An outline, era by era

Old Babylonian Empire

Code of Hammurabi (~1754 BCE)

Bronze Age · ~3300 – ~1200 BCE

The Old Babylonian Empire was the kingdom ruled from Babylon in southern Mesopotamia, in present-day Iraq, in the early second millennium BCE. Babylon was a modest city until Amorite kings, beginning with Sumu-abum around 1894 BCE, made it a ruling dynasty. Its sixth king, Hammurabi, reigned for about forty years (traditionally c. 1792 to 1750 BCE, on the middle chronology). He defeated Elam, Larsa, Eshnunna and Mari, and united most of Mesopotamia under Babylon.

Hammurabi is best known for the Code of Hammurabi, a long collection of laws inscribed on a black basalt stele around 1754 BCE. It deals with property, trade, family, debt, and injury, and it is among the best preserved law collections from the ancient world. Under Hammurabi's successors the empire shrank, and Babylon fell to a Hittite raid in about 1595 BCE (middle chronology). The period set the standard for Akkadian literature and scribal education, and Babylon stayed a leading cultural centre for well over a thousand years.

Things happened, and the rest is history

  1. Hammurabi's conquests unite Mesopotamia

    Event

    What happened

    In the 30th year of his reign, traditionally around 1763 BCE on the middle chronology, Hammurabi of Babylon defeats Elam and its allies, and in the following year he overthrows Rim-Sin of Larsa and takes over the south. Around 1761 BCE he defeats Mari, and soon afterwards he has its palace and city walls dismantled. Later year names also record the defeat of Eshnunna. The year names of his reign and his letters, many of them to his official Sin-iddinam in Larsa, record these campaigns and the administration of the conquered lands.

    The rest is history

    By the later part of his reign Hammurabi ruled most of Mesopotamia from Babylon, a city that had earlier been one small kingdom among several rivals. The unification gave him the wealth and the claim to universal kingship that lay behind his law collection, issued around 1754 BCE. The union did not last: under his son Samsu-iluna the south broke away, and the empire shrank. The conquests nonetheless made Babylon the political and cultural centre of southern Mesopotamia, and Babylonian became the standard form of Akkadian for later scholarship. The dynasty lasted until the Hittite raid on Babylon in about 1595 BCE.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryYear names of Hammurabi of Babylon. Akkadian and Sumerian date formulas, Old Babylonian period, c. 1792 to 1750 BCE.The yearly formulas record the campaigns against Elam, Larsa, Mari and Eshnunna.
    2. BookVan De Mieroop, Marc. King Hammurabi of Babylon: A Biography. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005.
    3. BookCharpin, Dominique. Hammurabi of Babylon. London: I. B. Tauris, 2012.

  2. The Amorite dynasty takes power at Babylon

    Event

    What happened

    After the collapse of the Third Dynasty of Ur around 2004 BCE, Amorite chiefs set up kingdoms in many cities of Mesopotamia, including Isin, Larsa and Babylon. Around 1894 BCE Sumu-abum is recorded as the first king of the dynasty at Babylon. His successors Sumu-la-El, Sabium and Apil-Sin hold a small kingdom and fortify the city, and Sin-muballit, the father of Hammurabi, expands it before Hammurabi takes the throne.

    The rest is history

    Babylon began as one small kingdom among several rivals in a land of competing Amorite states. Its early kings built walls, dug canals and recorded their achievements in year names, which gave the dynasty a lasting base. Sin-muballit's reign saw Babylon in conflict with Larsa, and the city's growth set the stage for Hammurabi's reign. His conquests and his law collection of around 1754 BCE came out of this dynasty, which ruled Babylon until the Hittite raid of about 1595 BCE. The dates before Hammurabi follow the middle chronology and are debated.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryBabylonian King List A. Akkadian list of kings, Old Babylonian period copies, c. 1800 to 1600 BCE.Names the kings of the Amorite dynasty of Babylon in order.
    2. BookVan De Mieroop, Marc. A History of the Ancient Near East, ca. 3000 to 323 BC. Oxford: Blackwell, 2004.
    3. BookCharpin, Dominique. Hammurabi of Babylon. London: I. B. Tauris, 2012.Covers the dynasty's rise before Hammurabi.

  3. Hammurabi receives the law from the sun god

    Origin story

    The legend

    Hammurabi stands before the seated god Shamash, god of the sun and justice, who hands him the rod and ring of rule. The king then has the laws carved on a great stone so that every wronged person can read them. The law is thought of as coming from heaven itself.

    The rest is history

    The scene is real, but it is a picture, not a record of a vision. It is carved at the top of the stele, which was found at Susa in 1901 to 1902 by a French expedition, and is now in the Louvre. The stele had been carried off to Susa as war booty by an Elamite king in the 12th century BCE. The prologue and epilogue say that Hammurabi was called by the gods to make justice shine in the land. The picture is best read as a royal claim to divine approval, not as a claim that Shamash wrote the laws.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryCode of Hammurabi. Akkadian law collection on a basalt stele, c. 1754 BCE. Musée du Louvre, Sb 8.
    2. BookRoth, Martha T. Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor. Writings from the Ancient World 6. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995.Standard English translation of the Code of Hammurabi.
    3. BookVan De Mieroop, Marc. King Hammurabi of Babylon: A Biography. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005.

