The “New” Babylonia

The “New” BabyloniaO Hammurabi died about 1750 B.C.

O Babylonia began to fall apartO City-states rebelledO Armies from the mountains (north and

east) began taking the empire’s territory

O Still remained one of the most powerful cities in the F.C.

689 B.C.O Babylon was destroyed by powerful rulers

from NinevehO About 60 years later Babylonians were

able to rebuild Babylon O Made it a capital of an even stronger

empire

O Why might both Babylonian and non-Babylonian kings want to rebuild the city of Babylon?

The “New” BabylonO The new Babylon became the world’s

largest cityO Famous for it’s beauty and technologyO Two massive walls and a moat now

protected itO City was split in two by the

Euphrates River O Connected by a moveable bridge and

underwater tunnel

Babylon’s ZigguratO The cities Ziggurat was at the center

of the cityO It was 200 yards wide and rose 100

yards into the sky

Sorrow in BabylonO Not all people thought Babylon was

the greatest cityO Those newcomers were prisoners

brought from Israel

Sum It UpO Cuneiform probably developed as a

way to keep track of farm supplies and surplus.O The system was later expanded to

communicate more complex ideas as well.

O Mesopotamia was not always unified into a single empire. Both govt. and religion greatly shaped life on a local level.

Sum It Up cont. O Cuneiform writing helped Sargon,

king of Kish, to rule over great distances.

O The rise to power of Hammurabi made Babylon one of the world’s richest and most powerful cities in ancient times.

The Beginnings of Judaism

Practice and Project book: p. 27Anthology: Praying at the Western

Wall, pp. 24-25

The Big PictureO Hammurabi ruled, goods were traded

and people were traveling to Egypt and Mesopotamia

O Information about this time came from a source that millions of people continue to read todayO Collection of books known as the

Hebrew Bible

The Hebrew BibleO Original language was Hebrew

O Translated into almost every language on Earth

O Sacred to more than 17 million Jews todayO Christians and Muslims also read and

honor it

JudaismO Jewish people’s record of their

history and their religion

Gods & GoddessesO Ancient Sumer –

O Believed in many, many godsO Anything that happened to them

(good or bad) was the result of a god’s pleasure or displeasure

O Daily life was spent trying to please the godsO No matter how hard they tried, many

of their gods remained gloomy anyway

Gods & GoddessesO Ancient Babylon –

O Believed in most of the same gods as the Sumerians

O Babylonian gods behaved in a manner even more gloomy than before

O To Sumerians, Marduk was an important godO To Babylonians he was the most

important (and gloomy) god of all