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90-512: The earliest known mention of Babylon as a small town appears on a clay tablet from the reign of Shar-Kali-Sharri (2217–2193 BC), of the Akkadian Empire . Babylon was merely a religious and cultural centre at this point and neither an independent state nor a large city, subject to the Akkadian Empire. After the collapse of the Akkadian Empire, the south Mesopotamian region was dominated by

180-693: A better understanding of that era. The early Persian kings had attempted to maintain the religious ceremonies of Marduk , who was the most important god, but by the reign of Darius III , over-taxation and the strain of numerous wars led to a deterioration of Babylon's main shrines and canals, and the destabilization of the surrounding region. There were numerous attempts at rebellion and in 522 BC ( Nebuchadnezzar III ), 521 BC ( Nebuchadnezzar IV ) and 482 BC (Bel-shimani and Shamash-eriba) native Babylonian kings briefly regained independence. However, these revolts were quickly repressed and Babylon remained under Persian rule for two centuries, until Alexander

270-545: A counterpart of Babylon next to Akkad". (ABC 20:18–19). Van de Mieroop has suggested that those sources may refer to the much later Assyrian king Sargon II of the Neo-Assyrian Empire , rather than Sargon of Akkad. Ctesias , quoted by Diodorus Siculus and in George Syncellus 's Chronographia , claimed to have access to manuscripts from Babylonian archives, which date the founding of Babylon to 2286 BC, under

360-481: A reference to Homer . Following the pronouncement of Archibald Henry Sayce in 1883, Herodotus' account of Babylon has largely been considered to represent Greek folklore rather than an authentic voyage to Babylon. However, recently, Dalley and others have suggested taking Herodotus' account seriously. According to 2 Chronicles 36 of the Hebrew Bible , Cyrus later issued a decree permitting captive people, including

450-579: A result, Kassite Babylon began paying tribute to the Pharaoh of Egypt , Thutmose III , following his eighth campaign against Mitanni. Kassite Babylon eventually became subject to the Middle Assyrian Empire (1365–1053 BC) to the north, and Elam to the east, with both powers vying for control of the city. By 1155 BC, after continued attacks and annexing of territory by the Assyrians and Elamites,

540-504: A short period after the Assyrian sack of Babylon. From the accounts of modern travellers, I had expected to have found on the site of Babylon more, and less, than I actually did. Less, because I could have formed no conception of the prodigious extent of the whole ruins, or of the size, solidity, and perfect state, of some of the parts of them; and more, because I thought that I should have distinguished some traces, however imperfect, of many of

630-509: A small town appears on a clay tablet from the reign of Shar-Kali-Sharri (2217–2193 BC) of the Akkadian Empire. References to the city of Babylon can be found in Akkadian and Sumerian literature from the late third millennium BC. One of the earliest is a tablet describing the Akkadian king Šar-kali-šarri laying the foundations in Babylon of new temples for Annūnı̄tum and Ilaba . Babylon also appears in

720-468: A sophisticated accounting system. In this cultural region, tablets were never fired deliberately as the clay was recycled on an annual basis. However, some of the tablets were "fired" as a result of uncontrolled fires in the buildings where they were stored. The rest, remain tablets of unfired clay and are therefore extremely fragile. For this reason, some institutions are investigating the possibility of firing them now to aid in their preservation. Writing

810-427: A vast succession of mounds of rubbish of such indeterminate figures, variety and extent, as to involve the person who should have formed any theory in inextricable confusion. The site covers an area of about 1,000 hectares (3¾ sq. mi.), with about 450 hectares (1¾ sq. mi.) within the several kilometer (mile) long city walls, containing a number of mounds, the most prominent of which are Kasr, Merkes (13 meters; 43' above

900-484: A wet clay tablet with a stylus often made of reed ( reed pen ). Once written upon, many tablets were dried in the sun or air, remaining fragile. Later, these unfired clay tablets could be soaked in water and recycled into new clean tablets. Other tablets, once written, were either deliberately fired in hot kilns , or inadvertently fired when buildings were burnt down by accident or during conflict, making them hard and durable. Collections of these clay documents made up

990-468: Is heard of the city until the time of Sumu-la-El. After around 1950 BC Amorite kingdoms will appear in Uruk and Larsa in the south. According to a Babylonian king list, Amorite rule in Babylon began ( c.  19th or 18th century BC ) with a chieftain named Sumu-abum , who declared independence from the neighboring city-state of Kazallu . Sumu-la-El , whose dates may be concurrent with those of Sumu-abum,

