Download The Ancient City of Babylonia in the Babylonian Civilization

 The Ancient City of Babylonia in the Babylonian Civilization Junsu Chang 6x Mrs. Bunden March 19th 2014 The first cities were the place where farmers could store and trade their
surpluses. As the cities grew, cities began to provide more other advantages. Babylon
was the one of the example. Babylon was located near the Euphrates River, which
was a fertile region. As the result, farmers were able to grow more food, and make
more surpluses. The food surpluses became the biggest foundation for advanced
Babylon. The food surpluses allowed the large population. As the population grew,
people built or set structures one by one when they felt the necessity. For example,
residents built large temple called the Temple of Marduk for their praying. Also they
made learning areas such as schools for learning. In this way, the city grew gradually.
As the population grew, they also felt the necessity of law as well as ruler. Therefore,
Babylon had its own leader even though they had a king. The leader took role of
judge, priest, and ruler. Babylon became the most advanced city in Babylonia.
Babylon would not have become an advanced city if city had not been located near
the river. As the city was located near the river, farmers could make food surpluses.
The food surpluses supported the large population. If the population had not grown,
there might have been no difference between normal cities and Babylon.
Babylon was the most advanced city in Babylonia. But, if there had been no
specialized workers, the city would not have become an advanced city. Babylon had a
large amount of specialized workers. Workers from Babylon did jobs that required
what they have specialized on. But people couldn’t choose job whatever they want,
even though they were specialized. The social statuses determined what kind of job
they would have. Isn’t it strange? People who were in the middle class, or the lower
class couldn’t do better job even though they were smart, or accomplished. But, there
were some reasons for this. Scribes, and private tutors (teacher) were the high-class
jobs. Probably you can notice that these jobs require higher education. Scribes must
know many letters as well as grammar to write. Also teacher requires extensive
knowledge to teach. But the middle-class people or the low-class people couldn’t
study as much as the high-class people did. Why? The middle-class and the lowerclass people didn’t really have enough money for the education. Therefore, they had
the jobs requiring simple skills. The jobs were farmers, merchants (Artisan),
musicians, and builders. But don’t think that these jobs weren’t helpful for Babylon,
only because these jobs required simple skills. These jobs were also important as the
high-class jobs. For example, if builders had not been in Babylon, there would have
been no structure, which means no advanced city. Babylon became the most advanced
city in Babylonia. Babylon would not have become an advanced city if there had been
no specialized workers. As the specialized workers were there, Babylon could
become an advanced city. Specialized workers made an advanced city of Babylon.
They provided music, art, education and more.
Complex institution took the one of the most important parts of advanced
Babylon. You could say that no institution means no specialized worker, and no
advanced Babylon. Let’s see how complex institution helped advanced Babylon.
Religion was the one of the complex institutions in advanced Babylon. Religion gave
hope for farmers and farmers prayed for good harvest season. Belief changed farmers
to hard workers, which means they made more food surpluses. As I said before, food
surpluses were the most important foundation for advanced Babylon. So you can say
that religion was the basic of food surpluses. Also religion helped to control residents.
When a priest told people to do something, everyone did. So religion made it easy to
control the residents. Also, religion supported money for city. When people prayed in
Babylon, they paid money. The money was used for specialized workers and for
operating city. Government was the one of the complex institutions, too. Mainly,
government helped to maintain the order. Babylon government complied famous law
books called a code of law. The code’s goal was to bring justice. Therefore, many
different crimes as well as punishments were stated in the code. Babylon government
used this law books to maintain order. Government also took part in trade as well as
the military action. When the enemy invaded the city, government gave orders to
soldiers to defense. Also government helped trade with other cities by giving benefit.
Complex institutions were the one of the important parts of advanced Babylon.
Religion and government were the biggest complex institutions in Babylon. Religion
helped to make more food surpluses for larger population, and control people to obey.
Also, religion supported money for city. Government established laws to maintain
order and helped trade as well as the military action.
