Pre-Babylonian Sumero-Akkadian period in Mesopotamia[edit]

The extent of the Babylonian Empire at the start and end of Hammurabi's reign
Mesopotamia had already enjoyed a long history prior to the emergence of Babylon
, with Sumerian civilisation emerging in the region c. 3500 BC, and the Akkadian
- speaking people appearing by the 30th century BC.
During the 3rd millennium BC, an intimate cultural symbiosis occurred between Su
merian and Akkadian-speakers, which included widespread bilingualism.[4] The inf
luence of Sumerian on Akkadian and vice versa is evident in all areas, from lexi
cal borrowing on a massive scale, to syntactic, morphological, and phonological
convergence.[4] This has prompted scholars to refer to Sumerian and Akkadian in
the third millennium as a sprachbund.[4]
Akkadian gradually replaced Sumerian as the spoken language of Mesopotamia somew
here around the turn of the third and the second millennium BC (the precise time
frame being a matter of debate),[5] but Sumerian continued to be used as a sacre
d, ceremonial, literary and scientific language in Mesopotamia as late as the 1s
t century AD.[citation needed]
From c. 3500 BC until the rise of the Akkadian Empire in the 24th century BC, Me
sopotamia had been dominated by largely Sumerian city states, such as Ur, Lagash
, Uruk, Kish, Isin, Larsa, Adab, Eridu, Gasur, Awan, Hamazi, Akshak and Umma, al
though Semitic Akkadian names began to appear on the king lists of some of these
states (such as Eshnunna and Assyria) between the 29th and 25th centuries BC. T
raditionally, the major religious center of all Mesopotamia was the city of Nipp
ur, and it would remain so until replaced by Babylon during the reign of Hammura
bi in the mid-18th century BC.
The Akkadian Empire (23342154 BC) saw the Akkadian Semites and Sumerians of Mesop
otamia unite under one rule, and the Akkadians fully attain ascendancy over the
Sumerians and indeed come to dominate much of the ancient Near East.
The empire eventually disintegrated due to economic decline, climate change and
civil war, followed by attacks by the Gutians from the Zagros Mountains. Sumer r
ose up again with the Third Dynasty of Ur in the late 22nd century BC, and eject
ed the Gutians from southern Mesopotamia. They also seem to have gained ascendan
cy over most of the territory of the Akkadian kings of Assyria in northern Mesop
otamia for a time.
Following the collapse of the Sumerian "Ur-III" dynasty at the hands of the Elam
ites in 2002 BC, the Amorites, a foreign Northwest Semitic-speaking people, bega
n to migrate into southern Mesopotamia from the northern Levant, gradually gaini
ng control over most of southern Mesopotamia, where they formed a series of smal
l kingdoms, while the Assyrians reasserted their independence in the north. The
states of the south were unable to stem the Amorite advance.
King Ilu-shuma (ca. 20081975 BC) of the Old Assyrian Empire in a known inscriptio
n describes his exploits to the south as follows: "The freedom[n 1] of the Akkad
ians and their children I established. I purified their copper. I established th
eir freedom from the border of the marshes and Ur and Nippur, Awal, and Kish, De
r of the goddess Ishtar, as far as the City of (Ashur)."[6] Past scholars origin
ally extrapolated from this text that it means he defeated the invading Amorites
to the south, but there is no explicit record of that. More recently, the text
has been taken to mean that Asshur supplied the south with copper from Anatolia
and "established freedom" from tax duties.
These policies were continued by his successors Erishum I and Ikunum.
However, when Sargon I (19201881 BC) succeeded as king in Assyria in 1920 BC, he
eventually withdrew Assyria from the region, preferring to concentrate on contin
uing the vigorous expansion of Assyrian colonies in Anatolia, and eventually sou
thern Mesopotamia fell to the Amorites, a Northwest Semitic-speaking people from
the northern Levant. During the first centuries of what is called the "Amorite
period", the most powerful city states in the south were Isin, Eshnunna and Lars
a, together with Assyria in the north.
First Babylonian Dynasty Amorite Dynasty 18941595 BC[edit]
Main article: First Babylonian Dynasty

