HH-05-Babylon

The Land of the Fertile Crescent

4000 Sumer, Acadians’ 2500-2300 Hammurabi 1945-1905, Old Babylonia 1750 BC

Hittites 2000 –1200 BC

Era of Small Nations: Phoenicians, Hebrews, Arameans (1750-700 B.C.)

The period of Assyrian dominance (700-600 B.C.)

Lydians New Babylonia , the empire of the Chaldeans (600-539 B.C.)

The Persian empire (539-333 B.C,)

Location of the Fertile Crescent. During the three thousand years and more when the Egyptians were building pyramids, perfecting writing and the calendar, and developing commerce, equally important advances in civilization were being made in an area not far removed from the land of the pharaohs, a belt of territory now called the Fertile Crescent. Bounding the great Arabian desert on the north, east, and west, this narrow band of fertile land starts at the Persian Gulf and extends to the north, skirting the desert through Babylonia and Mesopotamia, then turns west and bows south through Syria and Palestine along the Mediterranean to the desert of Sinai on the borders of Egypt.

Mountains and high plateaus serve as boundaries of the Fertile Crescent on the north and east. In this elevated region lived restless Indo-European peoples who persistently pushed their way into the inviting narrow crescent of fertile land. Within the arc of the crescent were another people. desert nomads called Semites, mainly Arabs and Hebrews, who, driven by hunger and a desire for easier living, were continually fighting their way into the Fertile Crescent. Unlike Egypt, which was protected by the natural barriers of desert on the east and west, the Nile's cataracts to .the south, and the sea to the north, and hence suffered few invasions and interruptions to the continuity of her civilization, the Fertile Crescent was the scene of constant warfare. This took the form of continual struggle between the Indo-European hill folk and the Semitic desert people for control of the fertile land belt that edged the desert. Although at times promising civilizations were cut short by the shock of war, this was perhaps more than amply compensated for by the stimulating effects of the culture impacts of the movements and transplantations of peoples. Despite much warfare, therefore, the achievements in civilization made by the inhabitants of the Fertile Crescent do not suffer in comparison with those made along the Nile. The rise and fall of numerous nations, however, make the history of the Fertile Crescent rather complex. In order to simplify the story, the development of civilization in the Fertile Crescent may be divided into the following periods:

Old Babylonia, the second cradle of western civilization (4000-1750 B.C.)

The Age of Transition and the Era of Small Nations (175°-7°0 B.C.)

The period of Assyrian dominance (700-600 B.C.)

New Babylonia, the empire of the Chaldeans (600-539 B.C.)

The Persian empire (539-333 B.C,)

Old Babylonia: The Second Cradle of Western Civilization

The plain of Shinar. The first great civilization in the Fertile Crescent, like that of Egypt, was fluvial. It had its origin in a rich plain which extended about one hundred seventy miles north of the Persian Gulf between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. These two rivers rise in the mountains of eastern Asia Minor and flow southeast in a roughly parallel direction. Just less than two -hundred miles from the gulf, they ,emerge from the desert, approach each other very closely, and flow through a flat valley of alluvial soil that was brought down from the north and deposited by the rivers. This plain was early called Shinar, and later it came to be known as Babylonia. Although the term Mesopotamia was originally used to refer only to the land between the two rivers north of Shinar, today it includes all the territory between the rivers from Asia Minor to the Persian Gulf. Since 1918 the latter area, with its capital at Bagdad, has been known as Iraq.

It was no accident that civilization should appear early in the plain of Shinar. There the soil was very rich, the summers warm, and the winters mild. There was little rainfall, but, as in Egypt, there was an annual flood of the rivers. Dependence upon flood water led, as along the Nile, to the development of irrigation. which in turn encouraged cooperation between the various groups of people living in the valley.

Early Sumerian culture. The people in western Asia who first inaugurated a civilization superior to the Neolithic stage were the Sumerians. Details of their racial origin are meager, but they probably migrated from hilly country to the northeast into the plain of Shinar sometime before 4000 B..C. Overwhelming the Semitic inhabitants they found there, the Sumerians began to reclaim the marshes, build irrigation projects, and develop a settled community life. By 3500 B.C. they had achieved an advanced civilization with flourishing cities, well-organized city-state government, the use of metal, and the perfection of a system of writing called cuneiform. The latter, like the Egyptian system, started with a pictographic stage and by 4000 B.C. had evolved into a phonetic scheme of writing, in which each of 350 signs represented a complete word or a syllable, In writing, the Sumerians used a square-tipped reed to make impressions in soft clay tablets. The impressions took on a characteristic wedge shape; hence the term cuneiform (Latin cunus, wedge). Many other people, such as the Hittites, the Babylonians, and Persians, adapted this same system of writing to their own languages, and cuneiform continued in use until the Phoenician alphabet superseded it just before the time of the birth of Christ.

The southern portion of Shinar, which now became known as Sumer, saw the development of several independent Sumerian city-states, each of which was under a ruler who served as the war leader, the supervisor of the irrigation system, and the high priest. No strong centralized government was evolved by the Sumerians, and their history is mainly a chronicle of continual fighting between Ur and rival cities. The most prosperous period of the diminutive city-kingdoms was from 2900 to 2500 B.C. Ur was the earliest city to obtain the leadership of Summer, and its first ruler, Mesannipadda, is one of the earliest-known kings in western Asia. The inability of the Sumerians to unite proved their undoing, for in the twenty-sixth century B.C. Semitic people from Akkad, on the plain of Shinar, invaded Summer and became masters of the entire plain.

