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Trying to find the true beginnings of things
leads me to investigate Iraq and its true beginnings.
They had a
form of irrigation.
There were two
names Mesopotamia the Greek
name meaning 'between the rivers' these were the Tigris and
Euphrates. The south was called Babylonia and it was also
called Mesopotamia. At
first there were many pagan beliefs then it became a
Christian country later in approx 637 AD it took the Muslim
belief although some Christianity remained. The name changed
after the first world war for reasons unknow
it became Iraq. Mesopotamia became great before
oil or gas. In Mesopotamia, Egyptian ties became evident.
Although the Romans did many things for us. But it was
said if we are tired of Iraq then we are
tired of life. If looked into many biblical events took place
there. Is it known that they created one of the seven
great wonders of the world with the hanging gardens and walls
of Babylon. Do we know there were strong biblical ties in
Genesis , Kings and others. The first trading was with India
although later some took place with Egypt. Exchanges took
place through kings children to secure friendship and avoid
hostilities with neighbouring countries.
Society
Their structure
seemed to be wardum (slave) then awilum (free citizen),
muskenum (subject of the king) but there were muskenum wardum
also there were villeins who were the lowest of the
low not slaves but were not free to move around. They
were descendants of the free citizens whom had lost some of
their rights in consequence of economic adversity. They
also introduced a strong legal system known as Hammurabi's
law. They also produced the first dynasties.
Inventions
They produced the
first forms of writing on pottery then later used papyrus. So
we can say they began methods of comunication. They also
produced pottery then the potters wheel and the
first wheel used in chariots. Horses were first trained
there. The first forms of art with algebraic
mathematics came from them as they introduced the
calculations for a year and the length of a day although they
calculated this to be broken down into 360 gish's but the
24hours was later introduced by the Greeks.
Chronological
chart
3500 Late
Uruk (3500-3000 bc)
Beginning
of urbanisation, Specialisation, Writing,
3400 Use of cylinder seals,
Predominant language uncertain, Advances in irrigation. Uruk
becomes the first
large urban complex
(120-200 ha)
3300 Potters wheel and
plough invented,
3200 Monumental Building;
temples, Much use of copper, Deities increasing
anthropomorphic.
3000 Jamdat Nasr
(3000-2900 bc)
Writing
system now represents Sumerian. Temple on platform as
prototype of ziggurat. Further urban
complexes
developing.
2900 Early Dynastic I
(2900-2750 bc)
Possible
major flood (deluge traditions?). Technological advances in
stone- working and building.
2800 More cities develop.
Semitic speakers present in south Mesopotamia (perhaps sooner).
Early
Dynastic II (2750-2600 bc)
Development of city
states. First dynasty of Kish.
2700 Gilgamesh. Beginning of
inter city warfare. Building of city defence walls. Growth of
temple estates.
2600 Early Dynastic IIIa
(2600-2500 bc)
Royal
tombs of Ur. Earliest literary tablets
from Abu Salabikh and Fara. Growth of temple and royal
estates.
2500 Early Dynastic
IIIb (2500-2371 bc)
Growing
social stratification. Increase in royal power. Sumarian and
institutions spread abroad.
2400 Agade period (perhaps
2371-c. 2200 bc, but dates
disputable)
First
empire founded by Sargon (2371-2316 bc), maintained by
descendants until Naram-Sin (2291
-2255 bc).
2300 Trade links by sea with
India. Beginning of
Amorite immigration. Rebellion, Invasion, imperial
collapse. Recovery of
city states.
2200 Gutain period (date
disputable)
Some city
states in south Babylonia
flourish.
2100 Third dynasty of
Ur (commonly given as
2113-2006 bc, but perhaps earlier)
Centralisation. Law
giving. Scribal schools. King controls temple estates.
International trade. Increasing
Amorite immigration.
Demise of Sumerian spoken language.
2000 Isin-Larsa (or Old Babylonian
Period, to include first dynasty of Babylon)
Breakdown
of centralised government. Growth of economy outside state
sector. Emergence of
dynasties
Of Amorite
origin.
1900 First Dynasty of Babylon
(commonly given as 1894-1595 bc, but
perhaps earlier)
Rise of
Babylon from minor city to
become one of the major powers in north Babylonia.
1800 Hammurabi(1792-1750 bc)
makes Babylon supreme.
‘Code’ of
laws. Rigid social stratification. Development of irrigation and
agriculture.