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1080-558: Is known as pictograms . Pictograms are symbols that express a pictorial concept, a logogram , as the meaning of the word. Early writing also began in Ancient Egypt using hieroglyphs . Early hieroglyphs and some of the modern Chinese characters are other examples of pictographs. The Sumerians later shifted their writing to Cuneiform, defined as "Wedge writing" in Latin, which added phonetic symbols, syllabograms . Text on clay tablets took

1170-463: Is the Latin representation of Greek Babylṓn ( Βαβυλών ), derived from the native ( Babylonian ) Bābilim , meaning "gate of the god(s) ". The cuneiform spelling was 𒆍𒀭𒊏𒆠 ( KÁ.DIG̃IR.RA ). This would correspond to the Sumerian phrase Kan dig̃irak . The sign 𒆍 ( KÁ ) is the logogram for "gate", 𒀭 ( DIG̃IR ) means "god", and 𒊏 ( RA ) represents the coda of

1260-560: Is usually given as the progenitor of the First Babylonian dynasty . Both are credited with building the walls of Babylon. In any case, the records describe Sumu-la-El's military successes establishing a regional sphere of influence for Babylon. Babylon was initially a minor city-state, and controlled little surrounding territory. Its first four Amorite rulers did not assume the title of king. The older and more powerful states of Elam , Isin , and Larsa overshadowed Babylon until it became

1350-606: The Encyclopædia Britannica . Sayce was born in Shirehampton , near Bristol , on 25 September 1845. Although the start of his education was delayed due to ill health he had suffered since birth, Sayce was a quick learner. When his first tutor was appointed in 1855, he was already reading works in Latin and Ancient Greek . He began his formal education at Grosvenor College shortly after his family moved to Bath in 1858. By

1440-493: The 23rd century BC . However, cuneiform records have not been found to correspond with these classical, post-cuneiform accounts. The first attested mention of Babylon was in the late 3rd millennium BC during the Akkadian Empire reign of ruler Shar-Kali-Sharri one of whose year names mentions building two temples there. Babylon was ruled by ensi (governors) for the empire. Some of the known governors were Abba, Arši-aḫ, Itūr-ilum, Murteli, Unabatal, and Puzur-Tutu. After that nothing

1530-608: The German Archaeological Institute was conducted by Heinrich J. Lenzen in 1956 and Hansjörg Schmid in 1962, working the Hellenistic, Parthian, Sasanian, and Arabic levels of the site. Lenzen's work dealt primarily with the Hellenistic theatre, and Schmid focused on the temple ziggurat Etemenanki . A topographical survey at the site was conducted in 1974, followed in 1977 by a review of the stratigraphical position of

1620-585: The Gutian Dynasty for a few decades, before the rise of the Third Dynasty of Ur , which encompassed the whole of Mesopotamia, including the town of Babylon. The town became part of a small independent city-state with the rise of the first Babylonian Empire, now known as the Old Babylonian Empire , in the 17th century BC. The Amorite king Hammurabi founded the short-lived Old Babylonian Empire in

1710-702: The Hittites . In 1879, Sayce further theorized that reliefs and inscriptions at Karabel, İvriz , Bulgarmaden  [ de ] , Carchemish , Alaca Höyük , and Yazilikaya were created by the Hittites. His hypothesis was confirmed when he visited some of the sites on a tour of the Near East in the same year. On his return to England, Sayce presented a lecture to the Society of Biblical Archaeology in London, where he announced that

1800-515: The Jews , to return to their own lands. The text found on the Cyrus Cylinder has traditionally been seen by biblical scholars as corroborative evidence of this policy, although the interpretation is disputed because the text identifies only Mesopotamian sanctuaries but makes no mention of Jews, Jerusalem, or Judea. Under Cyrus and the subsequent Persian king Darius I , Babylon became the capital city of

1890-635: The Pyrenees and Switzerland . Sayce achieved a first-class in Classical Moderations (Greek and Latin) in 1866 and in Literae Humaniores (Philosophy and Ancient History) in 1868, and was elected to a vacant Fellowship in the same year. In 1869, Sayce was appointed a lecturer at Queen's College. He was ordained a priest in the Church of England in 1870. Ongoing problems with his sight almost led to

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1980-617: The Vorderasiatisches Museum Berlin . The Koldewey expedition recovered artifacts from the Old Babylonian period . These included 967 clay tablets, with 564 tablets from the Middle Babylonian period , stored in private houses, with Sumerian literature and lexical documents. The German archaeologists fled before oncoming British troops in 1917, and again, many objects went missing in the following years. Further work by