Advent of the Akkadians. For two hundred years, from 2500 to 2300 B.C., the Semitic: Akkadians ruled over an empire which extended froro the Persian Gulf far up into Mesopotamia. Its founder was the great warrior Sargon, whose conquests made a profound impression on the peoples of the Near East. Although the Sumerian cities were subjugated, their culture was not destroyed. The hardy but primitive Semites led by Sargon readily adopted Sumerian writing, for they had none of their own, accepted the Sumerian calendar, and borrowed the business methods and city habits of their late adversaries. In short, there was a general mingling of peoples and cultures.

Renewal of Sumerian supremacy. The absence of the rigors of nomadic life on the desert and the new-found luxuries of sedentary life in the Sumerian cities weakened the descendents of Sargon and his fellow conquerors and ended the first Semitic empire after barely two centuries of existence. In its place again rose the old Sumerian cities. The city of Ur about 2300 B.C. successfully imposed its rule over the entire plain of Shinar, and its ruler called himself the King of Summer and Akkad. Its supremacy, however, was short lived, ending after a century. The rule of Ur was followed by even shorter periods of dominance by other Sumerian cities.

Hamrriurabi's second Semitic empire. Just before the end of the third millennium, two streams of invaders completely crushed the old Sumero-Akkadian power. The Semitic Amorites from Syria, under the leadership of their capable king Hammurabi ,(1948-1905 BC), finally brought all Sumer and Akkad under one rule. They even extended their sway to Assyria, a region in the northeast corner of the Fertile Crescent. Babylon, heretofore an obscure village on the Euphrates, was made their capital and became So important that the plain of Shinar was known from then on as Babylonia. After the founding of the second Semitic empire the Sumerians never again figured politically in history. Their civilization, however, persisted as the foundation for all subsequent civilizations in Syria and the Tigris-Euphrates valley.

Sumerian cities. The Sumerians were city dwellers and lived in small cities situated on artificial mounds around which were erected walls for defense purposes. Within were the dwellings of the inhabitants, constructed of sun-baked bricks. Houses were usually rectangular in shape, and each had a court on its north side. In the middle of every town, constituting the center of its activities and its most sacred and important edifice, was the temple.

Economic and social life. Agriculture was the basic economic activity. Outside the Sumerian towns extended well-tilled fields, whose fertile soil was skillfully watered by irrigation ditches. We have the word of Herodotus that "the whole land of Babylonia is, like Egypt, cut up by canals." Barley, oats, and dates were produced in huge quantities, and domesticated cattle and goats made possible a flourishing dairy industry. The use of the plow was common, and here the first sowing machine was invented. Wheeled carts and chariots were in use. The Sumerians are given credit £or introducing wheeled vehicles. The use of the wheel facilitated transportation enormously. Heretofore it had been necessary to carry things or drag them, which limited the size of the load. The Egyptians used the wheel but probably borrowed it from their Fertile Crescent neighbors.

Although industry lagged behind agriculture, there were numerous distinct crafts, with skilled artisans and their apprentices turning out beautiful metalwork and exquisite textile goods. Raw materials for manufacturing were obtained from the north, made into finished products, and then exported to pay for imported wares. Active trade was carried on by the Sumerians over a wide area. Caravans journeyed north and west via the Fertile Crescent to the eastern Mediterranean and Egypt. Contact between Egypt and Summer explains the similarity of several items of their culture. Both used the pear-shaped war mace and balanced animal figures in decorative art. Reliable evidence has recently been found indicating Sumerian trade connections with India. The Sumerians were, above all, a practical business people: Credits and loans were carefully regulated; a mass of contractual business records has survived.

Social organization followed the same general pattern as that in Egypt. There was a close connection between government and religion. Rulers were considered divine and absolute. Social gradations based on wealth were the rule, as in Egypt, but in Summer the lines between classes were drawn more rigidly, and the principle of social inequality was enshrined in law.

Architecture and art. The monuments and sculptures of Egypt have resisted the ravages of time surprisingly well, but not so in Summer. An absence of stone there forced builders and architects to use sun dried bricks. Before fierce sandstorms and destructive floods the Sumerian cities, common dwellings and temples alike. soon disintegrated into shapeless mounds of refuse.

But the artistic and architectural achievements of Summer have not been lost entirely. For a century archaeologists have been burrowing into many such mounds and have exposed the delineaments of temples and recovered priceless art objects. We know, £or example, that one royal palace (3500 B.G.) was constructed on an elaborate plan, that it utilized great stairs, and that its walls were decorated with human and animal figures. We know that the Sumerians were familiar with the arch, vault, and dome. The lack of large stones meant that the post and lintel construction characteristically used in Egypt was impossible in Sumeria. Solid brick walls with roofs presumably of wood were the general rule. Although these builders experimented with the arch and vault, such devices were not used on a large scale until the time of the Romans.

The most important buildings of the Sumerians were the temple towers, or ziggurats. Every town had such an edifice, dedicated to its patron deity. The typical ziggurat consisted of several stories, or levels, each stepped back and smaller than its predecessor. On one side was a great triple stairway, like a ramp, converging upon the entrance into the shrine of the god. Each story was given a different symbolic color. One might be black to represent the underworld, another red to indicate this world, and a third blue to symbolize the sky and the heavens. Profuse use was made of trees and gardens on the stepped-back terraces. Rising high above the flat valley floor, the vari-colored temples with their rows of terraced verdure shimmering under the brilliant sun must have presented a spectacle of great beauty.

A signature seal and its impression, showing a Sumerian ruler in audience with his local god. Seated on his throne, a dragon snake springing from each shoulder, the bearded god gestures impressively, while behind the ruler his protective goddess raises her hands to intercede. The sun and moon are symbols which guided the ruler's destiny.

