Knowra Babylonia Babylonia Babylonia was an ancient civilization and territory centered on Babylon in southern Mesopotamia. Its history included successive kingdoms that shaped Mesopotamian law, literature, religion, and astronomy.
Sumer : An ancient civilization of southern Mesopotamia known for its city-states, writing, and monumental architecture. Sumerian cities and institutions preceded Babylonia and shaped its earliest political and cultural foundations.
Code of Hammurabi : A Babylonian royal law collection inscribed on a stele during Hammurabi’s reign. It illustrates how royal authority presented justice and social order in Babylonia.
Neo-Babylonian Empire : An empire based in Babylon that dominated parts of the Near East from the late seventh to sixth centuries BCE. Its kings rebuilt Babylon and made the city an imperial capital once more.
Babylonian Exile : The deportation of some people from the Kingdom of Judah to Babylonia, especially after Jerusalem’s fall in 586 BCE. The deportation linked Babylonian imperial policy with a formative period in Jewish history.
Akkadian Empire : An empire founded by Sargon of Akkad that unified much of Mesopotamia in the third millennium BCE. Its imperial model and Akkadian language helped shape the world from which Babylonia emerged.
Babylonian language : A dialect of Akkadian written mainly in cuneiform and used in Babylonia for administration and literature. This language carried Babylonian records, scholarship, and literary works.
Nebuchadnezzar II : A king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire who ruled from 605 to 562 BCE. His campaigns and building projects defined the empire’s best-known period.
Cyrus the Great : The founder of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, who conquered Babylon in 539 BCE. His conquest ended independent Neo-Babylonian rule and brought Babylonia into a Persian empire.
Old Babylonian Empire : A Mesopotamian kingdom centered on Babylon, especially powerful under Hammurabi in the eighteenth century BCE. This early kingdom established Babylon as a major political center.
Cuneiform : A writing system made from wedge-shaped impressions, used for several languages in the ancient Near East. Babylonian scribes used cuneiform to record law, trade, literature, and astronomical observations.
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