  4. An eye for an eye: the first law code

    Popular belief

    The legend

    Hammurabi's code is the first law code in history, and it is a harsh one: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Every crime is punished with exactly the same harm, and the law is applied cruelly.

    The rest is history

    The code is not the first. Earlier collections survive from Ur-Namma of Ur (c. 2100 BCE), Lipit-Ishtar of Isin, and Eshnunna. Hammurabi's code does contain the talion principle, for instance that if a man destroys the eye of a free man, his own eye shall be destroyed. But penalties depended on social rank: a fine of silver was often due if the victim was a commoner or a slave. Many laws set fixed fines. Scholars also debate whether the code was applied as a statute in courts at all, since surviving court records rarely cite it. It may have been a showpiece of royal justice, or a work of scribal learning.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryCode of Hammurabi, laws 196 to 205. Akkadian, c. 1754 BCE. Musée du Louvre, Sb 8.
    2. BookRoth, Martha T. Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor. Writings from the Ancient World 6. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995.
    3. BookDriver, G. R., and John C. Miles. The Babylonian Laws. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1952 to 1955.

  5. Hammurabi's law as the source of Moses' law

    Popular belief

    The legend

    The laws of Moses in the Bible were copied directly from Hammurabi's code. Biblical law is said to be nothing more than a Babylonian code retold.

    The rest is history

    When the stele was found in 1901 to 1902, scholars quickly noted parallels with biblical law, such as the talion rule and the case of the goring ox in Exodus 21. This led to the so-called Babel und Bibel debate in Germany. Later study shows the parallels are real but not simple copying. Many Near Eastern law collections share similar cases, and scribes across the region copied Mesopotamian texts for centuries. Direct dependence on Hammurabi's stele is generally doubted, while a shared legal tradition is widely accepted. Cuneiform law was still being copied in the first millennium BCE.

    Sources

    1. BookWestbrook, Raymond, ed. A History of Ancient Near Eastern Law. 2 vols. Handbuch der Orientalistik 72. Leiden: Brill, 2003.
    2. BookRoth, Martha T. Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor. Writings from the Ancient World 6. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995.

  6. The Tower of Babel at Babylon

    Folk tale

    The legend

    The people of Babylon try to build a tower reaching heaven. God confuses their speech so they cannot understand one another, and they scatter across the earth.

    The rest is history

    The story comes from Genesis 11, written down many centuries after Hammurabi, and it reflects Babylon's later fame. It likely points to the ziggurat Etemenanki, the temple tower of Marduk. Babylon only became a great city of Marduk under Hammurabi's dynasty, when Marduk rose to lead the gods. The tower seen by later visitors was rebuilt in the 6th century BCE under Nebuchadnezzar II. Its foundations were identified by excavations led by Robert Koldewey in the early 1900s. Nothing in Old Babylonian sources describes a tower of this kind.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryBook of Genesis 11:1 to 9. Hebrew Bible, composed in the first millennium BCE.
    2. BookGeorge, Andrew R. Babylonian Topographical Texts. Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 40. Leuven: Peeters, 1992.Includes the text Tintir = Babylon and a study of Etemenanki.
    3. BookVan De Mieroop, Marc. The Ancient Mesopotamian City. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.

  7. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

    Folk tale

    The legend

    A great king of Babylon builds a towering garden of terraces planted with trees, flowers and vines, rising above the city on stone arches. He makes it for his homesick wife, who comes from a mountain land and misses its green hills. Watered by hidden machines that lift the river up to the top, it is counted among the Seven Wonders of the World.

    The rest is history

    The tale is known from Greek and Roman writers such as Berossus (as quoted by Josephus), Diodorus Siculus and Strabo, who wrote centuries after the time they describe. Berossus, a Babylonian priest writing in Greek in the early third century BCE, credits Nebuchadnezzar II in the 6th century BCE, not Hammurabi's dynasty, which fell more than a thousand years earlier. No cuneiform text from Babylon mentions such a garden, and excavations by Robert Koldewey in the early 1900s found no certain trace of it. Some scholars, notably Stephanie Dalley, argue that the gardens were really built by the Assyrian king Sennacherib at Nineveh, where his inscriptions describe a watered palace garden and an advanced water supply. Others think the Babylonian version may be a literary memory of royal parks, and the question remains debated.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryJosephus. Against Apion 1.19. Greek prose, c. 95 CE, quoting Berossus, Babyloniaca, c. 280 BCE.Preserves the account of Nebuchadnezzar building the gardens for his wife.
    2. BookDalley, Stephanie. The Mystery of the Hanging Garden of Babylon: An Elusive World Wonder Traced. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.Argues that the gardens were at Nineveh.
    3. BookFinkel, Irving. "The Hanging Gardens of Babylon." In The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, edited by Peter Clayton and Martin Price. London: Routledge, 1988.

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