2070-473: The 'Reform Movement' in linguistic research at the end of the 19th century. His two notable works, Introduction to the Science of Language (1879), and The Principles of Comparative Philology (1880), introduced audiences to the changing continental linguistic trends in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The books challenged the current thinking in comparative philology and the importance of what Sayce termed

2160-413: The 16th century BC. He built Babylon into a major city and declared himself its king. Southern Mesopotamia became known as Babylonia , and Babylon eclipsed Nippur as the region's holy city. The empire waned under Hammurabi's son Samsu-iluna , and Babylon spent long periods under Assyrian , Kassite and Elamite domination. After the Assyrians destroyed and then rebuilt it, Babylon became the capital of

2250-503: The 1st millennium BCE. Tablets on Babylonian astronomical records (such as Enuma Anu Enlil and MUL.APIN ) date back to around 1800 BCE. Tablets discussing astronomical records continue through around 75 CE. Late Babylonian tablets at the British Museum refer to appearances of Halley's Comet in 164 BCE and 87 BCE. Archibald Sayce Archibald Henry Sayce FRAS (25 September 1845 – 4 February 1933)

2340-532: The 9th Satrapy (Babylonia in the south and Athura in the north), as well as a center of learning and scientific advancement. In Achaemenid Persia, the ancient Babylonian arts of astronomy and mathematics were revitalized, and Babylonian scholars completed maps of constellations. The city became the administrative capital of the Persian Empire and remained prominent for over two centuries. Many important archaeological discoveries have been made that can provide

2430-793: The Assyrians, in which ethnic groups in conquered areas were deported en masse to the capital. According to the Hebrew Bible, he destroyed Solomon's Temple and exiled the Jews to Babylon. The defeat was also recorded in the Babylonian Chronicles . In 539 BC, the Neo-Babylonian Empire fell to Cyrus the Great , king of Persia , with a military engagement known as the Battle of Opis . Babylon's walls were considered impenetrable. The only way into

2520-549: The Great 's entry in 331 BC. In October of 331 BC, Darius III , the last Achaemenid king of the Persian Empire, was defeated by the forces of the Ancient Macedonian ruler Alexander the Great at the Battle of Gaugamela , occupying Babylon. Under Alexander, Babylon again flourished as a center of learning and commerce. However, following Alexander's death in 323 BC in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar , his empire

2610-533: The Hittite hieroglyphics were also unsuccessful. From the early 1880s, Sayce spent most of his winters in Egypt due to his poor health, and became interested in the archaeology of the region. Sayce was friends with Flinders Petrie and worked on cuneiform inscriptions discovered by Petrie at Tel el Amarna . He worked at El Kab in Egypt with Somers Clarke in the 1900s. In his seasonal winter digs in Egypt he always hired

2700-407: The Hittites where a much more influential culture than previously thought with their own art and language. Sayce concluded that the Hittite hieroglyphic system was predominantly a syllabary , that is, its symbols stood for a phonetic syllable. There were too many different signs for a system, that was alphabetical and yet there were too few for it to be a set of ideographs. That very sign standing for

2790-725: The Kassites were deposed in Babylon. An Akkadian south Mesopotamian dynasty then ruled for the first time. However, Babylon remained weak and subject to domination by Assyria. Its ineffectual native kings were unable to prevent new waves of foreign West Semitic settlers from the deserts of the Levant, including the Arameans and Suteans in the 11th century BC, and finally the Chaldeans in the 9th century BC, entering and appropriating areas of Babylonia for themselves. The Arameans briefly ruled in Babylon during

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2880-553: The Late 2nd Millennium BC and was in widespread usage in the 1st Millennium BC. The spelling E.KI also appears in the 1st Millennium BC. In the Hebrew Bible , the name appears as Babel ( Hebrew : בָּבֶל Bavel , Tib. בָּבֶל Bāḇel ; Classical Syriac : ܒܒܠ Bāwēl , Imperial Aramaic : בבל Bāḇel; in Arabic : بَابِل Bābil ), interpreted in the Book of Genesis to mean " confusion ", from

2970-503: The Neo-Babylonian Empire, the city came under the rule of the Achaemenid , Seleucid , Parthian , Roman , Sassanid , and Muslim empires. The last known habitation of the town dates from the 11th century, when it was referred to as the "small village of Babel". It has been estimated that Babylon was the largest city in the world c.  1770  – c.  1670 BC , and again c.  612  – c.  320 BC . It

