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    Babylonian Civilization

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    Asuna Kirito
    Babylonia was an ancient Mesopotamian state combining the territories of Sumer and Akkad, with its capital at Babylon. It became a major empire under rulers like Hammurabi in the 18th century BCE and Nebuchadnezzar II in the 6th century BCE. The Babylonians made important contributions to science, mathematics, and law. Hammurabi established one of the first written legal codes. Babylonians also advanced astronomy, developing the earliest zodiacs and ability to predict eclipses. In mathematics, they invented place-value numerals and calculated square roots, and their base-60 system influences modern timekeeping. Engineering feats included the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the

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    Babylonian Civilization

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    Asuna Kirito
    894 views4 pages
    Babylonia was an ancient Mesopotamian state combining the territories of Sumer and Akkad, with its capital at Babylon. It became a major empire under rulers like Hammurabi in the 18th century BCE and Nebuchadnezzar II in the 6th century BCE. The Babylonians made important contributions to science, mathematics, and law. Hammurabi established one of the first written legal codes. Babylonians also advanced astronomy, developing the earliest zodiacs and ability to predict eclipses. In mathematics, they invented place-value numerals and calculated square roots, and their base-60 system influences modern timekeeping. Engineering feats included the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the

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    Babylonia was an ancient Mesopotamian state combining the territories of Sumer and Akkad, with its capital at Babylon. It became a major empire under rulers like Hammurabi in the 18th century BCE and Nebuchadnezzar II in the 6th century BCE. The Babylonians made important contributions to science, mathematics, and law. Hammurabi established one of the first written legal codes. Babylonians also advanced astronomy, developing the earliest zodiacs and ability to predict eclipses. In mathematics, they invented place-value numerals and calculated square roots, and their base-60 system influences modern timekeeping. Engineering feats included the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    894 views4 pages

    Babylonian Civilization

    Uploaded by

    Asuna Kirito
    Babylonia was an ancient Mesopotamian state combining the territories of Sumer and Akkad, with its capital at Babylon. It became a major empire under rulers like Hammurabi in the 18th century BCE and Nebuchadnezzar II in the 6th century BCE. The Babylonians made important contributions to science, mathematics, and law. Hammurabi established one of the first written legal codes. Babylonians also advanced astronomy, developing the earliest zodiacs and ability to predict eclipses. In mathematics, they invented place-value numerals and calculated square roots, and their base-60 system influences modern timekeeping. Engineering feats included the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
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    Babylonian Civilization

    Babylonia, named for the city of Babylon, was an ancient state in Mesopotamia
    (in modern Iraq), combining the territories of Sumer and Akkad. Its capital was
    Babylon. The earliest mention of Babylon can be found in a tablet of the reign of
    Sargon of Akkad, dating back to the twenty-third century B.C.E. It became the center
    of empire under Hammurabi (c. 1780 B.C.E. and again under Nebuchadnezzar
    II (reigned 605–562 B.C.E.).

    Babylon is the most famous city from ancient Mesopotamia whose ruins lie in
    modern-day Iraq 59 miles (94 kilometres) southwest of Baghdad. The name is thought
    to derive from bav-il or bav-ilimwhich, in the Akkadian language of the time, meant
    ‘Gate of God’ or `Gate of the Gods’ and `Babylon’ coming from Greek.

    Babylon was a key kingdom in ancient Mesopotamia from the 18th to 6th
    centuries BC. The city was built on the Euphrates river and divided in equal parts
    along its left and right banks, with steep embankments to contain the river's seasonal
    floods. Babylon was originally a small Akkadian town dating from the period of
    the Akkadian Empirec. 2300 BC.

    The city owes its fame (or infamy) to the many references the Bible makes to it;
    all of which are unfavourable. In the Book of Genesis, chapter 11, Babylon is featured
    in the story of The Tower of Babel and the Hebrews claimed the city was named for
    the confusion which ensued after God caused the people to begin speaking in different
    languages so they would not be able to complete their great tower to the heavens (the
    Hebrew word bavel means `confusion’).

    Babylon was founded at some point prior to the reign of Sargon of Akkad (also
    known as Sargon the Great) who ruled from 2334-2279 BCE and claimed to have built
    temples at Babylon (other ancient sources seem to indicate that Sargon himself
    founded the city). At that time, Babylon seems to have been a minor city or perhaps
    a large port town on the Euphrates River at the point where it runs closest to the
    river Tigris.
    Contributions of the Babylonian Civilization to STS

    Hanging Gardens of Babylon


    The Hanging Gardens of
    Babylon were one of the Seven
    Wonders of the Ancient World as listed
    by Hellenic culture, described as a
    remarkable feat of engineering with an
    ascending series of tiered gardens
    containing a wide variety of trees,
    shrubs, and vines, resembling a large
    green mountain constructed of mud
    bricks, and said to have been built in
    the ancient city of Babylon, near
    present-day Hillah, Babil province, in Iraq.
    According to one legend, the Neo-Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II, who
    ruled between 605 and 562 BC, built the Hanging Gardens, alongside a grand palace
    that came to be known as The Marvel of Mankind, for his Median wife, Queen
    Amytis, because she missed the green hills and valleys of her homeland; this is
    attested to by the Babylonian priest Berossus, writing in about 290 BC, and quoted
    later by Josephus.