Sumerian harp with gold bulls head

The Egyptians, on the whole, surpassed the Sumerians in art. Scarcity of stone was a serious handicap to Sumerian sculpture. As a result, portrait sculpture never attained the excellence achieved by the Egyptians during the Old Kingdom. Generally speaking, Sumerian sculpture consisted of relief’s used for decorative and narrative purposes and small figures, or figurines. Strong, muscular people were typical subjects of Sumerian sculpture. The figures were squat and heavy and their features were depicted simply. Figurines of animals were, however, more skillfully executed.

Heraldic devices originated with the Sumerians. Ultimately such symbolic devices became widely copied by rulers and governments for their insignias and coats of arms. Our American eagle, for example, is an adaptation of the Sumerian eagle of five thousand years ago.

Perhaps the most delicate artistic work of the Sumerians was their seal cutting and metal work. Small seals of cylindrical stone were carved in low relief in ornamental pictorial designs of great beauty involving infinite patience and expert technique. Every important citizen had his seal, which he constantly used to "sign" letters and documents written on clay tablets. The seal shown in the picture above belonged to a wealthy Sumerian, possibly a ruler of one of the cities. The interesting wedge-shaped relief patterns on the clay impression are cuneiform characters in reverse, having been impressed on the seal itself in the usual manner. Metal ornaments, vessels, and weapons found when the royal tombs at Ur were uncovered show a high degree of artistic ability; The harp with the golden bull's head shows Sumerian skill in handling the medium of gold. The mosaics decorating its base are patterned of shell and lapis lazuli, and the bull has a delicate beard of lapis lazuli.

Religion. Religion occupied almost as important a place in Sumerian life as it did in Egyptian. But there were significant differences. The Sumerians were little concerned with the future life. They had no conception of heaven or hell and placed little emphasis upon the ethical aspects of human behavior. Religion was for them primarily an instrument to guide and control man's activities on earth, a belie£ in keeping with the practical nature of the Sumerian people. Each Sumerian city had its favorite god.

Literature. The literature of the Sumerians, and that of the later Babylonians and Assyrians, which was based upon it, was largely religious in origin and content. Two great epics are outstanding, one relating the story of creation and the other the story of the flood. Their legends are also notable: the stories of Etana, the shepherd who searched the heavens for the herb which was the source of life; of the fisherman Adapa, the first man, Who like Adam lost the treasure of immortal life; and of Tammuz, who came back from the lower world.

Sumerian literature is more significant than that of Egypt, for it included the first great historical and mythological epics. The two Sumerian epics of the flood and the creation are similar to the later Hebrew stories of those events, as found in the Old Testament. The flood epic was adopted by the later Semitic Babylonians and incorporated in the longest and most beautiful of their epics, Gilgamesh. In it are recounted the adventures of Gilgamesh, a Sumerian Ulysses Who sought to gain immortal life but failed and who heard the story of the flood from the Noah of Babylon, Ut-napishtim. The remarkable resemblances between the Babylonian epic and the later flood story as found in Genesis can be seen in the following lines from Gilgamesh.

What I had, I loaded thereon, the whole harvest of life

I caused to embark within the vessel; all my family and relations,

The beasts of the field, the cattle of the field,

the craftsmen, I made them all embark.

I entered the vessel and closed the door. ...

I sent forth a dove, I released it;

It went, the dove, it came back,

As there was no place it came back. ...

I gent forth a crow, I released it;

It went, the crow, and beheld the subsidence of the waters;

It eats, it splashes about, it claws, it comes not back.

Other Sumerian contributions. The Sumerians made numerous other contributions to civilization. They invented certain techniques of warfare. The military phalanx, in its elementary form, was probably their invention. In mathematics they made important progress. They originated a number system based upon the unit 60, which today is the basis for dividing a circle into 360 degrees

(60 x 6) and an hour into 60 minutes. They devised geometric formulas to compute the areas of triangles and irregular four-sided figures and also formulated the earliest known cubic equation. Additional gifts to civilization were the beginnings of city-state government and the foundations of business organization. Summer also furnishes the earliest documents relating to international law, the most ancient international compacts, and the earliest known example of an attempt to settle a dispute by arbitration instead of going to war over it.

Sumerian .shortcomings. Notwithstanding such important contributions, Sumerian civilization exhibited certain ills which were generally characteristic of all civilizations in the Ancient Near East. A large proportion of the population were slaves, government was despotic, and men suffered from the tyranny of a priesthood which forced complete acceptance of traditional ideas .and gave little opportunity for intellectual freedom. .

Semitic culture. In the land of Sumer and Akkad the Sumerians did not enjoy a monopoly of significant contributions. The rude Semitic tribes from the desert and from far-off Syria which invaded Shinar simply copied Sumerian culture at the outset, but soon they were making contributions of their own. Sargon's empire was progressive, but the second period of Semite dominance was especially rich in original contributions. We have already seen that Semitic people named Amorites established themselves in Summer and Akkad about 2050 B;C. making Babylon their capital, and that Hammurabi, the sixth king of his line, subjugated the entire plain. So important did the new capital become that we usually lump together all the various peoples who figure in the history of the plain from the earliest time to about 1750 B.C. Sumerians, Amorites, and all others - and refer to them as Babylonians and the period as Old Babylonia.

Hammurabi was one of the greatest rulers of the ancient world. We are fortunate to possess fifty-five of his letters, which give a vivid picture of the Babylon of his day and reveal how the king's eagle eye supervised every phase of governmental activity. In these ancient burnt clay tablets we can see Hammurabi sending orders to his subordinates in the local districts, checking delinquent taxes, and ordering the dredging of the Euphrates and the canals.