1700 Distribution of land
grants to royal officers. Flowering of literature and
mathematics. Rise of Kassites
from
Zagros, and sealands dynasty in south. Decline of dynasty of
Babylon.
1600 Hittie raid on
Babylon brings collapse(1595
bc)
Kassite dynasty
(c. 1570-1157 bc)
Rise of hurrains in north-west Mesopotamia and
Syria. Spread of
Babylonian cultural influence.
1500 Beginning use of
horses for military purposes. Assyria briefly a vassal of
hurrians.
1400 Babylonia enters into
trading relations with Egypt. Beginning of
Armaean migrations. Considerable
Scribal
activity in editing ancient texts. Much building work.
1300 Assyrians Begin to
dominate Babylonia.
Tukulti-ninurta 1 of Assyria takes Babylon
and rules for seven
years. Subsequent Kassite recovery.
1200 Invasion by Elamites.
Collapse of Kassite dynasty.
Second dynasty of Isin
(1156-1025 bc)
Nebuchadnezzar
1 (1124-1103 bc)
1100 Inaugurates brief
period of expansion eastwards. Babylonian decline under
pressure from immigrant
1000 aramaeans. Weak native
kings in Babylonia.
900 Assyrian
intervention in Babylonian affairs. Appearance of Chaldeans in
south babylonia.
800 Chaldrean rulers
briefly seize throne of Babylonia.
700 Assyrian
hegemony
Merodach-baladan rebels and becomes king(721-710
bc)
Sennacherib sacks Babylon (689bc). Civil war
(652-648 bc); Assyrian victory.
600 Neo-babylonian
dynasty(626-539 bc)
Nabopolassar (626-605 bc). Attack on Assyrian empire
jointly with Medes. Nineveh taken(612 bc)
Nebuchadnezzar
II (604-562 bc); major rebuilding of Babylon.
Nabonidus (555-539 bc);
economic and religious problems.
500 Cyrus the
Persian conquers babylonia (539 bc)
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The Hanging Gardens
of Babylon and walls
Some stories
indicate the Hanging Gardens towered hundreds of feet
into the air, but archaeological explorations indicate a
more modest, but still impressive, height.
(Copyright Lee Krystek,
1998)
The ancient city of Babylon, under King
Nebuchadnezzar II, must have been a wonder to the
traveler's eyes. "In addition to its size," wrote
Herodotus, a historian in 450 BC, "Babylon
surpasses in splendor any city in the known world."
Herodotus claimed the outer walls were 56
miles in length, 80 feet thick and 320 feet high. Wide
enough, he said, to allow a four-horse chariot to turn.
The inner walls were "not so thick as the first, but
hardly less strong." Inside the walls were fortresses
and temples containing immense statues of solid gold.
Rising above the city was the famous Tower of Babel, a
temple to the god Marduk, that seemed to reach to the
heavens.
While archaeological examination has
disputed some of Herodotus's claims (the outer walls
seem to be only 10 miles long and not nearly as high)
his narrative does give us a sense of how awesome the
features of the city appeared to those that visited it.
Interestingly enough, though, one of the city's most
spectacular sites is not even mentioned by Herodotus:
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the
Ancient World.
Accounts indicate that the garden was
built by King Nebuchadnezzar, who ruled the city for 43
years starting in 605 BC (There is a less-reliable,
alternative story that the gardens were built by the
Assyrian Queen Semiramis during her five year reign
starting in 810 BC). This was the height of the city's
power and influence and King Nebuchadnezzar constructed
an astonishing array of temples, streets, palaces and
walls.
According to accounts, the gardens were
built to cheer up Nebuchadnezzar's homesick wife,
Amyitis. Amyitis, daughter of the king of the Medes, was
married to Nebuchadnezzar to create an alliance between
the nations. The land she came from, though, was green,
rugged and mountainous, and she found the flat,
sun-baked terrain of Mesopotamia depressing. The king
decided to recreate her homeland by building an
artificial mountain with rooftop gardens.
The Hanging Gardens probably did not
really "hang" in the sense of being suspended from
cables or ropes. The name comes from an inexact
translation of the Greek word kremastos or the
Latin word pensilis, which mean not just
"hanging", but "overhanging" as in the case of a terrace
or balcony.
The Greek geographer Strabo, who
described the gardens in first century BC, wrote, "It
consists of vaulted terraces raised one above another,
and resting upon cube-shaped pillars. These are hollow
and filled with earth to allow trees of the largest size
to be planted. The pillars, the vaults, and terraces are
constructed of baked brick and asphalt."