One of these Amorite dynasties founded a small kingdom which included the then s
till minor town of Babylon circa 1894 BC, which would ultimately take over the o
thers and form the short-lived first Babylonian empire, also called the First Ba
bylonian Dynasty.
An Amorite chieftain named Sumu-abum appropriated a tract of land which included
the then relatively small city of Babylon from the neighbouring Amorite ruled M
esopotamian city state of Kazallu, of which it had initially been a territory, t
urning it into a state in its own right. His reign was concerned with establishi
ng statehood amongst a sea of other minor city states and kingdoms in the region
. However Sumuabum appears never to have bothered to give himself the title of K
ing of Babylon, suggesting that Babylon itself was still only a minor town or ci
ty, and not worthy of kingship.[7]
He was followed by Sumu-la-El, Sabium, Apil-Sin, each of whom ruled in the same
vague manner as Sumuabum, with no reference to kingship of Babylon being made in
any written records of the time. Sin-Muballit was the first of these Amorite ru
lers to be regarded officially as a king of Babylon, and then on only one single
clay tablet. Under these kings, the nation in which Babylon lay remained a smal
l nation which controlled very little territory, and was overshadowed by neighbo
uring kingdoms that were both older, larger, and more powerful, such as; Isin, L
arsa, Assyria to the north and Elam to the east in ancient Iran. The Elamites oc
cupied huge swathes of southern Mesopotamia, and the early Amorite rulers were l
argely held in vassalage to Elam.
Empire of Hammurabi[edit]
Babylon remained a minor town in a small state until the reign of its sixth Amor
ite ruler, Hammurabi (17921750 BC, or fl. c. 1728 1686 BC (short). He conducted maj
or building work in Babylon, expanding it from a small town into a great city wo
rthy of kingship. He was a very efficient ruler, establishing a bureaucracy, wit
h taxation and centralized government. Hammurabi freed Babylon from Elamite domi
nance, and indeed drove them from southern Mesopotamia entirely. He then gradual
ly expanded Babylonian dominance over the whole of southern Mesopotamia, conquer
ing the cities and states of the region, such as Isin, Larsa, Eshnunna, Kish, La
gash, Nippur, Borsippa, Ur, Uruk, Umma, Adab and Eridu. The conquests of Hammura
bi gave the region stability after turbulent times and coalesced the patchwork o
f states of southern and central Mesopotamia into one single nation, and it is o
nly from the time of Hammurabi that southern Mesopotamia came to be known histor
ically as Babylonia.
The armies of Babylonia under Hammurabi were well-disciplined. He turned eastwar
ds and invaded what was a thousand years later to become Iran, conquering Elam,
Gutians, Lullubi and Kassites. To the west, the Amorite states of the Levant (mo
dern Syria and Jordan) including the powerful kingdom of Mari were conquered.
Hammurabi then entered into a protracted war with the Old Assyrian Empire for co
ntrol of Mesopotamia and the Near East. Assyria had extended control over Hurria
n and Hattian parts of southeast Anatolia from the 21st century BC, and from the
latter part of the 19th century BC had asserted itself over the north east Leva
nt and central Mesopotamia also. After a protracted unresolved struggle over dec
ades with the Assyrian king Ishme-Dagan, Hammurabi forced his successor Mut-Ashk
ur to pay tribute to Babylon c. 1751 BC, thus giving Babylonia control over Assy
ria's centuries old Hattian and Hurrian colonies in Anatolia.[8]
One of the most important works of the First Babylonian Dynasty, as it was calle
d by the native historians, was the compilation of Babylonian law, a law code bo
th influenced by and improved upon the much earlier codes of Sumer, Akkad and As
syria. This was made by order of Hammurabi after the expulsion of the Elamites a
nd the settlement of his kingdom. In 1901, a copy of the Code of Hammurabi was d
iscovered on a stele by Jacques de Morgan and Jean-Vincent Scheil at Susa, where
it had later been taken as plunder. That copy is now in the Louvre.
From before 3000 BC until the reign of Hammurabi, the major cultural and religio
us center of southern Mesopotamia had been the ancient city of Nippur, where the
god Enlil was supreme. However, with the rise of Hammurabi, this honour was tra
nsferred to Babylon, and the south Mesopotamian god Marduk rose to supremacy in
the pantheon of southern Mesopotamia (with the god Ashur remaining the dominant