Hammurabi receives his code from the sun god in the scene which heads the monument on which the code is carved.

Hammurabi's code. Valuable as his letters are, Hammurabi's law code is infinitely more important. It is the oldest code in existence. It is written in cuneiform on a black diorite monument nearly eight feet high. The code of Hammurabi is notable for the harshness of its punishments, which invoke the lex talionis principle, "an eye for an eye." For example it stipulated: "If a man destroy the eye of another man, they shall destroy his eye." Implicit obedience of their father was demanded from children, for we read: "If a son strike his father, they shall cut off his fingers." Medical quacks and corrupt building contractors were punished also: "If a physician operate on a man for a severe wound with a bronze lancet and cause the man's death; or open an abscess (in the eye) of a man. ..and destroy the man's eye, they shall cut off his fingers." And again: "If a builder build a house for a man and do not make its construction firm, and the house which he has built collapse and cause the death of the owner of the house, that builder shall be put to death:” But while punishments were stern, on the whole, the code attempted to secure a crude form of justice. Punishments were graded in their severity so that the higher the culprit in the social scale, the more severe the penalty. The status of women was fairly high, but in the main the code was designed for a man's world. The following clause refers to an erring wife: "If she has not been economical, but a gadder-about, has neglected her house and belittled her husband, they shall throw that woman into the street." The code shows that punishment for offenses was no longer in private hands by recourse to the blood feud between families but that justice had become a function of the state.

Achievements under Hammurabi. The age of Hammurabi, when compared to the Sumerian period, is not especially notable for advances in civilization. It is particularly lacking in art. During the first Semitic period, under Sargon, there had been some artistic advance, especially in sculpture. But during the age of Hammurabi seal cutting and sculpture declined. .

The Semites of Old Babylonia made their mark in law and government. They also adapted the old Sumerian legends into such great epics as Gilgamesh. Of very great significance was the development of business procedures during the age of Hammurabi. During his time wills, promissory notes, and all kinds of witnessed and sealed documents were being used. Here was the invention of what we now call commercial paper. It was not until about 1500 A.D, with the rise of modern capitalism, that western Europe utilized a more advanced variety of contractual instruments in business.

The Age of Transition and the Era of Small Nations

Eclipse of civilization in Babylonia. The empire of Hammurabi was of short duration. Soon after his death hostile mountaineers from the east invaded the plain of Shinar. By 1750 B.C. they had become its masters and remained so for six hundred years. The Old Babylonian civilization described in the previous section, so brilliantly inaugurated by the Sumerians and carried forward by the Semites under Hammurabi and his house, went into an eclipse from which it did not emerge for more than a thousand years.

The Hittite empire. The center of emphasis now shifts to the lands of the Near East bordering the Mediterranean-to Asia Minor, Syria, and Palestine. During the Hyksos domination in Egypt (1788-1580 B.C.), a powerful new empire arose in the north central part of Asia Minor. The Hittites, who inhabited this area, rapidly extended their influence after 2000 B.C. and reached their height of power about 1500 B.C., when they controlled much of Asia Minor and Syria. The rapid expansion of the Hittites down the western band of the Fertile Crescent aroused the fear of the Egyptians, and a long and desperate struggle ensued between the two powers. This so weakened the antagonists that the Hittite empire fell apart about 1200 B.C., and Egyptian power collapsed in the following century.

We may note in passing that during this period of turmoil and transition the Aegean world was also in confusion. As we shall see in our discussion of Greece, during the period from 2000 to 1400 B.C. a highly cultivated civilization had developed in the eastern Mediterranean with its center at Cnossus on the island of Crete. But shortly after the beginning of the second millennium, streams of northern invaders-Indo-European tribes whom we now call Greeks-invaded the Aegean world and by 400 B.C. had destroyed Aegean culture. Another such Indo-European attack overwhelmed the Hittite empire.

What part did the Hittites play in the history of civilization? Until a few years ago they were a people of mystery, neglected by most historians. Recent discoveries, however, are demonstrating that such neglect was hardly justified. Imposing ruins of a once-great city have been uncovered in modern Turkey together with over 20,000 clay tablets. Hittite civilization was not equal to that in Babylonia or Egypt. The Hittite empire was a group of semi-independent clans acknowledging one king rather than a strongly organized and autocratic state. But it had considerable influence on contemporary civilizations. Its use of guardian lions and sculptured relief’s in architecture was copied by the Assyrians, and it influenced the diffusion of the art of writing. Babylonian clay tablets probably came to Crete through the Hittites. Most important is the fact that they were among the earliest people to work Iron, and through them that metal was distributed throughout the Near East.

An era of small nations. Following the collapse of the Hittites about 1200 B.C., the peoples of the Fertile Crescent were without a master power. Egypt was weak, Babylonia was impotent, and Assyria was just beginning to be powerful. The Near East as yet did not need to £ear the Greeks, since from about 1200 to 800 B.C. the newcomers in the Aegean world were experiencing the "middle ages" of their history, a period of little advance in civilization or power. For nearly five hundred years a number of small states flourished in the Fertile Crescent. Many individual cultures had an opportunity to develop, because no one state could impose uniformity.

As we have seen, Babylonia was subject to constant infiltration of Semitic peoples from the adjacent desert. Similarly, droves of nomadic Semites had pushed west into Syria-Palestine, the narrow band of land fronting the eastern Mediterranean. Most important of these peoples were the Phoenicians, the Arameans, and the Hebrews. The country in which they settled was a narrow avenue of land four hundred miles long and from eighty to a hundred miles wide. It was admirably located for trade. In north Syria were splendid harbors. But Syria-Palestine was not fitted to support the rise of a great power; its natural resources and its area were too limited. It has always been the prey of strong powers, and only the absence of such powers in the period from 1200 to 700 explains why small independent monarchies were permitted to develop there and make a brief bid for historical fame.