3060-522: The New York Independent . In 1876 Sayce was appointed the Deputy Professor of Comparative Philology, a role shared with the continuing Professor, Max Müller , who wanted to reduce his duties. From 1872, Sayce spent most of his summers travelling for his health and in search of new texts. In 1879 he resigned from his tutorship at Oxford to dedicate his time to his research and exploring

3150-668: The Ottoman authorities and British Residence in Baghdad, loaded the equivalent of 80 crates on a ship for Le Havre in May 1856. Few antiquities from the Fresnel mission made it to France. Subsequent efforts to recover the lost antiquities from the Tigris, including a Japanese expedition in 1971–72, have been largely unsuccessful. Henry Rawlinson and George Smith worked there briefly in 1854. The next excavation

3240-590: The Semitic name into Sumerian would have taken place at the time of the "Neo-Sumerian" Third Dynasty of Ur . ( Bab- Il ). A fragmentary inscription dating to the Early Dynastic Period , likely in the Akkadian language, refers to an unknown lord who was the governor (ENSI) of BAR.KI.BAR and constructed the temple for Marduk , indicating that the city could very well be Babylon. During the ED III period, sign placement

3330-786: The Shu-Anna city-quarter of Babylon. A number of Iraqi excavations have occurred at Babylon, the earliest in 1938. From 1979–1981 excavation and restoration work was conducted at the Ninmah Temple, Istar Temple, and the Southern Palace. Occasional excavations and restorations continued in the 1970s and 1980s. During the restoration efforts in Babylon, the Iraqi State Organization for Antiquities and Heritage conducted extensive research, excavation and clearing, but wider publication of these archaeological activities has been limited. Most of

3420-425: The administrative records of the Third Dynasty of Ur , which collected in-kind tax payments and appointed an ensi as local governor. The so-called Weidner Chronicle (also known as ABC 19 ) states that Sargon of Akkad , c.  23rd century BC in the short chronology , had built Babylon "in front of Akkad" (ABC 19:51). A later chronicle states that Sargon "dug up the dirt of the pit of Babylon, and made

3510-528: The age of 18, he had already taught himself to read some Ancient Egyptian , Sanskrit and Hebrew and had become interested in cuneiform . He published his first academic paper, Cuneiform inscriptions of Van in 1865. In 1865 he became a classical scholar at The Queen's College, Oxford . While a student at Oxford, Sayce became friends with Max Müller , John Rhys , John Ruskin and Henry Acland . Due to his poor health, Sayce spent time away from Oxford, and carried out his studies at home and on visits to

3600-584: The allied Medo-Babylonian armies destroyed the Assyrian Empire between 626 BC and 609 BC. Babylon thus became the capital of the Neo-Babylonian (sometimes called the Chaldean) Empire. With the recovery of Babylonian independence, a new era of architectural activity ensued, particularly during the reign of his son Nebuchadnezzar II (604–561 BC). Nebuchadnezzar ordered the complete reconstruction of

3690-572: The ancient city, even at its peak in the sixth century BC. Babylon was described, perhaps even visited, by a number of classical historians including Ctesias , Herodotus , Quintus Curtius Rufus , Strabo , and Cleitarchus . These reports are of variable accuracy and some of the content was politically motivated, but these still provide useful information. Historical knowledge of early Babylon must be pieced together from epigraphic remains found elsewhere, such as at Uruk , Nippur , Sippar , Mari , and Haradum . The earliest known mention of Babylon as

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3780-557: The capital of Hammurabi 's short-lived empire about a century later. Hammurabi (r. 1792–1750 BC) is famous for codifying the laws of Babylonia into the Code of Hammurabi . He conquered all of the cities and city states of southern Mesopotamia, including Isin , Larsa , Ur , Uruk , Nippur , Lagash , Eridu , Kish , Adab , Eshnunna , Akshak , Shuruppak , Bad-tibira , Sippar , and Girsu , coalescing them into one kingdom, ruled from Babylon. Hammurabi also invaded and conquered Elam to

3870-498: The city was through one of its many gates, or through the Euphrates River. Metal grates were installed underwater, allowing the river to flow through the city walls while preventing intrusion. The Persians devised a plan to enter the city via the river. During a Babylonian national feast, Cyrus' troops upstream diverted the Euphrates River, allowing Cyrus' soldiers to enter the city through the lowered water. The Persian army conquered

3960-407: The clay tablet. Some of the recipes were stew, which was made with goat, garlic, onions and sour milk. By the end of the 3rd Millennium BCE, (2200–2000 BCE), even the "short story" was first attempted, as independent scribes entered into the philosophical arena, with stories like: " Debate between bird and fish ", and other topics, ( List of Sumerian debates ). Communication grew faster as now there