    Code of Hammurabi
    Hammurabi was the First Law Giver of the world. He was the leader of the
    Amorites and a brave fighter. There were different sets of laws in ancient Babylon
    concerning religion, agriculture, administration and business. Hammurabi codified
    all these laws in a simple form which became famous as the ‘Code of Hammurabi’.
    These laws were engraved on a diorite stone of 8 feet high and that stone was
    erected in the temple of the great Babylonian god Marduk. On the top of the stone
    the picture of Hammurabi receiving laws from the Sun god Samas was engraved.
    There were four parts in the code of Hammurabi, viz.—civil code, penal code,
    code of procedure and commercial code.
    Hammurabi’s code was a flat fledged law book. It contained laws relating to
    marriage, divorce, property, contract, trade and commerce, mortgage of land, religion
    etc. It contained criminal laws concerning murder, theft, treachery, dishonesty,
    negligence in duty etc.
    The basic aim of this code was—”An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”. A
    murderer was awarded death penalty. If the roof or a wall of a house fell down, the
    mason who had built it was punished. If a thief was caught while steeling away an
    animal from a temple, he had to return triple price of that animal. If a trader charged
    more than the fixed price of an article, he was given a death sentence.
    The code of Hammurabi empowered women right over property. For the first
    time, this code protected the widows, slaves and orphans. The Code of Hammurabi is
    treated as the ‘First law book of the world.”

    Science and mathematics


    Among the sciences, astronomy and astrology occupied a conspicuous place in
    Babylonian society. Astronomy was of old standing in Babylonia, and the standard
    work on the subject, written from an astrological point of view, later translated into
    Greek by Berossus, was believed to date from the age of Sargon of Akkad. The zodiac
    was a Babylonian invention of great antiquity; and eclipses of the sun and moon could
    be foretold. Observatories were attached to the temples, and astronomers regularly
    sent reports to the king. The stars had been numbered and named at an early date,
    and there remain tables of lunar longitudes and observations of the phases of Venus.
    Great attention was naturally paid to the calendar, and there is existence of a week
    of seven days and another of five days in use.
    In Seleucid and Parthian times, the astronomical reports were of a thoroughly
    scientific character; how much earlier their advanced knowledge and methods were
    developed is uncertain.
    The development of astronomy implies considerable progress in mathematics; it
    is not surprising that the Babylonians should have invented an extremely simple
    method of ciphering, or have discovered the convenience of the duodecimal system.
    The ner of 600 and the sar of 3,600 were formed from the unit of 60, corresponding
    with a degree of the equator. Tablets of squares and cubes, calculated from 1 to 60,
    have been found at Senkera, and a people acquainted with the sundial, the clepsydra,
    the lever and the pulley, must have had no mean knowledge of mechanics. A crystal
    lens, turned on the lathe, was discovered by Austen Henry Layard at Nimrud along
    with glass vases bearing the name of Sargon; this could explain the excessive
    minuteness of some of the writing on the Assyrian tablets, and a lens may also have
    been used in the observation of the heavens.
    The Babylonian system of mathematics was sexagesimal, or a base 60 numeral
    system. From this is derived the modern-day usage of 60 seconds in a minute, 60
    minutes in an hour, and 360 degrees in a circle. The Babylonians were able to make
    great advances in mathematics for two reasons. First, the number 60 has many
    divisors (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, and 30), making calculations easier. Additionally,
    unlike the Egyptians and Romans, the Babylonians had a true place-value system,
    where digits written in the left column represented larger values (much as in the base
    ten system: 734 = 7×100 + 3×10 + 4×1). Among the Babylonians mathematical
    accomplishments were the determination of the square root of two correctly to seven
    places. They also demonstrated knowledge of the Pythagorean theorem well before
    Pythagoras, as evidenced by a tablet translated by Dennis Ramsey and dating to circa
    1900 B.C.E.:
    4 is the length and 5 is the diagonal.
    What is the breadth?
    Its size is not known.
    4 times 4 is 16. 5 times 5 is 25.
    You take 16 from 25 and there remains 9.
    What times what shall I take in order to get 9?
    3 times 3 is 9. 3 is the breadth.

    Infact, the contributions of the Babylonians to the human civilisation were


    immense. The Code of Hammurabi helped in building a healthy society. Besides this,
    their contributions in the field of art, architecture, science, trade and commerce were
    worth noting.

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