Lesson Outline• Powerful New Kingdoms• The Laws of Hammurabi• A Common Heritage

How were Assyriaand Babyloniaalike and different?VOCABULARY

code of lawaqueduct

BUILD BACKGROUND"The people ... feared to engage in battle with

me; they. .. fled like birds to the' peaks of the lofty

mountains. The terror of Ashur my Lord [king}overwhelmed them." These are the words of aking who ruled Mesopotamia in about 1150 B.C.

Copy this chart.Write data aboutAssyria in one circleand data aboutBabylonia in theother circle. Writecommon features inthe center.

Ashur, later known as Assyria, was a large king-dom to the north of Sumer. To defend themselves,the people of Assyria developed a powerful armyled into battle by their kings. By the early 11OOsB.C.,

Assyria had conquered much of Mesopotamia.

You Are Here1750 B.C. - 611 B.C.

. -~ ~.-.-.--~----,------ ----- ._._- ,---_.-- - ~-~ - ~-.~ -~ - .... _.. --~ -3000 B.C. 2500 B.C. 2000 B.C. 1500 B.C. 1000 B.C. 500 B.C. A.D. 1

_L 1_ _ _J __-'---- 1 _I _ ,

POWERFUL NEW KINGDOMSAs you read, Sargon ruled Sumer for

about 56 years. The empire he establishedunited Mesopotamia and ruled it forabout 100 years.

The Growth of AssyriaSome of the other city-states in

Mesopotamia began to expand. Onef them was about 400 miles northf Surner. It was called Ashur, which was

o the name of its chief god. "The.....andof Ashur," or Assyria, had its own.anguage and its own gods. However, it

ared the traditions of Mesopotamia.cor example, it used cuneiform and had

nquered nearby cities. Most Assyrians- ed in cities or were farmers, raising

ainly barley and dairy cattle. Its largest.. es were Ashur and Nineveh.

King to the Southt around the same time, a powerful

- -state in southern Mesopotamia,ed Babylon, began to reunite the city-es of Sumer. Its king, Hammurabi

moo RAH bee), built dams acrosse Euphrates River. This gave him the

er to control the river's water flow toe floods or droughts downstream.-states below Babylon had to cooper-

with Hammurabi or face disaster. By~o B.C., Hammurabi controlled all of

opotamia including Ashur and Nin-

lshtar Gate was one of the- gates of Babylon.

eveh. Because his capital was Babylon,his empire was called Babylonia.

Silver, timber, copper, wine, and othertrade goods from the Fertile Crescent andTurkey passed through Babylon. SoonBabylon became the wealthy and power-ful capital of a great empire.

How did Hammurabi gaincontrol of Mesopotamia?

······.,..·······

so 150 300 miles! !

. F I Io 150 300 kilometersLambert Azimuthal Equidistant Projection

1. Why was Babylon well located torule its empire?

2. What city on the map would havebeen controlled by Babylon's dams?

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THE LAWS OF HAMMURABIHammurabi ruled Babylon, much as

the Sumerian kings had ruled their cities.He ordered the building and repair ofcanals. He also acted as a judge, usingtraditional Sumerian laws to make hislegal decisions. ,

We know about the laws of Ham-murabi because of a discovery made in1901. An archaeologist discovered a six-foot pillar with a picture of Hammurabiand 200 of his laws carved in cuneiformletters. Historians could now study thelaws of Harnmurabi, written 4,000 yearsearlier.

This code of law is called the Codeof Hammurabi. A code of law is a writtencollection of the laws that apply to thepeople ruled by one government.

Words to Live ByCopies of Hammurabi's laws were

found allover his empire. This meansthat he expected all citizens to obeythem. Hammurabi's laws dealt witheverything. There were laws for divorce,for workers' pay, for doctors' fees, andeven for clumsy barbers! The code alsotells us that Babylonia had slavery andthat everyone was not equal underthe code of laws.

The following excerpt isfrom the Code of Ham-murabi. It tells you some-thing about justicein Babylonia.

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excerpt from

the Code of Hammurabi- about 1800 B.C.

[So} that the strong may not oppressthe weak, to give justice to the orphanand the widow, I have inscribed myprecious words ....

If a Freeman has put out the eye ofanother Freeman, they shall put outhis eye.

If he breaks the bone of anotherFreeman, they shall break his bone. ,

If he puts out the eye of a Poor Man,or breaks the bone of a Poor Man, heshall pay 1 mina [17.5ounces} of sil-ver.If he puts out the eye of the Slaveof another Freeman, ... he shall payhalf his price.