4050-428: The clay; the clay tablets themselves came in a variety of colors such as bone white, chocolate, and charcoal. Pictographs then began to appear on clay tablets around 4000 BCE, and after the later development of Sumerian cuneiform writing, a more sophisticated partial syllabic script evolved that by around 2500 BCE was capable of recording the vernacular, the everyday speech of the common people. Sumerians used what

4140-470: The discovery of many of the linguistic principles of Sumerian. Sayce's An Assyrian grammar for comparative purposes (1872), drew attention from established Assyriologists to the 'new' language. In 1874, Sayce published his paper, The Astronomy and Astrology of the Babylonians , one of the first articles to translate astronomical cuneiform texts . Sayce is also seen by some as one of founding fathers of

4230-410: The divinity had appeared on the stones of Hamath and other places, always in the form of a prefix of an indecipherable group of hieroglyphics naming the deities. This led Sayce to conclude that by finding the name of one of these deities with the help of another language endowed with similar pronunciation, one might analyse the conversion of the aforesaid name in Hittite hieroglyphics. Also, he stated that

4320-554: The east, and the kingdoms of Mari and Ebla to the northwest. After a conflict with the Old Assyrian period king Ishme-Dagan , he forced his successor to pay tribute late in his reign. After the reign of Hammurabi, the whole of southern Mesopotamia came to be known as Babylonia . From this time, Babylon supplanted Nippur and Eridu as the major religious centers of southern Mesopotamia. Hammurabi's empire destabilized after his death. The far south of Mesopotamia broke away, forming

4410-595: The end of his Oxford career and Sayce spent much of his time travelling Europe. It was only from 1874, when he came under the supervision of ophthalmologist Richard Liebreich , that Sayce was able to continue his academic career. In the same year he was appointed as the university's representative in the Old Testament Revision Company . Sayce also began to deliver lectures to the Nineveh Society of Biblical Archaeology and contributed to The Times and

4500-600: The end of his life, Sayce was considered an amateur rather than a specialist and was criticized for his lack of intellectual penetration and outdated opposition to the work of continental orientalists. In 1923, he published Reminiscences , an account of his life and his numerous travels. At the time of his death he was working on a translation of inscriptions discovered at Ras Shamra . Sayce died on 4 February 1933 in Bath. Sayce's early research examined Sumerian and Akkadian languages. His article An Accadian Seal (1870), includes

4590-536: The first archives. They were at the root of the first libraries . Tens of thousands of written tablets, including many fragments, have been found in the Middle East. Surviving tablet-based documents from the Minoan / Mycenaean civilizations, are mainly those which were used for accounting. Tablets serving as labels with the impression of the side of a wicker basket on the back, and tablets showing yearly summaries, suggest

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4680-566: The folk etymology was already widely known in the Sargonic period . However, the original form of the name (Babbar/Babbir) was not forgotten, as seen from the phonetic spelling ba-ab-bí-lum in the Ur III period , and the spellings Pambalu and Babalu in the Kassite period . Another attested spelling for the city of Babylon is TIN.TIR.KI, attested sparsely in the Old Babylonian period but grew in popularity in

4770-407: The forms of myths, fables, essays, hymns, proverbs, epic poetry, business records, laws, plants, and animals. What these clay tablets allowed was for individuals to record who and what was significant. An example of these great stories was Epic of Gilgamesh . This story would tell of the great flood that destroyed Sumer. Remedies and recipes that would have been unknown were then possible because of

4860-514: The gardens actually existed is a matter of dispute. German archaeologist Robert Koldewey speculated that he had discovered its foundations, but many historians disagree about the location. Stephanie Dalley has argued that the hanging gardens were actually located near the Assyrian capital, Nineveh . Nebuchadnezzar is also notoriously associated with the Babylonian exile of the Jews, the result of an imperial technique of pacification, used also by

4950-876: The imperial grounds, including the Etemenanki ziggurat , and the construction of the Ishtar Gate —the most prominent of eight gates around Babylon. A reconstruction of the Ishtar Gate is located in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin . Nebuchadnezzar is also credited with the construction of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon , one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World , said to have been built for his homesick wife, Amytis . Whether

5040-448: The keys to be obtained through that process might in turn be applied to other parts of a Hittite inscription where the same sign were to occur. Sayce dreamed of finding a Hittite Rosetta Stone to help with his research. Sayce attempted to translate a short Hittite hieroglyphic inscription found with a cuneiform text on a silver disk featuring a representation of the Hittite king, Tarkondemos . He and William Wright also identified