The Lydians. The most powerful state to arise in Asia Minor following the end of the Hittite empire was Lydia. Under their king Croesus the Lydians reached the height of their power in the early sixth century B.C. The wealth derived from valuable gold-bearing streams and prosperous commerce made Lydia the envy of its neighbors, and even today the phrase "rich as Croesus" is a reminder of Lydian opulence. As early as the ninth century B.C. Lydia originated coined money, a most important invention. Unlike the several small states in Syria, such as those of the Phoenicians, Hebrews, and Arameans, Lydia was able to maintain its independence against the Assyrians but finally fell a victim to the Persian army in the sixth century B.C.

The Phoenicians. Little is known of the early history of the Phoenicians. It is believed that this Semitic people entered the western band of the Fertile Crescent during the third millennium B.C. They founded a number of coastal settlements, the mountain ranges protecting them from attack on the land side. Their cities were all seaports, the most important being Tyre and Sidon. The Phoenicians were successively conquered by Sargon and Hammurabi, and about 1600 B.C. the Egyptian pharaoh brought them under his influence. For another £our hundred years they remained under foreign rule until about 1200 BC, when the decline of Crete, of the Hittite empire, and of Egyptian power gave them an opportunity to play an independent role. In a remarkably short period they became the greatest traders, navigators, and colonizers before the Greeks and were rivals of the, Greeks for many years. Their settlements could be found in the Mediterranean area, of which the greatest colony was Carthage. Passing though the Strait of Gibraltar, intrepid Phoenician sailors founded a settlement on the Atlantic coast of Spain and even ventured down the west coast of Africa.

The Phoenicians were skilled manufacturers. Their purple dye became famous, and their textiles, metal goods, and glassware had a wide market. They learned most of their industrial skill from Egypt. As the preeminent middlemen and great international traders of their age they acted as the intermediaries between the west and the east. These Phoenician traders brought to the Greeks a desire for the luxuries of the Near East, as well as some knowledge of oriental art.

There was little originality in Phoenician civilization, except perhaps for their skill in navigation and their business methods. The Phoenicians were not creative. They have left behind no literature, and their art is negligible. Yet as imitators they made their most important contribution, the perfection of the alphabet. The origin of the alphabet is still a moot question. Perhaps between 1800 and 1600 B.C. certain western Semitic peoples, influenced by the Egyptian semi-alphabetic writing, started to evolve a simplified method of writing. The Phoenicians, seeing the value of this, carried on the experiment and developed a system made up of individual consonants. Their alphabet consisted of twenty-two consonant signs (the vowel signs were later introduced by the Greeks). The Phoenicians arranged their signs in a definite order, their first two symbols being aleph and beth. Our word alphabet reminds us that the Phoenicians are primarily responsible for alphabetic writing.

The Phoenicians never became a politically united people. They were evidently not interested in conquest or fighting. Rather they influenced the advance of civilization through peace, colonization, and trade.

The Arameans. Another Semitic people, similar to the Phoenicians, were the Arameans. Entering the fertile region around Damascus during the latter half of the second millennium B.C., the Arameans established a group of prosperous little kingdoms, the most important of which was Damascus. Situated at the head of the caravan route to Babylonia, the Arameans served the caravans just as the Phoenician harbors served Mediterranean shipping. The Arameans have therefore been called the" Phoenicians of inner Asia. For several hundred years the Aramean cities acted as a buffer against Assyrian expansion into Syria and Palestine, enabling the Hebrew kingdoms to enjoy national independence much longer than would otherwise have been possible. In 732 B.C., however, the Arameans fell before the might of Assyria, just as the Phoenicians had lost their independence to the same power a century earlier, in 854 B.C.

Political domination by the Assyrians, however, did riot terminate the influence of the Arameans. Energetic Aramean merchants still took their trade caravans allover western Asia. They were excellent scribes and businessmen and often found employment in Babylonia, Assyria, and Persia. The Arameans, realizing the advantages of the Phoenician alphabet, used it in preference to the Babylonian cuneiform. Aramean merchants in their caravans carried bills and receipts in the simplified writing all over the Fertile Crescent. The alphabet was thus widely diffused and rapidly displaced the use of cuneiform. Its use then spread to Babylonia, Persia, Assyria, and even to India.

In the centuries just before the time of Christ, Aramaic became the general language of the entire Fertile Crescent. It even displaced Hebrew in Palestine. On this point M. I. Rostovtzeff says: "It is still a puzzle how they were able to drive out of general use the Babylonian language and cuneiform writing, which had been to some extent international in the second millennium, and to have their own speech and character accepted instead." Whatever the reason, the Arameans serve as an early example of trade as a carrier of civilization, a frequent phenomenon in history.

The Hebrews. Accompanying the Arameans into the Fertile Crescent was another Semitic people who are called Hebrews, Israelites, or Jews. Racially these people were probably a mingling of several types. Their mixing with the Hittites may have given the Hebrews their characteristic aquiline nose, for it is not originally Semitic. In war, diplomacy, architecture, and art the Hebrews made little splash in the stream of history, but in the fields of ethics and religion their contributions to world civilization were tremendous. It has been said that no other people in history so few in number and so weak in political power, except the Greeks, have so influenced civilization.

