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Section 2
Later
Mesopotamian
Empires
2400 B.C. Sumer’s
power began to fade
Sargon I
• Akkad: Northern
Mesopotamia, 2300 B.C.
• Created 1st empire (group of
states under one ruler)
• United conquered city-states
with Akkad
Language of
Akkad
•Akkadian
•Semitic language
similar to Hebrew and
Arabic
Akkadian Religion
• Sumer was only used for
religious purposes
• Akkadians worshipped
Sumerian gods
Sargon’s Rule
• Used cuneiform
• Ruled about 50 years
• After his death, empire
fell
• Separate city-states rose
to power
Hammurabi
• Babylonian King
• 1800 B.C. – Amorites
entered Tigris and
Euphrates valley
• Conquered Akkad & Sumer
• Built Babylon
Hammurabi…
• Brought new culture (way
of life)
• Adopted Sumerian culture
• Used Sumerian language
• Worshipped Sumerian
gods, but gave them
Babylonian names
Accomplishments
of Hammurabi
Improved irrigation
systems
• 53 - If a man neglects to reinforce the
embankment of (the irrigation canal of) his
field and does not reinforce its
embankment, and then a breach opens in
its embankment and allows the water to
carry away the common irrigated area, the
man in whose embankment the breach
opened shall replace the grain whose loss
he caused.
Changed religion
Reorganized tax
system
Began government
housing program
Best known for….
Improvement in a
code of law
Hammurabi’s Code of Laws
• 280 “laws”
• Concerned with being fair
and just
• Appointed royal judges
• Believed: innocent until
proven guilty
• If guilty … punished
• No prisons: fines or death
• Upper class was punished
more severely
Babylon became
important trade
center
They traded surplus
(extra) products for
money or goods