5130-538: The known tablets from all modern excavations remain unpublished. The main sources of information about Babylon—excavation of the site itself, references in cuneiform texts found elsewhere in Mesopotamia, references in the Bible , descriptions in other classical writing, especially by Herodotus , and second-hand descriptions citing the work of Ctesias and Berossus —present an incomplete and sometimes contradictory picture of

5220-465: The late 11th century BC. During the rule of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911–609 BC), Babylonia was under constant Assyrian domination or direct control. During the reign of Sennacherib of Assyria, Babylonia was in a constant state of revolt, led by a chieftain named Merodach-Baladan , in alliance with the Elamites , and suppressed only by the complete destruction of the city of Babylon. In 689 BC, its walls, temples and palaces were razed, and

5310-587: The location of several villages. William Loftus visited there in 1849. Austen Henry Layard made some soundings during a brief visit in 1850 before abandoning the site. Fulgence Fresnel , Julius Oppert and Felix Thomas heavily excavated Babylon from 1852 to 1854. Much of their work was lost in the Qurnah Disaster , when a transport ship and four rafts sank on the Tigris river in May 1855. They had been carrying over 200 crates of artifacts from various excavation missions, when they were attacked by Tigris river pirates near Al-Qurnah . Recovery efforts, assisted by

5400-403: The main monuments and reconsideration of ancient water levels, by the Turin Centre for Archaeological Research and Excavations in the Middle East and Asia, and the Iraqi-Italian Institute of Archaeological Sciences. The focus was on clearing up issues raised by re-examination of the old German data. Additional work in 1987–1989 concentrated on the area surrounding the Ishara and Ninurta temples in

5490-418: The market in 1876 before Rassam's excavation began. A team from the German Oriental Society led by Robert Koldewey conducted the first scientific archaeological excavations at Babylon. The work was conducted daily from 1899 until 1917. A major problem for Koldewey was the large scale mining of baked bricks, which began in the 19th century and which were mainly sourced from the time of Nebuchadnezzar II. At

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5580-418: The native Sealand Dynasty , and the Elamites appropriated territory in eastern Mesopotamia. The Amorite dynasty remained in power in Babylon, which again became a small city state. After the destruction of the city the Kassites rose to control the region. Texts from Old Babylon often include references to Shamash , the sun-god of Sippar, treated as a supreme deity, and Marduk , considered as his son. Marduk

5670-542: The near East. In 1881, Sayce was one of the first scholars to examine the Siloam Inscription , which he described in the Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly. Sayce resigned his professorship in 1890 and briefly moved to Egypt, where he was instrumental in the reopening of the Museum of Cairo in 1891. In 1891, Sayce returned to Oxford to become the university's first Professor of Assyriology. Lectures were his favourite vehicle for publication, and he published his Hibbert Lectures on Babylonian religion in 1887. Sayce

5760-404: The occasional use of baked bricks or bitumen. Subsequent excavation, looting, and reconstruction have reduced these original heights found by the German excavators. Claudius Rich , working for the British East India Company in Baghdad, excavated Babylon in 1811–12 and again in 1817. Captain Robert Mignan explored the site briefly in 1827. In 1829, he completed a map of Babylon which includes

5850-427: The original name was Babilla , of unknown meaning and origin, as there were other similarly named places in Sumer , and there are no other examples of Sumerian place-names being replaced with Akkadian translations. He deduced that it later transformed into Akkadian Bāb-ili(m) , and that the Sumerian name Kan-dig̃irak was a loan translation of the Semitic folk etymology, and not the original name. The re-translation of

5940-579: The outlying areas of the city while the majority of Babylonians at the city center were unaware of the breach. The account was elaborated upon by Herodotus and is mentioned in parts of the Hebrew Bible. Herodotus also described a moat, an enormously tall and broad wall, cemented with bitumen and with buildings on top, and a hundred gates to the city. He writes that the Babylonians wear turbans and perfume and bury their dead in honey, that they practice ritual prostitution, and that three tribes among them eat nothing but fish . The hundred gates can be considered

6030-435: The plain), Homera, Ishin-Aswad, Sahn, Amran, and Babil. It is roughly bisected by the Shatt Al-Hillah, a branch of the Euphrates river , which has shifted slightly since ancient times. The local water table has risen, making excavation of lower levels difficult. Prior to the heavy use of baked bricks in the reign of Neo-Babylonian ruler Nebuchadnezzar II (605–562 BC), construction at Babylon was primarily of unbaked brick, with