Tradition has it that the Hebrews originally made their home in the lower Euphrates valley and that Abraham was their patriarchal founder. Nomads £or hundreds of years, they wandered in search of a homeland that offered a reasonable chance to develop a prosperous and contented society. From 1400 to 1200 D.C. they filtered into the land of Canaan, later to be called Palestine, a small region tucked between the desert and the sea. It was only 150 miles long, about the size of the state of Vermont. Another group of tribes had, according to tradition, been enslaved by the Egyptians. They were led out of bondage by the great national hero Moses, who gave his people the Ten Commandments and a new conception of God. Nearly all of Palestine was at that time in the hands of the Canaanites, a mixed Semitic and Hittite people. The conquest of these people by the Hebrews took a long time, for the various tribes were slow to unite against their common enemy.

When the Canaanites had been subjugated, another and far more dangerous foe appeared. The Philistines (from whom we get the word Palestine) came originally from southern Asia Minor and from certain Mediterranean islands, chiefly Crete. Capable and warlike, they drove the Hebrews to the hill country.

About 1025 B.C., however, the Hebrews, led by Saul, a popular leader who was made king, began a series of revolts against the Philistines. Saul was defeated and thereupon committed suicide, but his place was taken by David, who, like Saul, was a military man. He was in addition endowed with religious fervor and a strong capacity for political leadership. King David (1000-960 B.C.) made Jerusalem, an impregnable stronghold, the center of his power and speedily subjugated the Philistines. A promising kingdom was now established, the strongest in the region of Palestine-Syria.

Palestine reached the height of its influence and power during the reign of Solomon, David's son. Solomon became one of the leading patrons of trade in the Near East. He owned a fleet in partnership with the king of Tyre. Living in oriental luxury, he loved display and built a magnificent temple at Jerusalem. His influence and power enabled him to claim a daughter of a pharaoh as his wife. But his kingdom was short-lived. Solomon taxed his people so heavily that discontent was aroused, which led in his son's reign to the secession of the northern part of Palestine. There were now two Hebrew kingdoms, Israel in the north and Judah in the south. Thus weakened, the Hebrews were in no position to defend themselves. In 722 B.C. the Assyrians captured the capital of Israel, and the northern kingdom came to an end. The Assyrian king Sennacherib then attacked Jerusalem, but a mysterious plague decimated his army, and for the time being Judah was saved. But in 586 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar, the Chaldean from Babylonia, destroyed Jerusalem and carried the inhabitants into exile. The Hebrew nation had been conquered after only some 450 years of existence. Following the defeat of the Chaideans by the Persians about fifty years later, however, the Hebrews were permitted to return to Jerusalem, where they restored the temple destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar.

After Persian rule came that of the Greeks and the Romans. The Jews rebelled against the rule of the Roman Caesars. For four years savage fighting desolated the Holy Land, and in 70 A.D. Jerusalem was totally destroyed and her population massacred or scattered. The Jews were driven to all parts of the earth, and the Diaspora-the "scattering"-was at its height.

The story of the past nineteen centuries is replete with sorrow and tragedy for the Jewish people. To the miseries of the medieval ghetto (the residence quarter to which the Jew was restricted) was added the horror of the pogrom (organized massacre) in early modern times, and during the past ten years there has been brutal persecution in many lands, especially in Nazi Germany. Only with this back-ground in mind can one understand present day Jewish Zionism, the effort to create a new homeland in modern Palestine.

The Hebrew religion. In the beginning, Hebrew religion was a primitive polytheism, or worship of many gods. Gradually there was developed the concept of one tribal god, Yahveh Gehovah), who was a stern, warlike deity. After their entrance into Palestine many of the Hebrews adopted the religious customs of the Canaanites as well as their more sophisticated and luxurious manner of living, This was especially true of the northern Hebrews. In the south there .was much resentment against the renunciation of Hebrew traditions. Many people chafed .against the growth of wealth and consequent social injustice in the north and idealized the simplicity and purity of the old folk traditions, the adventures of the patriarchs such as Abraham, Isaac, and Joseph.

About 750 B.C. a succession of great spiritual, leaders, the Hebrew Prophets, began to try to purge Hebrew thought and religion of all corrupting influence in order to elevate and dignify the concept of Yahveh. In inspired messages such Prophets as Amos, Isaiah, and Ezekiel taught that the Hebrew God was a loving Father, that He alone was the only and the true God of the universe. During the Babylonian captivity the Hebrew exiles at first seemed crushed by their misfortune, but a great unknown Prophet again emphasized in a series of soul-stirring speeches that Yahveh was the sole God and that the tribulations of the Hebrews were according to God's design, for only through suffering could a people be prepared for true greatness. When Cyrus the Persian defeated the Chaldeans, and the Hebrews were permitted to return to Palestine, they came back with renewed faith in their destiny and a new comprehension of their religion. They had now attained a monotheistic religion, that is, a belief in one God. Coupled with this was their belief that a Messiah would arise among them to establish an ideal order on earth.

Upon the return to Jerusalem the old writings of the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms were arranged and collected. It was not until Christian times that these were. put into one book, which we call the Old Testament. Its influence upon western civilization is incalculable. The phraseology of the Bible has become an integral part of nearly all European languages. We unconsciously use such Biblical expressions as "a land flowing with milk and honey," "eat, drink, and be merry," "a still, small voice," "an apple of one's eye," and such suggestions as "Put not thy trust in princes," "Go to the ant, thou sluggard," and "Righteousness exalteth a nation." An example of the great literature to be found in the Old Testament is this famous passage from the Book of Ecclesiastes:

Remember now thy Creator in the days of a of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;

While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not .darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain:

In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened,

And the doors shall be shut in the streets; when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and ,

all the daughters of music shall be brought low;

Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, arid desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets:

Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.

Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

The Period of Assyrian Dominance

Assyrian expansion. By 700 B.C., although Lydia and the Hebrew kingdom of Judah still retained their independence, the era of such small states as those of the Arameans, Phoenicians, and Hebrews was ended. A new power, Assyria, was ready to make a bid for empire which was to give her complete mastery of the Fertile Crescent in just three generations. The secret of her meteoric rise lies in the nature of her people and in her geographical position. Assyria was a highland region overlooking the Tigris River north of Babylon. Unlike Egypt, which was favored with protective barriers along most of her frontier, this country lay open on all sides to attack and invasion. For a thousand years the Assyrians were forced to struggle for survival, especially against the Babylonians and the Hittites. In the face of constant menace from invasion, Assyria had to conquer or be destroyed. Racially the Assyrians were a mixed stock, predominantly Semitic. Cradled in the invigorating climate of a highland region and schooled for a thousand years by constant war, the Assyrians, mostly peasants, became redoubtable soldiers. After several short periods of expansion, the Assyrians began their course of imperial conquest just before the close of the tenth century B.C. In 910 Babylon was conquered. A generation later Asurnasirpal II (884-860 B.C.) conducted a series of brilliant campaigns against the Arameans and marched to the Mediterranean. After a brief .period of decline, the process of expansion was again taken up by the Assyrian emperor Tiglath-Pileser, who again subdued Babylonia and recovered control over Syria. In 722 B.C. a new dynasty took over the government of Assyria. Its first emperor was Sargon II, who inaugurated a program of conquest which was to make Assyria the complete master of the Fertile Crescent by 700 B.C. The great Assyrian conqueror took the name of Sargon after the ruler of the first Semitic empire in the Tigris-Euphrates valley, some eighteen hundred years previously.

Assyrian methods of warfare. Sargon II and his descendants were the architects of the greatest empire in the western world before the sixth ,century B.C. What was the secret of its creation? The answer is threefold: a matchless army, the terrorization of all people who resisted As Syrian rule, and the most advanced system of provincial administration thus far developed by any people. The Assyrian empire existed by and for its army, which was the most highly trained and most efficient of its day. It was the first to be completely equipped with iron weapons. The bow, with vicious iron-tipped arrows, was its principal weapon. After a stream of well-directed arrows had weakened the enemy, the Assyrian heavy cavalry and chariots would smash with relentless fury the ranks of their foes, driving them headlong from the field. All the ancient world dreaded these fighters, "whose arrows were sharp and all their bows bent; the horses' hooves were like flint and their wheels like a whirlwind." After victory came great feasts and celebrations of triumph, Huge parades were held in which the conquering soldiers showed off their booty and long lines of miserable prisoners who were soon to suffer cruel deaths of torture. The climax came in an orgy of feasting and drinking in which the whole populace participated.

The second factor explaining the success of the Assyrians in making their empire was their use of systematic terrorization. Perhaps no people in history have been so frankly cruel and heartless. Following a battle the Assyrian soldiers would search the field for wounded foes, whose heads would be cut off and brought back to camp. Assyrian military history is a dreadful chronicle of massacres, the burning of cities, and barbarous cruelties to captives. In boasting of his exploits, one Assyrian emperor inscribed on a monument, "Their booty and possessions, cattle, sheep, I carried away; many captives I burned with fire. I reared a column of the living and a column of heads. I hung up on high their heads on trees in the vicinity of their city. Their boys and girls I burned up in flame. I devastated the city, dug it up, in fire burned it; I annihilated it."

Assyrian political administration. The third factor in the success of the Assyrian empire was the well coordinated system of political administration developed by its rulers. Here the Assyrians made their one valuable contribution. Within the empire a closely knit cosmopolitan civilization developed, for now there was peaceful contact and trade among heretofore warring peoples. The forcible transplantation of people from their homeland after conquest by the Assyrians, although an inhuman act, in the long run served to make civilization more cosmopolitan, to bring the inventions and customs of one people to the attention of others. The advent of the Assyrians brought a new epoch in political history. By using new agencies of internal organization and centralization, they created a better coordinated state than the Egyptian empire. Royal messengers continually traversed the empire, carrying the dictates of the emperor to his provincial governors. Communication between the ruler and his governors required roads, and thus the earliest system of nation-wide highways was inaugurated. The Assyrians also developed the first postal system.

These four Assyrians seem to be rowing their boat in opposite directions. At the right is a man fishing from a goat skin filled with air. The fancy stream is the Tigris.

Two Assyrian generals, making camp for the night, talk things over and perhaps exchange a toast. At the right a servant is making the bed for them. Outside the tent the camels and goats are settling down for the night on the desert.

Art and architecture. In order to glorify themselves and enhance their prestige, Assyrian rulers built imposing and luxurious palaces. Sargon's palace at Khorsabad, built into the wall of the city, was on a high platform, and its walls were thick and heavy, like a fortress. It contained not only the king's living quarters, and the royal stables but also a temple and a ziggurat. The arch, borrowed from Babylonia, became an impressive feature in Assyrian palace gates.

To guard the palace gateways, the Assyrians installed huge human-headed winged bulls carved from imported stone. In these and other Assyrian motifs can be seen combinations of beasts later used in European heraldry. These impressive creatures were carved with five legs so that they would not seem to be lacking a leg when seen from the front or the side. The Assyrians knew a great deal about the anatomy 0£ men and animals. They exaggerated and stylized muscles, suggesting strength and brutality. Beards and hair were also treated in conventionalized fashion.

