| Nippur
4th millennium-18th century BCE The city of Nippur was a major Mesopotamian religious center sacred to Enlil -- wind god, inventor of the hoe, and head of the Mesopotamian pantheon of gods. Although Nippur is never listed as a seat of kingship in the Sumerian king lists, it was a common belief that Enlil and his temple at Nippur were the source of religious and political legitimacy for Mesopotamian kings. By the 20th century BCE, Sumerian had practically died out as a spoken language, and an academy for scribes was established at Nippur to preserve Sumerian literature and culture. Transcriptions of Sumerian literary texts made by scribes at this academy have been uncovered in modern times, giving scholars a rare window onto Sumerian civilization. |
| Ur ca. 2100-1800 BCE Ur rose to dominance once again from about 2100 to 2000 BCE, ruling over the city-states of Sumer. Massive city walls were built as well as an imposing ziggurat and other sacred buildings. Scribes at Ur recorded Sumerian literature and a code of law. According to the Bible, Terah, father of Abram, took his family from Ur to go settle in Haran in northern Mesopotamia. The date of this migration is problematic. The Bible calls the city "Ur of the Chaldeans" and refers to Abram as a "wandering Aramaean." The Chaldeans and the Aramaeans were peoples who would not make their appearance in the Near East until the end of the 2nd millennium. |
| Babylon
1894-1750 BCE The city that became known as Babylon started as a minor city-state, a province of Ur whose name was probably Babilla. In 1894 an Amorite called Sumuabum came to power in Babylon and ushered in a period of growth. A century later, his remarkable descendant, King Hammurabi (ruled 1792-1750), used diplomacy backed by military force to dominate all of southern Mesopotamia. He extended Babylonian rule in the north to include Mari, Assur, and Nineveh. Babylon became a scribal center for Sumerian and Akkadian documents. The most famous Babylonian document from his reign was the code of law inscribed on stone monuments in 1750, the last year of his rule. The penalties specified in this legal code are more severe than those in the Sumerian codes that preceded it and may be a reflection of Hammurabi's Amorite background. |
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