Ancient Anunnaki and the Babylonian Empire

By Faruq Zamani

The earliest history of Babylon is little known. Among the many cities flourishing in southern Iraq, the town first appears in texts in the third millennium BC. Until the last century of the third millennium, few references existed to Babylon; however, offerings made to the temple of Enlil in Nippur during this period (when Babylon was part of an empire ruled by Ur) suggest a city already of some size and wealth. From relative obscurity in the middle of the 18th century BC, Babylon emerged as the political center of southern Mesopotamia. It held this position almost continuously for the next 1,400 years.

Near Baghdad, around 85 kilometers south of the Euphrates, is the site of Babylon. The area is located north of the great alluvial plain of southern Iraq, a landscape of silts deposited by the Tigris and Euphrates into a vast rift created by tectonic movement as the Arabian plate slips beneath the neighboring Eurasian plate. In addition to defining modern-day Iraq's northern and eastern boundaries, the Taurus and Zagros mountain ranges were created by the same collision. As a result, Mesopotamia encompasses several environmental zones, but Babylon itself is found in the flat alluvial plain in southern Iraq. In addition to containing one of the world's earliest cities3, the table is subject to several significant environmental constraints that have shaped human settlements since long before the foundation of Babylon. Rain-fed agriculture is beyond the reach of this area due to its high temperatures. Despite the little precipitation this part of Iraq receives, it is uneven and unreliable: the bulk of a season's rain can fall in a single downpour, damaging crops as severe droughts.4 Human habitation is dependent on the two great rivers, and the permanent settlement requires irrigation. Upon establishment, However, on the levees of canals, such a system could benefit from the rich alluvial soils and support highly productive agriculture. In explaining the region's early urbanization and accompanying economic development, many contend that the region's ability to produce large agricultural surpluses played a significant role, though in what way is hotly contested. Herodotus was undoubtedly impressed. As a grain-bearing country, Assyria [meaning Mesopotamia] is the richest globally, he writes in his description of the fifth century BC. Figs, grapes, olives, or other fruit trees are not grown there, but the grain fields tend to produce crops two hundredfold and three hundredfold in exceptional years. At least three inches wide are the wheat and barley blades. Millet and sesame grow to an astonishing size, as I know, but those who have not visited Babylon have refused to believe even what I have already described as its fertility. Sesame oil is the only oil they use, and date palms, most of which bear fruit, provide them with food, wine, and honey.

• Language: English
• Publisher: DTTV PUBLICATIONS
• Release date: Jun 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201322236

Faruq Zamani

Faruq Zamani is the world's foremost expert on the oldest known language. Sumerian is said to have been understood by the scholar better than anyone since the beginning of the second millennium B.C. His academic contributions are nothing short of incredible. Unlike any other scholar, he helped shape the modern study of Sumerology. Using modern linguistics and fundamental principles about how languages are structured, Faruq Zamani forged new territory in the understanding of the language by looking at it in a more sophisticated way than had been done before.Faruq Zamani is the world's foremost expert on the oldest known language. Sumerian is said to have been understood by the scholar better than anyone since the beginning of the second millennium B.C. His academic contributions are nothing short of incredible. Unlike any other scholar, he helped shape the modern study of Sumerology. Using modern linguistics and fundamental principles about how languages are structured, Faruq Zamani forged new territory in the understanding of the language by looking at it in a more sophisticated way than had been done before.

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FARUQ ZAMANI

The earliest history of Babylon is little known. Among the many cities flourishing in southern Iraq, the town first appears in texts in the third millennium BC. Until the last century of the third millennium, few references existed to Babylon; however, offerings made to the temple of Enlil in Nippur during this period (when Babylon was part of an empire ruled by Ur) suggest a city already of some size and wealth. From relative obscurity in the middle of the 18th century BC, Babylon emerged as the political center of southern Mesopotamia. It held this position almost continuously for the next 1,400 years.