As the city grew, people felt necessity of keeping record. The biggest reason
was trade. As trade system grew, merchants needed records of exchanges. Also they
needed to label goods. Therefore, they marked using a symbol called pictograph on
containers to represent what kind of product was inside the containers. A pictograph
is a system that uses picture-used symbols to show actual objects. Over time,
merchants stopped using picture-used symbols, and used wedge-shaped symbols. We
call this wedge-shaped writing system as cuneiform. Cuneiform was a very hard
writing system. It contained about 600 different symbols. But at least, people could
write more complex sentences than pictograph. Specialized workers called scribes
used this system and became professional record keepers. It took years to learn all
symbols of Cuneiform system. So people in Babylon respected scribes highly.
Scribes used a sharp reed called stylus to write. Shape of stylus was sharp and the
stylus helped to write wedge-shaped symbols. At the first time, people used w for
trade. They recorded goods, exchanges, and ledger. But later, they started to write
about natural disaster, wars, and the king chronicle. These records became Babylon’s
written history. As the city grew, people felt necessity of keeping record. They made
cuneiform system to record about trade. As the time went, they recorded history.
Without these records, we wouldn’t know much about Babylon.
Babylon gradually developed technology as the city grew. As I said before,
Babylon had a large amount of different specialized workers. Mostly, Babylon's
technology was developed by specialized workers. When the specialized workers felt
hard on their job, they tried to make it easy. For example, workers who were
specialized in farming invented and developed many good farming tools and skills
like irrigation, plow, and wheel. The reason why they invented and developed was to
make farming easy. Actually, inventions and skills were very helpful. Plow helped to
break up hard soil, and wheel helped to carry crops as well as tools. Also, irrigation
helped to control water for farming in arid climate. You can see that workers
developed skills, and invented to do easier job. But, they didn’t develop technology
every time by realizing hard things. They also developed their skills by undergoing
trials and errors. For example, architect learned what kind of pillar is best for
building, and way to avoid collapse of structure by underwent trials, and errors.
Babylon also developed math skills by traders. Traders developed mathematics skills
to keep records of crops and goods. As the trade expanded, they needed numerical
system. They used sexagesimal(based on 60) . Today, across the world, people use
60 seconds in a minute, and 60 minutes in an hour. That means Babylon’s
mathematics was influential. Babylon gradually developed technology as the city
grew by specialized workers. They developed, and invented farming skills and tools,
and architecture. Also they developed mathematics skills that were very influential
even we owed much for calendar system.
Babylon was located near the Euphrates River, which was the flat and fertile
land. But, the climate of Babylon was very arid, and the river often overflowed onto
the land without pattern. What do you think how people in Babylon adapted there?
Babylon was located next to the Euphrates River. In the past, it was much easier to
go by boat than over the land. People used Euphrates River to carry heavy loads, and
for travel. It was pleasure to live next to the river except for farmers. The river could
help farmers to grow crops in the very arid climate. But, the river often overflowed
onto the land. Which means, farmers had either too much or too little water. Farmers
found out a way to control the water. The way of controlling water is called irrigation.
They built canals, and earthen walls to carry water from the rivers to their fields. In
this way, they had enough water to grow crops. Also structures in Babylon were
influenced by environment. People from Babylon built structure using mud brick,
and firestone, which were the common materials in Babylon. They used boats to carry
brick, and tools. The Euphrates River made job faster and easier. So they could build
more complex structures. Babylon was greatly affected by environment.
Environment changed the ways of farming and structure. Environment helped to
develop technology as well as the city.
Bibliography (MLA format)
Internet Research
- History, Bible. "Ancient Babylonia - Trade." Ancient Babylonia - Trade. Bible
History Online, n.d. Web. 17 Mar. 2014. <http://www.biblehistory.com/babylonia/BabyloniaTrade.htm>.
- Mesopotamia. "Mesopotamiaapworld." Mesopotamiaapworld. Mesopotamiaapworld,
n.d. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.
<http://mesopotamiaapworld.wordpress.com/specialized-workers/>.
Book Research
- Brooks, Philip. The Story of Ancient Civilizations. New York: Rosen Central, 2011.
Print.
- Steele, Philip. Mesopotamia. London: DK Pub., 2007. Print.
- Littel, Mcdougal. World History. Evanston, IL: McDougal Littell, 2009. Print.
Picture
- Bible History. Temple of Mardul. Digital image. Bible History Online. Biblehistory, n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2014. <http://www.biblehistory.com/past/art/babylon_marduk_temple.gif>.