The inside brick walls of the royal palaces were masked below with stone relief’s and painted above in bright colors. Assyrian cruelty and ferocity are reflected in the vigorous relief’s, especially in battle and hunting scenes. Although the men's beards and hair and the lions' muscles, manes, and claws in the above relief are all stylized, the figures are remarkably real, in contrast to the static and monumental winged bull. The winged bulls functioned primarily as symbolic architectural decoration, while the relief’s depicted action or told a story.

Lion hunt from Assurbanipal’s Palace

Sargon II Fortress Palace at Khorsaban (reconstruction)

Assurbanipal's library. Assyrian kings were apparently interested in preserving the past.

The annals of the kings were kept with unrivaled exactness. The emperor Assurbanipal collected .over 22,000 clay tablets, comprising the first great library. At immense cost and effort the knowledge of the Fertile Crescent was gathered for the royal bibliophile. Sumerian hymns, temple rituals, myths of creation and the deluge, grammars, and medical texts found their way to his library. On each tablet was the emperor's mark of ownership, and just as a modern library stamps a warning on its books against surreptitious removal, Assurbanipal had inscribed on his tablets: "Whosoever shall carry off this tablet may Assur and Relit overthrow him in wrath and anger, and destroy his home and posterity in the land”.

Decline of Assyria. The Assyrian empire obtained its main resources from booty and conquest. The failure of such a system was inevitable in the long run. About the middle of the seventh century B.C. evidences of decline became apparent. The sturdy Assyrian stock had been decimated by the long series of wars, the task of ruling such a huge empire was proving too difficult for the ruling class, and finally the cruelties of the Assyrians had made implacable foes intent on their downfall. To the south, Babylonia had come under the control of a new group of Semites, the Chaldeans, who revolted against Assyrian rule. Wild tribes roamed north of the Fertile Crescent, constantly threatening Assyrian frontiers. Also to the north and northeast, the Indo-European Medes and Persians were on the march. By 616 B.C. the Chaldeans had captured Babylonia, and in 612 these people, joining the Medes, attacked Nineveh, the Assyrian capital, which was captured and totally destroyed. Not one building was left standing. From one end of the Fertile Crescent to the other there .was rejoicing over the extermination of Assyria. In the words of the Hebrew Prophet Nahum, "All that look upon thee shall flee from thee and say, 'Nineveh is laid waste.' "

With the exception of their animal sculpture, their innovations in military science, and their ability as imperial administrators, the Asyrians made few original contributions to civilization. Their role was rather one of borrowing from the cultures of other peoples, unifying the best elements into a new product, and assisting in its dissemination over the Fertile Crescent.

New Babylonia: The Empire of the Chaldeans

The kingdom of the Medes. The destruction of the Assyrian empire in 612 B.C. left four powers to struggle over its legacy, the Medes and Persians, the Chaldeans, Egypt, and Lydia. The Medes were an Indo-European people who by 1000 B.C. had established themselves just east of Assyria. In the eighth century B.C. they had managed to create a strong kingdom with Ecbatana as capital. Under King Cyaxaras the Medes had extended their over lordship to the Persians, who lived east of the Tigris. The Persians were of the same racial ancestry as the Medes and for a time were content to be their vassals.

Winged Bull from Sargon’s Palace

New Babylonia. While the Median kingdom controlled the highland region, the Chaldeans, with their capital at Babylon, were masters of the Fertile Crescent. Nebuchadnezzar, becoming Chaldean king in 604 B.C., raised Babylonia to another epoch of brilliance after over 1000 years of weakness following the reign of Hammurabi. Nebuchadnezzar routed the Egyptians from Syria, thus terminating Egyptian aspiration to re-create another empire. When the little Hebrew kingdom of Judah rebelled against his rule, the Chaldean king destroyed Jerusalem (586 B.C.) and carried several thousand Hebrew captives to Babylon.

Babylon was now rebuilt and became one 0£ the greatest cities of its day. Herodotus, the Greek historian, has left us a graphic description of its huge size and the tremendous walls that were wide enough at the top to have rows of small houses on each side with a space between them large enough for the passage of a chariot. In the center of the city ran the famous Procession Street, which passed through, Ishtar Gate. This great arch, still standing, is the best example of Chaldean architecture. In the city there were also several imposing temples, the grandest of which was dedicated to the Chaldean deity Marduk. There was also the immense palace of Nebuchadnezzar. Inclosed by walls, the palace towered terrace upon terrace, each resplendent with masses of fernery, flowers, and trees. These roof gardens, the famous Hanging Gardens, were so beautiful that they were selected by the Greeks as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

Chaldean astronomy. New Babylonia made few original contributions to civilization apart from the field of science, but in astronomy her influence was profound. The Babylonians were interested in the stars as a means of foretelling the future. The observation of the stars with the view of showing their influence upon human affairs is called astrology, a pseudo science which still persists today. A reminder of its influence exists in our language idiom when we refer to our "lucky star" or to an "ill-starred venture." The interest of the Chaldeans in the heavens led to the identification of the twelve groups of stars identified under the twelve signs of the zodiac. Five planets were considered especially fateful in controlling the destinies of men. The names of the five most important Chaldean gods were applied to the five fateful stars. Later the Romans substituted the names of their gods. Thus the planet Marduk became Jupiter, Nabu was changed to Mercury, Ishtar to Venus, and so on.

Even though astronomy was primitive and illogical, it encouraged the systematic observation of the heavens. Astrology had been practiced in Old Babylon, but Ghaldean observations were much more accurate and complete. The prediction of eclipses was common, and continuous observations of the heavens were made for over three hundred years. One of the foremost Chaldean astronomers computed the length of the year to within twenty-six minutes.