![]() ![]() In part, our sensitivity to this issue is a response to the tendency of past historians, including many of those working in Europe in the 1800s, to assume that there was a natural progression from an uncivilized state to civilization. If we use the term carelessly, it seems to indicate that some societies are deemed civilized and worthy of inclusion, while others are uncivilized and thus not worth our study. ![]() In addition to heated debates about its exact definition, civilization is a loaded term, meaning that it can contain a value judgment. The list here is not all-inclusive by any means, but it indicates the complexity of the societies that scholars have labeled civilizations. Common characteristics of civilizations included food surpluses, higher population densities, social stratification, systems of taxation, labor specialization, regular trade, and accumulated learning (or knowledge passed down from generation to generation). These recent scholars also continue to debate the definition of civilization, and the current compromise amongst World Historians is to recognize characteristics that civilizations tended to share. However, more recent scholars have definitely broadened the geographical focus by recognizing that worldwide from 3500 to 1000 BCE at least seven independent civilizations emerged in different regions. America’s origins in these western civilizations was used to explain our own high level of development. In their studies, civilizations were advanced societies with urban centers, rooted in European or Middle Eastern culture. In the United States, students of history studied Western Civilization, almost exclusively, through the 1950s. The term civilization often elicits mostly idealized images of ancient empires, monumental architecture, and the luxurious lives of ruling classes. Finally, in 1595 BCE, the Hittites, under Mursil I, conquered Babylon and unseated the Babylonian king, Samsuditana, bringing an end to Hammurabi's dynasty.\) By the end of the 18th century, Assyria had freed itself from the Babylonians. Towards the latter part of the 18th century BCE, the empire lost a large amount of its southern territory facing the Persian Gulf, where the ancient cities of Ur and Uruk were located. The first Babylonian Empire began to decline after Hammurabi's death. It was taken to the Louvre museum in Paris, where it remains to this day. A French archeological expedition in 1901 rediscovered the stele. The code itself appears below this relief. ![]() On top of the stele is a carving of Hammurabi receiving the law from Shamash, the Babylonian God of justice. ![]() The Code of Hammurabi was written in cuneiform on a black stone stele, carved from a single four-ton slab of diorite. But if the person he killed were a slave, he would only have to make financial restitution. For example, if a doctor killed a rich patient, his hands would be cut off. The Code of Hammurabi set different standards of justice for the three classes of Babylonian society: the propertied class, freedmen, and slaves. The code also laid out the nature of the relationship between Hammurabi, the gods that the Babylonians worshipped, and the people that the Babylonian emperor ruled over. Among them was a shrine called Esagil, which stood at 280 feet tall, nearly equaling the size of a modern-day, 26-story office building. There were also several palaces and shrines built in Babylon. miles, roughly the size of Chicago today. These walls were 40 feet tall, and according to the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, were so thick that chariot races were held on top of them. Later on, an additional three rings of walls were built. Walls encircling the city were first built in the 18th century BCE. Another Biblical reference to Babylon tells of the Jews' captivity in the city.Īncient Babylon consisted of several structures, including the Walls of Babylon. In response, God destroyed the tower, scattered all humankind across the world, and made them speak different languages so that they could not understand each other. One of the earliest mentions of Babylon is in the 'Book of Genesis' as the 'city in which the Tower of Babel was built.' According to the Biblical account, humans who wanted to reach God in the heavens built this tower. Babylon is mentioned several times in the Bible. ![]()
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