deity in the northern Mesopotamian state of Assyria). The city of Babylon became
known as a "holy city" where any legitimate ruler of southern Mesopotamia had t
o be crowned. Hammurabi turned what had previously been a minor administrative t
own into a powerful and influential major city, increasing its size and populati
on dramatically, and conducting a number of impressive architectural works.
The Babylonians, like their predecessor states, engaged in regular trade with th
e Amorite and Canaanite city-states to the west; with Babylonian officials or tr
oops sometimes passing to the Levant and Canaan, with Amorite merchants operatin
g freely throughout Mesopotamia. The Babylonian monarchy's western connections r
emained strong for quite some time. An Amorite chieftain named Abi-ramu or Abram
(possibly the Biblical Abraham) was the father of a witness to a deed dated to
the reign of Hammurabi's grandfather;[citation needed] Ammi-Ditana, great-grands
on of Hammurabi, still titled himself "king of the land of the Amorites". Ammi-D
itana's father and son also bore Amorite names: Abi-Eshuh and Ammi-Saduqa.
Decline[edit]
However, southern Mesopotamia had no natural, defensible boundaries, making it v
ulnerable to attack. After the death of Hammurabi, his empire began to disintegr
ate rapidly. Under his successor Samsu-iluna (17491712 BC) the far south of Mesop
otamia was lost to a native Akkadian speaking king called Ilum-ma-ili who ejecte
d the Amorite ruled Babylonians. The south became the Sealand Dynasty, remaining
free of Babylon for the next 272 years.[9]
Both the Babylonians and their Amorite rulers were driven from Assyria to the no
rth by an Assyrian-Akkadian governor named Puzur-Sin c. 1740 BC, who regarded ki
ng Mut-Ashkur as a foreign Amorite and a former lackey of Babylon. After six yea
rs of civil war in Assyria, a native king named Adasi seized power c. 1735 BC, a
nd went on to appropriate former Babylonian and Amorite territory in central Mes
opotamia, as did his successor Bel-bani.
Amorite rule survived in a much reduced Babylon, Samshu-iluna's successor Abi-Es
huh made a vain attempt to recapture the Sealand Dynasty for Babylon, but met de
feat at the hands of king Damqi-ilishu II. By the end of his reign Babylonia had
shrunk to the small and relatively weak nation it had been upon its foundation,
although the city itself was far larger than it had been prior to the rise of H
ammurabi.
He was followed by Ammi-Ditana and then Ammi-Saduqa, both of whom were in too we
ak a position to make any attempt to regain the many territories lost after the
death of Hammurabi, contenting themselves with peaceful building projects in Bab
ylon itself.
Samsu-Ditana was to be the last Amorite ruler of Babylon. Early in his reign he
came under pressure from the Kassites, a people speaking an apparent language is
olate originating in the mountains of northwest Iran. Babylon was then attacked
by the Indo-European-speaking, Anatolia-based Hittites in 1595 BC. Shamshu-Ditan
a was overthrown following the "sack of Babylon" by the Hittite king Mursili I.
The Hittites did not remain for long, but the destruction wrought by them finall
y enabled the Kassites to gain control.
The sack of Babylon and ancient Near East chronology[edit]
The date of the sack of Babylon by the Hittites under king Mursili I is consider
ed crucial to the various calculations of the early chronology of the ancient Ne
ar East, as it is taken as a fixed point in the discussion. Suggestions for its
precise date vary by as much as 230 years, corresponding to the uncertainty rega
rding the length of the "Dark Age" of the ensuing Late Bronze Age collapse, resu
lting in the shift of the entire Bronze Age chronology of Mesopotamia with regar
d to the Egyptian chronology. Possible dates for the sack of Babylon are:

ultra-short chronology: 1499 BC

short chronology: 1531 BC

middle chronology: 1595 BC

long chronology: 1651 BC

ultra-long chronology: 1736 BC[10]

