Ancient Civilizations: Babylonia and Chaldean

Ancient Civilizations: Chaldean, or Neo-Babylonia

            The chaldeans chose to rebuild the old city of Babylon of the Amorites. This is why the Chaldean is called Neo-Babylonia. When the Assyrians were destroyed due to a civil war, they conquered the cities of Judah, kingdom of the Hudyo. They destroyed Jerusalem, with the temple of Yahweh under the reign of Nebuchadnezzar.

When they rebuilt the most beautiful city of their time, Babylon, they made it 2100 hectares vast. It was surrounded by numerous canals of water.

They adopted the ways of Sumer, the worship of the deities and gods of the Sumerian Pantheon.

In the insides of the city, they had cement road. Inside the Great Ziggurat, they had 53 temples, and a temple dedicated only to Marduk, the central god at the time.

Nebuchadnezzar was a great military leader, and he also paid respect to Hammurabi. He ordered his subordinates to construct the Hanging Gardens of Babylon for his wife.

There are many contributions that the chaldeans have made throughout the years it was alive. One of these many was Astronomy. Astronomy is the division of science that focuses on the study of the stars, planets, and other celestial bodies that can be seen in the skies. With the research about the moon's movement, they constructed a lunar calendar. As the name suggests, it was based on the movement, and shapes of the moon throughout the month.

They also studied the positions of the stars, the skies, solar and lunar eclipses, and many more. They believed it affects the very world around them. Their belief also led to the creation of Horoscopes and Zodiac Signs.

Ancient Civilizations: The Kingdom of Babylonia of the Amorites

             The old civilization of Babylonia is known as the kingdom of Hammurabi due to his achievements. He was the 6th King of the Amorites. Their capital city was named Babylon, as if it wasn't obvious enough.

Before, on the fateful year of 1163 BCE, Hammurabi conquered the whole land of the Sumer. By 1175, he had already conquered the Mesopotamian region.

In history, Hammurabi was known as a King of Justice. He made the famous code of his kingdom. The Code of Hammurabi was inscribed on the Stele, a big, black stone of diorite, and he positioned and moved it in the middle of the city for all to see. It is now displayed in the Louvre Museum in Paris.

The code of Hammurabi consisted of 280 laws and articles. It consisted of laws about trading, economy, familial ties, crime, security, and much more. It was built on the basis, or saying: an eye for an eye. Safe to say, they were the good guys.

Their contributions to civilizations were extremely large, most focused greatly upon mathematics. They invented the way of calculation for square root, reciprocal, exponential function, and cube roots. Most middle school students would be changing their minds right now about them being good guys. They also invented the duodecimal system, the 12 hours, 60 minutes, and 60 seconds system.

Unfortunately, their reign ended in 1600 BC. One of the reasons was the drying of the lands of Mesopotamia. This was temporarily solved by letting water flow to the fields of barley, and other crops, but like I stated, temporary.

Other reasons consisted of other groups, the rulers' incompetence, and the lacking military defense. The rulers failed to expand the lands, due to this bringing down the amount of help for the management of the kingdom. Also, they didn't possess a strong enough ruler, one as competent as Hammurabi.

The next problem was their military strength and defense. They failed to develop that aspect, and other groups, who were clearly superior on martial prowess and weaponry, took the opportunity to invade and conquer the kingdom of Babylonia. Two of these groups were very special, the Hittite, and the Kassite.

The Hittites developed weaponry forged out of iron. The Kassite also developed wheels that had rueda (spokes) allowing for better mobility. They also used horses on chariots to war, and ravaged the cities of Babylonia. Long ago, in 1595 BC, they invaded Mesopotamia, and destroyed the cities of Babylonia.

The reign of the land of Babylonia was left to the Kassite. However, they were war-oriented people, and didn't have leaders competent enough to lead the old kingdom. They failed to change anything, and this led to the Dark Ages of Mesopotamia.