If anyone be too lazy to keep his dam ~in proper condition ... if then the dambreak and all the fields be flooded;then shall he ... be sold for money

[as a slave}, and the money shallreplace the com uihicn he

has ... ruined.

What do Hammurabi's\

laws tell us about thevalues of Babyloniansociety?

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A Time of War /After the death of Hammurabi, the

Babylonian Empire began to weaken.Ashur and Nineveh were am?ng the firstcities to breakaway. Assyria then began

ars to conquer the Fertile Crescent.Between 1400 and 600 B.C. Assyria

ought many wars against Babylon andother city-states. By 600 B.C., the AssyrianEmpire stretched from Egypt to the Per-.an Gulf and north into the area that is

modern Turkey.Assyria's armies were famous and

feared because they had new ways ofaking war. They used special battering

rams and towers on wheels to destroy theralls of enemy cities. The Assyrians were

al 0 among the first people to use fast,orse-drawn chariots for war. Warriors inariots were both faster and more

angerous in battle.

syrian City LifeThe Assyrians brought prisoners of war

-0 their growing cities as slaves. These

slaves worked farmlands or were put towork on building projects. Some prison-ers managed to escape and return to theirhomes. Others started families and stayedin Assyria. They learned new skills andbecame Assyrian citizens. Assyrian menwere famous as hunters, soldiers, andgovernment leaders. Assyrian women hadno legal rights. They stayed home andcared for their families.

Why was Assyria able toconquer all of its neighborsso easily?

. A war chariot leads Assyrian soldiers into battle in.: this stone carving from the royal palace in Nineveh.

1. At the height of itspower, the AssyrianEmpire occupiedwhich continents?

2. Which groups ofpeoples remainedoutside the Assyr-

PERSIANS ian Empire?

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A COMMON HERITAGEThe rulers of Assyria deeply respected

Babylon's culture. The Assyrians collectedlarge libraries of Sumerian and Babylon-ian texts. Almost all of the knowledge wehave of Babylon comes from records inNineveh's royal library.

Nineveh was on the Tigris River, whichmade trade easy and provided water. Oneof Nineveh's rulers brought water fromeven farther away. He constructed /

I

a raised waterway called an aqueduct.It carried water from 30 miles awa1.

\

Ishtar Gate

Euphrates River

What made Babylon adifficult city to capture?

. 2. How might a person walk 'from the ziggurat tothe Ishtar Gate?

· Nineveh Is Destroyed·· In 689 B.C. the Assyrian king was

threatened by a revolt in Babylon. Heordered the city to be destroyed. His

· soldiers looted Babylon's temples andburned its homes and palaces. They

: flooded Babylon with river water.· Babylon fought back. Finally, in 611• B.C. Babylon and its allies destroyed Nin-

eveh. Assyria never recovered, but Baby-.' : Ion had one last period of glory.

~\NG~ Why and how wasthe

~ ....Assyrian.Empire defeated?

'"-,/., ,.;,.c~~,..·'J;~\i·••••~':<··/", ' .

Did theHangingGal'dens ofBaby/on exist?

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were one ofe Seven Wonders ofthe World. However, it isssible that they never existed. The Greek who

- uded them in the list was repeating a leg-about a Babylonian king. The king built the

dens to please a wife who missed her homethe mountains. The gardens are not men-

ed in Babylonian records, and archaeolo-have found no clues in the ruins ofon. Most historians today agree that theing Gardens are probably a myth.

1 are the Hanging Gardens consid- .a myth today?

--e one sentence for each vocabulary

code of law

id Hammurabi send copies of his lawall over his empire?

t ways were Babylon and Assyriaow were they different?

id the Assyrians bring water to_. 7.es.

- Hammurabi solve the problem- g other city-states to cooperate- plans?

PUTTING IT TOGETHERFor over 1,000 years Babylon was at the

center of Mesopotamian civilization.Under kings such as Hammurabi, its tra-ditions built on the culture of Sumer toexcel in literature and the arts. Even afterthey conquered Babylon, the Assyriansrecognized that it was the most impor-tant city of Mesopotamia. The two citiesshared gods and many traditions. Afterthe defeat of Assyria, Babylon lost itspower but continued as a rich andimportant city.

IThis elegant daggermight have been carriedby a military officer.

Look at the map on page 69. Make atwo-column chart. In one column, list thepresent-day countries that are located inthe area of the Assyrian Empire.ln thesecond column, list the cities that wereinside the Assyrian Empire.

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Write a letter for the king of Babylonto send to the rulers of other Mesopo-tamian cities. Try to convince the rulers tojoin Babylon in ending Assyria's rule.

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