6120-429: The principal structures of Babylon. I imagined, I should have said: "Here were the walls, and such must have been the extent of the area. There stood the palace, and this most assuredly was the tower of Belus." – I was completely deceived: instead of a few insulated mounds, I found the whole face of the country covered with vestiges of building, in some places consisting of brick walls surprisingly fresh, in others merely of

6210-547: The principle of analogy . In the late 1870s, Sayce moved away from his Sumerian studies and concentrated upon Indo-European languages . He theorized that the pseudo-sesostris rock carvings in Asia Minor, such as the Karabel relief which had been historically attributed to the Egyptians, were actually created by another pre-Greek culture. In 1876 he speculated that the hieroglyphs in inscriptions discovered at Hamath in Syria, were not related to Assyrian or Egyptian scripts but came from another culture he identified as

6300-515: The reign of its first king, Belus . A similar figure is found in the writings of Berossus , who, according to Pliny, stated that astronomical observations commenced at Babylon 490 years before the Greek era of Phoroneus , indicating 2243 BC. Stephanus of Byzantium wrote that Babylon was built 1002 years before the date given by Hellanicus of Lesbos for the siege of Troy (1229 BC), which would date Babylon's foundation to 2231 BC. All of these dates place Babylon's foundation in

6390-433: The rubble was thrown into the Arakhtu, the sea bordering the earlier Babylon on the south. The destruction of the religious center shocked many, and the subsequent murder of Sennacherib by two of his own sons while praying to the god Nisroch was considered an act of atonement. Consequently, his successor, Esarhaddon hastened to rebuild the old city and make it his residence for part of the year. After his death, Babylonia

6480-606: The ruins at Boghazkoy with Hattusa , the capital of a Hittite Empire that stretched from the Aegean Sea to the banks of the Euphrates . Sayce published his research on the Hittites in The Hittites: The Story of a Forgotten Empire in 1888. Sayce produced many studies on the Hittites and their language, but they were criticised by fellow scholars as his work did not apply Historical criticism , and his attempts to decipher

6570-462: The short-lived Neo-Babylonian Empire , from 626 to 539 BC. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were ranked as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World , allegedly existing between approximately 600 BC and AD   1. However, there are questions about whether the Hanging Gardens of Babylon even existed, as there is no mention within any extant Babylonian texts of its existence. After the fall of

6660-448: The tablet were carbon dated ) to before 4000 BCE, and possibly dating from as long ago as 5500 BCE, but their interpretation remains controversial because the tablets were fired in a furnace and the properties of the carbon changed accordingly. Fragments of tablets containing the Epic of Gilgamesh dating to 1800–1600 BCE have been discovered. A full version has been found on tablets dated to

6750-487: The time, excavations for brick mining, for various building projects, including the Hindiya dam were under way. The primary efforts of the dig involved the temple of Marduk and the processional way leading up to it, as well as the city wall. Artifacts, including pieces of the Ishtar Gate and hundreds of recovered tablets, were sent back to Germany, where Koldewey's colleague Walter Andrae reconstructed them into displays at

6840-539: The trade of sheep, grain, and bread loaves, where transactions were recorded with clay tokens. These, initially very small clay tokens, were continually used all the way from the pre-historic Mesopotamia period, 9000 BCE, to the start of the historic period around 3000 BCE, when the use of writing for recording was widely adopted. The clay tablet was thus being used by scribes to record events happening during their time. Tools that these scribes used were styluses with sharp triangular tips, making it easy to leave markings on

6930-452: The verb bilbél ( בלבל , "to confuse"). The modern English verb, to babble ("to speak foolish, excited, or confusing talk"), is popularly thought to derive from this name but there is no direct connection. In Pali and Sanskrit literature, the name appears as Bāveru . Ancient records in some situations use "Babylon" as a name for other cities, including cities like Borsippa within Babylon's sphere of influence, and Nineveh for

7020-494: The word dig̃ir (-r) followed by the genitive suffix -ak . The final 𒆠 ( ) is a determinative indicating that the previous signs are to be understood as a place name. Archibald Sayce , writing in the 1870s, postulated that the Semitic name was a loan-translation of the original Sumerian name. However, the "gate of god" interpretation is increasingly viewed as a Semitic folk etymology to explain an unknown original non-Semitic placename. I. J. Gelb in 1955 argued that

7110-412: The work of Ctesias and Berossus —present an incomplete and sometimes contradictory picture of the ancient city, even at its peak in the sixth century BC. UNESCO inscribed Babylon as a World Heritage Site in 2019. The site receives thousands of visitors each year, almost all of whom are Iraqis. Construction is rapidly increasing, which has caused encroachments upon the ruins. The spelling Babylon