Kassite Dynasty, 15951155 BC[edit]
Main article: Kassites

The extent of the Babylonian Empire during the Kassite dynasty

The Kassite dynasty was founded by Gandash of Mari. The Kassites, like the Amori
te rulers who had preceded them, were not originally native to Mesopotamia. Rath
er, they had first appeared in the Zagros Mountains of what is today northwester
n Iran.
The ethnic affiliation of the Kassites is unclear. However, their language was n
ot Semitic, and is thought to have been either a language isolate or possibly re
lated to the Hurro-Urartian language family of Anatolia,[11] although the eviden
ce for its genetic affiliation is meager due to the scarcity of extant texts. Ho
wever, several Kassite leaders bore Indo-European names, and they may have had a
n Indo-European elite similar to the Mitanni elite that later ruled over the Hur
rians of central and eastern Anatolia.[12][13]
The Kassites renamed Babylon Kardunia and their rule lasted for 576 years, the lo
ngest dynasty in Babylonian history.
This new foreign dominion offers a striking analogy to the roughly contemporary
rule of the Hyksos in ancient Egypt. Most divine attributes ascribed to the Amor
ite kings of Babylonia disappeared at this time; the title "god" was never given
to a Kassite sovereign. However, Babylon continued to be the capital of the kin
gdom and one of the 'holy' cities of western Asia, where the priests of the anci
ent Mesopotamian religion were all-powerful, and the only place where the right
to inheritance of the short lived old Babylonian empire could be conferred.
Babylonia experienced short periods of power, but in general proved to be relati
vely weak under the long rule of the Kassites, and spent long periods under Assy
rian and Elamite domination and interference.
It is not clear precisely when Kassite rule of Babylon began, but the Indo-Europ
ean Hittites from Anatolia did not remain in Babylonia for long after the sackin
g of the city, and it is likely the Kassites moved in soon afterwards. Agum II t
ook the throne for the Kassites in 1595 BC, and ruled a state that extended from
Iran to the middle Euphrates; The new king retained peaceful relations with Eri
shum III, the native Mesopotamian king of Assyria, but successfully went to war
with the Hittite Empire, and twenty-four years after, the Hittites took the sacr
ed statue of Marduk, he recovered it and declared the god equal to the Kassite d
eity Shuqamuna.
Burnaburiash I succeeded him and drew up a peace treaty with the Assyrian king P
uzur-Ashur III, and had a largely uneventful reign, as did his successor Kashtil
iash III.
The Sealand Dynasty of southern Mesopotamia remained independent of Babylonia an
d in native Akkadian-speaking hands. However, Ulamburiash managed to attack it c
onquered parts of the land from Ea-gamil, a king with a distinctly Sumerian name
, around 1450 BC, whereupon Ea-Gamil fled to his allies in Elam. The Sealand Dyn
asty region remained independent however, and the Kassite king seems to have bee
n unable to finally conquer it. Ulamburiash began making treaties with ancient E
gypt, which then was ruling southern Canaan, and Assyria to the north. Karaindas
h built a bas-relief temple in Uruk and Kurigalzu I (14151390 BC) built a new cap
ital Dur-Kurigalzu named after himself, transferring administrative rule from Ba
bylon. Both of these kings continued to struggle unsuccessfully against The Seal
and Dynasty.
Agum III also campaigned against the Sealand Dynasty, finally wholly conquering
the far south of Mesopotamia for Babylon, destroying its capital Dur-Enlil in th
e process. From there Agum III extended farther south still, invading what was m
any centuries later to be called the Arabian Peninsula, and conquering the pre-A
rab state of Dilmun (in modern Bahrain).
Karaindash strengthened diplomatic ties with the Assyrian king Ashur-bel-nishesh
u and the Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose III and protected Babylonian borders with El
am.
Kadaman-arbe I succeeded Karaindash, and briefly invaded Elam before being eventua
lly ejected by its king Tepti Ahar. He then had to contend with the Suteans, anc
ient Semitic-speaking peoples from the southeastern Levant who invaded Babylonia
and sacked Uruk. He describes having "annihilated their extensive forces", then