Near Baghdad, around 85 kilometers south of the Euphrates, is the site of Babylon. The area is located north of the great alluvial plain of southern Iraq, a landscape of silts deposited by the Tigris and Euphrates into a vast rift created by tectonic movement as the Arabian plate slips beneath the neighboring Eurasian plate. In addition to defining modern-day Iraq's northern and eastern boundaries, the Taurus and Zagros mountain ranges were created by the same collision. As a result, Mesopotamia encompasses several environmental zones, but Babylon itself is found in the flat alluvial plain in southern Iraq. In addition to containing one of the world's earliest cities3, the table is subject to several significant environmental constraints that have shaped human settlements since long before the foundation of Babylon. Rain-fed agriculture is beyond the reach of this area due to its high temperatures. Despite the little precipitation this part of Iraq receives, it is uneven and unreliable: the bulk of a season's rain can fall in a single downpour, damaging crops as severe droughts.4 Human habitation is dependent on the two great rivers, and the permanent settlement requires irrigation. Upon establishment, However, on the levees of canals, such a system could benefit from the rich alluvial soils and support highly productive agriculture. In explaining the region's early urbanization and accompanying economic development, many contend that the region's ability to produce large agricultural surpluses played a significant role, though in what way is hotly contested. Herodotus was undoubtedly impressed. As a grain-bearing country, Assyria [meaning Mesopotamia] is the richest globally, he writes in his description of the fifth century BC. Figs, grapes, olives, or other fruit trees are not grown there, but the grain fields tend to produce crops two hundredfold and three hundredfold in exceptional years. At least three inches wide are the wheat and barley blades. Millet and sesame grow to an astonishing size, as I know, but those who have not visited Babylon have refused to believe even what I have already described as its fertility. Sesame oil is the only oil they use, and date palms, most of which bear fruit, provide them with food, wine, and honey.

It was necessary to constantly maintain the infrastructure that facilitated such abundance, including the irrigation system and the parallel drainage system, since water can also bring salt to the surface through capillary action, making the land too saline for agriculture.

Water control was an essential source of power and conflict during the ancient world, just as it is today as Iraq and its upstream neighbors Turkey and Syria struggle with competing water demands. Although labor organization requirements resulting from this need may not have been the primary driving force behind the earliest urbanization during the fourth millennium BC, where canal systems were relatively modest, it is clear that by the middle of the third millennium BC, a large amount of labor was required to maintain significant canal systems.7 This very flat area is also subject to natural or artificial changes in river courses. Similarly, massive engineering projects to change watercourses figure prominently in ancient Greek stories about Babylon, where watercourse changes are an essential military strategy.

The majority of our knowledge about Babylon has come from excavations conducted by the Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft between 1899 and 1917.

It has been challenging to explore Babylon's early history due to the high water table. Excavations concentrated on the later phases of occupation, mainly Nebuchadnezzar II's (604-562 BC) reconstruction of the city center in the sixth century BC. Several older monuments, including the famous Code of Hammurabi, were actually found in the Iranian city of Susa. These treasures were looted from Babylon and carried there in antiquity by the Elamite king Shutruk-Nahhunte (c.1185?1155 BC) in the 12th century BC. Moreover, the cult statues of Marduk, the city's chief god, and his consort Zarpanitu were among the booty from the same invasion. His name was derived from an illustrious predecessor who, at the end of the twelfth century BC, recovered Babylon's honor and prosperity when he recovered the statues.

Ancient Babylonia

As Mesopotamia developed into a polity of more considerable powers during the 3rd millennium BC, there were no longer city-states, but larger states, even empires. During the later centuries of the third millennium, archaeologists have been unable to determine the exact location of Akkad (a city in southern Iraq whose precise location has not yet been determined), Ur, and finally, the rival powers of Isin and Larsa ruled multiple towns in the south. It is believed that the rise of Babylon to a position of central political importance dates back to Hammurabi's reign (1790-1752 BC), the most famous king of an Amorite dynasty based on their likely tribal origins who ruled from the early nineteenth century BC. Following a period of territorial competition in which the cities of Isin and Larsa had dominated, Babylon gained the upper hand, first as the leader of a coalition, then as the sole ruler. By the end of Hammurabi's reign in the mid-eighteenth century BC, Babylon had established hegemony over southern Iraq and a significant area to the north. The urban, literate Mesopotamian world had been around for over a millennium by this time, as had the civic institutions. Hammurabi's modern title of 'lawgiver,' which he has been given since then, does not quite do him justice; instead, his political and military successes make him the most crucial figure. The conquest of Larsa allowed him to claim the title of King of Sumer and Akkad (i.e., southern Iraq as well), which was followed by the conquest of Mari to the north and eventually of Ashur and Nineveh.

As Hammurabi established Babylon's superiority among the cities of southern Iraq, it was successfully defended, although the so-called Sealand Dynasty1 challenged it heavily in the south. The First Dynasty of Babylon, rulers since the early nineteenth century BC, retained power and part of Hammurabi's territory until 1595 BC.

As another and even more enduring legacy, Babylon remained the principal political center of southern Mesopotamia (which from this point forward we can call Babylonia) until the time of Seleucus I Nicator and the founding of Seleucia on the Tigris near the end of the 4th century BC. Babylon's rise to power as a powerful city has been the subject of legend, which is entirely appropriate. The Code of Hammurabi, popularly known as the world's first code of laws, is one of the most important and iconic objects in the Mesopotamian collection of the Musée du Louvre. Its laws are still the first cuneiform texts studied by students of Assyriology (the study of Ancient Mesopotamian languages and literature). There are older lists of laws that exist, but the number of laws and