7200-458: Was a pioneer British Assyriologist and linguist , who held a chair as Professor of Assyriology at the University of Oxford from 1891 to 1919. He was able to write in at least twenty ancient and modern languages, and was known for his emphasis on the importance of archaeological and monumental evidence in linguistic research. He was a contributor to articles in the 9th, 10th and 11th editions of

7290-503: Was a way to get messages across just like mail. Important and private clay tablets were coated with an extra layer of clay, that no one else would read it. This means of communicating was used for over 3000 years in fifteen different languages. Sumerians, Babylonians and Eblaites all had their own clay tablet libraries. The Tărtăria tablets , the Danubian civilization , may be still older, having been dated by indirect method (bones found near

7380-834: Was also the Gifford Lecturer, 1900–1902; and Rhind Lecturer, 1906. Sayce was a founding member of the Society of Biblical Archaeology , which he presided from 1898 until it was absorbed into the Royal Asiatic Society in 1919. He was also an active member of the Royal Asiatic Society from 1874 and a founding member of the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies . After his retirement in 1915, Sayce continued to write and spent his time in Edinburgh, Oxford and Egypt. By

7470-419: Was besieged by the Assyrians, starved into surrender and its allies were defeated. Ashurbanipal celebrated a "service of reconciliation", but did not venture to "take the hands" of Bel . An Assyrian governor named Kandalanu was appointed as ruler of the city. Ashurbanipal did collect texts from Babylon for inclusion in his extensive library at Ninevah. Under Nabopolassar , Babylon escaped Assyrian rule, and

7560-428: Was conducted by Hormuzd Rassam on behalf of the British Museum . Work began in 1879, continuing until 1882, and was prompted by widespread looting of the site. Using industrial scale digging in search of artifacts, Rassam recovered a large quantity of cuneiform tablets and other finds. The zealous excavation methods, common at the time, caused significant damage to the archaeological context. Many tablets had appeared on

7650-656: Was divided amongst his generals, the Diadochi , and decades of fighting soon began. Babylon declined somewhat in importance but remained active throughout this period. Clay tablet In the Ancient Near East , clay tablets ( Akkadian ṭuppu(m) 𒁾 ) were used as a writing medium, especially for writing in cuneiform , throughout the Bronze Age and well into the Iron Age . Cuneiform characters were imprinted on

7740-596: Was governed by his elder son, the Assyrian prince Shamash-shum-ukin , who eventually started a civil war in 652 BC against his own brother, Ashurbanipal , who ruled in Nineveh . Shamash-shum-ukin enlisted the help of other peoples against Assyria, including Elam , Persia , the Chaldeans , and Suteans of southern Mesopotamia, and the Canaanites and Arabs dwelling in the deserts south of Mesopotamia . Once again, Babylon

7830-478: Was later elevated to a higher status and Shamash lowered, perhaps reflecting Babylon's rising political power. In 1595 BC, the city was sacked by Mursili I , ruler of the Hittite Empire . Thereafter, the Kassite dynasty took power in the city of Babylon, renaming it Karduniash, ushering in a dynasty that lasted for 435 years, until 1160 BC. Babylon was weakened during the Kassite era, and as

7920-522: Was not as we see it today. In Mesopotamia, writing began as simple counting marks, sometimes alongside a non-arbitrary sign, in the form of a simple image, pressed into clay tokens or less commonly cut into wood, stone or pots. In that way, the exact number of goods involved in a transaction could be recorded. This convention began when people developed agriculture and settled into permanent communities that were centered on increasingly large and organized trading marketplaces. These marketplaces were purposed for

8010-439: Was perhaps the first city to reach a population above 200,000. Estimates for the maximum extent of its area range from 890 (3½ sq. mi.) to 900 ha (2,200 acres). The main sources of information about Babylon—excavation of the site itself, references in cuneiform texts found elsewhere in Mesopotamia, references in the Bible , descriptions in other classical writing, especially by Herodotus , and second-hand descriptions, citing

8100-580: Was relatively fluid and so the KI sign could be seen as the determinative, with the name of the city as BAR.BAR, perhaps pronounced Babbar. Paul-Alain Beaulieu proposes that the original name could mean "shining" "glowing" or "white". It would be likely that it was later read as Babbir, and then Babbil by swapping the consonant r with l. The earliest unambiguous mention to the city Babylon came from one of Shar-Kali-Sharri's year names, spelled as KA.DINGIR.KI, indicating that

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