constructed fortresses in a mountain region called ii, in the desert to the west
(modern Syria) as security outposts, and "he dug wells and settled people on fer
tile lands, to strengthen the guard".[14]
Kurigalzu I succeeded the throne, and soon came into conflict with Elam, to the
east. When ur-batila, the successor of Tepti Ahar took the throne of Elam, he beg
an raiding the Babylonia, taunting Kurigalzu to do battle with him at Dr-ulgi. Kur
igalzu launched a campaign which resulted in the abject defeat and capture of urbatila, who appears in no other inscriptions. He went on to conquer the eastern
lands of Elam. This took his army to the Elamite capital, the city of Susa, whic
h was sacked. After this a puppet ruler was placed on the Elamite throne. Kuriga
lzu I maintained friendly relations with Assyria, Egypt and the Hittites through
out his reign. Kadashman-Enlil I (1374-1360 BC) succeeded him, and continued his
diplomatic policies.
Burna-Buriash II ascended to the throne in 1359 BC, he retained friendly relatio
ns with Egypt, but the resurgent Middle Assyrian Empire (1365-1050 BC) to the no
rth was now encroaching into northern Babylonia, and as a symbol of peace, the B
abylonian king took the daughter of the powerful Assyrian king Ashur-uballit I i
n marriage. He also maintained friendly relations with Suppiluliuma I, ruler of
the Hittite Empire.
He was succeeded by Kara-arda (who was half Assyrian, and the grandson of the Assy
rian king) in 1333 BC, however a usurper named Nazi-Buga deposed him, enraging As
hur-uballit I, who invaded and sacked Babylon, slew Nazi-Buga, annexed Babylonian
territory for the Middle Assyrian Empire, and installed Kurigalzu II (13451324 B
C) as his vassal ruler.
Soon after Arik-den-ili succeeded the throne of Assyria in 1327 BC, Kurigalzu II
I attacked Assyria in an attempt to reassert Babylonian power. After some impres
sive initial successes he was ultimately defeated, and lost yet more territory t
o Assyria. Between 1307 BC and 1232 BC his successors, such as Nazi-Maruttash, K
adashman-Turgu, Kadashman-Enlil II, Kudur-Enlil and Shagarakti-Shuriash, allied
with the empires of the Hittites and the Mitanni, (who were both also losing swa
thes of territory to the Assyrians). in a failed attempt to stop Assyrian expans
ion, which nevertheless continued unchecked.
Kashtiliash IV's (12421235 BC) reign ended catastrophically as the Assyrian king
Tukulti-Ninurta I (12431207 BC) routed his armies, sacked and burned Babylon and
set himself up as king, ironically becoming the first native Mesopotamian to rul
e the state, its previous rulers having all been non-Mesopotamian Amorites and K
assites.[9]Kashtiliash himself was taken to Ashur as a prisoner of war.
An Assyrian governor/king named Enlil-nadin-shumi was placed on the throne to ru
le as viceroy to Tukulti-Ninurta I, and Kadashman-Harbe II and Adad-shuma-iddina
succeeded as Assyrian governor/kings, subject to Tukulti-Ninurta I until 1216 B
C.
Babylon did not begin to recover until late in the reign of Adad-shuma-usur (121
61189 BC), as he too remained a vassal of Assyria until 1193 BC. However, he was
able to prevent the Assyrian king Enlil-kudurri-usur from retaking Babylonia, wh
ich, apart from its northern reaches, had mostly shrugged off Assyrian dominatio
n during a short period of civil war in the Assyrian empire, in the years after
the death of Tukulti-Ninurta.
Meli-Shipak II (11881172 BC) seems to have had a peaceful reign. Despite not bein
g able to regain northern Babylonia from Assyria, no further territory was lost,
Elam did not threaten, and the Late Bronze Age collapse now affecting the Levan
t, Canaan, Egypt, the Caucasus, Anatolia, Mediterranean, North Africa and Balkan
s seemed to have little impact on Babylonia (or indeed Assyria).
War resumed under subsequent kings such as Marduk-apla-iddina I (11711159 BC) and
Zababa-shuma-iddin (1158 BC). The long reigning Assyrian king Ashur-dan I (11791
133 BC) resumed expansionist policies and conquered further parts of northern Ba
bylonia from both kings, and the Elamite ruler Shutruk-Nakhunte eventually conqu
ered most of eastern Babylonia. Enlil-nadin-ahhe (11571155 BC) was finally overth
rown and the Kassite dynasty ended after Ashur-dan I conquered yet more of north
ern and central Babylonia, and the equally powerful Shutruk-Nahhunte pushed deep
into the heart of Babylonia itself, sacking the city and slaying the king. Poet

ical works have been found lamenting this disaster.

Despite the loss of territory, military weakness, and evident reduction in liter
acy and culture, the Kassite dynasty was the longest-lived dynasty of Babylon, l
asting until 1155 BC, when Babylon was conquered by Shutruk-Nakhunte of Elam, an
d reconquered a few years later by the Nebuchadnezzar I, part of the larger Late
Bronze Age collapse.