The Babylonians

The Babylonians

Code of Hammurabi

Babylonian Civilization

The Downfall of Babylon

Babylon

The Old Babylonian Period High point was reign of King

Hammurabi (1792-1750 B.C.) united all of Mesopotamia through conquest

During reign government controlled economy and passed comprehensive laws called the Hammurabi Code

Hammurabi Code

Code reinforced “An eye for an eye” mentality

Laws focused on property rights, slaves, children and women’s rights, murder, theft and marriage

Punishment differed based on a person’s social class

Hammurabi Code

Laws were introduced for two main reasons

To establish order in a land in constant conflict

To represent a king’s beliefs of justice

Several laws were written to protect the poor and powerless from abuse

Hammurabi Code

5. If a judge try a case, reach a decision, and present his judgment in writing; if later error shall appear in his decision, and it be through his own fault, then he shall pay twelve times the fine set by him in the case, and he shall be publicly removed from the judge's bench, and never again shall he sit there to render judgement.

6. If any one steal the property of a temple or of the court, he shall be put to death, and also the one who receives the stolen thing from him shall be put to death.

14. If any one steal the minor son of another, he shall be put to death.

22. If any one is committing a robbery and is caught, then he shall be put to death.

Hammurabi Code 195.   If a son strike his father, his hands shall be hewn

off. 197. If he break another man's bone, his bone shall be

broken. 202.   If any one strike the body of a man higher in rank

than he, he shall receive sixty blows with an ox-whip in public.

218.   If a physician make a large incision with the operating knife, and kill him, or open a tumor with the operating knife, and cut out the eye, his hands shall be cut off.

219. If a physician make a large incision in the slave of a freed man, and kill him, he shall replace the slave with another slave.

282.   If a slave say to his master: "You are not my master," if they convict him his master shall cut off his ear.

Babylonian Mathematics

Babylonians used advance mathematics like algebra and geometry

They used linear and quadratic equations

Adopted Sumerian mathematics because it was sound

Studied and made observations of natural phenomena

Downfall of Babylon

1595 B.C. Hittites invaded Babylon and conqueror it

Hittites introduced international commerce by trading in the Mediterranean region

Modified Hammubria Code and made it more lenient

A large tribe called Kassites seized Mesopotamia (Babylon) because region hard to protect

Downfall of Babylon

During rule of Kassites, Babylon saw a period of no growth

Adopted ziggurat, cuneiform and Laws of Hammubria

Period of famines, disease and nomadic invasions plagued Babylon

Kassites will not hold Babylon as well and it falls to the Assyrians