sacked the capital while the hittites did not have the inclination to stay and
consolidate power they had weakened babylon enough of the castetites to exploit the power vacuum and
reign over babylon for nearly five centuries which was actually a fair deal longer than the
first dynasty could yet even as they were being conquered the aborigines had a surprising degree
of influence over the calcites the religions of babylon didn't just remain in place they actually
spread into the cacites indeed the first king of the casside dynasty orgum kakrim waged war against
the hittites and was said to have retrieved a statue of marduk that the hittites had stolen
it was perhaps one of the greatest victories the dynasty ever scored from beyond the grave