"The ascent to the highest story is by
stairs, and at their side are water engines, by means of
which persons, appointed expressly for the purpose, are
continually employed in raising water from the Euphrates
into the garden."
Strabo touchs on what, to the ancients,
was probably the most amazing part of the garden.
Babylon rarely received rain and for the garden to
survive it would have had to been irrigated by using
water from the nearby Euphrates River. That meant
lifting the water far into the air so it could flow down
through the terraces, watering the plants at each level.
This was probably done by means of a "chain pump."
 A chain pump is two large
wheels, one above the other, connected by a chain. On
the chain arehung buckets. Below the bottom wheel is a
pool with the water source. As the wheel is turned, the
buckets dip into the pool and pick up water. The chain
then lifts them to the upper wheel, where the buckets
are tipped and dumped into an upper pool. The chain then
carries the empty ones back down to be refilled.
The pool at the top of the gardens could
then be released by gates into channels which acted as
artificial streams to water the gardens. The pump wheel
below was attached to a shaft and a handle. By turning
the handle slaves provided the power to run the
contraption.
Construction of the garden wasn't only
complicated by getting the water up to the top, but also
by having to avoid having the liquid ruin the foundation
once it was released. Since stone was difficult to get
on the Mesopotamian plain, most of the architecture in
Babel utilized brick. The bricks were composed of clay
mixed with chopped straw and baked in the sun. The
bricks were then joined with bitumen, a slimy substance,
which acted as a mortar. These bricks quickly dissolved
when soaked with water. For most buildings in Babel this
wasn't a problem because rain was so rare. However, the
gardens were continually exposed to irrigation and the
foundation had to be protected.
Diodorus Siculus, a Greek
historian, stated that the platforms on which the garden
stood consisted of huge slabs of stone (otherwise
unheard of in Babel), covered with layers of reed,
asphalt and tiles. Over this was put "a covering with
sheets of lead, that the wet which drenched through the
earth might not rot the foundation. Upon all these was
laid earth of a convenient depth, sufficient for the
growth of the greatest trees. When the soil was laid
even and smooth, it was planted with all sorts of trees,
which both for greatness and beauty might delight the
spectators."
How big were the gardens? Diodorus tells
us it was about 400 feet wide by 400 feet long and more
than 80 feet high. Other accounts indicate the height
was equal to the outer city walls. Walls that Herodotus
said were 320 feet high.
In any case the gardens were an amazing
sight: A green, leafy, artificial mountain rising off
the plain. But did it actually exist? After all,
Herodotus never mentions it.
This was one of the questions that
occurred to German archaeologist Robert Koldewey
in 1899. For centuries before that the ancient city of
Babel was nothing but a mound of muddy debris. Though
unlike many ancient locations, the city's position was
well-known, nothing visible remained of its
architecture. Koldewey dug on the Babel site for some
fourteen years and unearthed many of its features
including the outer walls, inner walls, foundation of
the Tower of Babel, Nebuchadnezzar's palaces and the
wide processional roadway which passed through the heart
of the city.
While excavating the Southern Citadel,
Koldewey discovered a basement with fourteen large rooms
with stone arch ceilings. Ancient records indicated that
only two locations in the city had made use of stone,
the north wall of the Northern Citadel, and the Hanging
Gardens. The north wall of the Northern Citadel had
already been found and had, indeed, contained stone.
This made it seem likely that Koldewey had found the
cellar of the gardens.
He continued exploring the area and
discovered many of the features reported by Diodorus.
Finally a room was unearthed with three large, strange
holes in the floor. Koldewey concluded this had been the
location of the chain pumps that raised the water to the
garden's roof.
The foundations that Koldewey discovered
measured some 100 by 150 feet. Smaller than the
measurements described by ancient historians, but still
impressive.
While Koldewey was convinced he'd found
the gardens, some modern archaeologists call his
discovery into question arguing that this location is
too far from the river to have be irrigated with the
amount of water that would have been required. Also
tablets recently found at the site suggest that the
location was used for administrative and/or storage
purposes, not as a pleasure garden.
Wherever the location of the gardens were,
we can only wonder if Queen Amyitis was happy with her
fantastic present, or if she continued to pine for the
green mountains of her homeland.
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click here for Pictures of Babylon Gardens and
maps of area
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