Babylonian Culture and Tablets

From Sumerians and Babylonians we learned to use the sexagesimal system, based on number 60 (for instance, 1 hour = 60 minutes). They invented the first writing system, cuneiform writings on clay tablets to facilitate trade in Mesopotamia. They also invented beer, which facilitated mobilization of Sumerian laborers in public building projects. Beer and bread were often ratioined. The following tables eloquently testify their contributions to human civilization. Their descendants are modern Iraqis and Iranians.

	A cast of a stone tablet from the Uruk period (3300 - 3100 BC). The original is from Kish and was in Irak Museum. (Whether it is still there is uncertain due to looting last year.) Symbols: head, hand, foot, 1, 2, 3, hammer (British Museum)
	The symbol for beer is an upright jug with a pointed base. It appears three times on theis tablet. (British Museum)
	The symbol of a human head with a triangular object is the verb meaning "eat." (British Museum) Look for this symbol in the above tablet.

	Sumerian devotees of Ishtar (BM, London and Hamburg). This is the typical attire of Sumerians as shown in the above Standard of Ur.







	Ancient Babylonian clay tablet (c. 2500 BC) which shows how to read Babylonian numbers in cuneiform tablets
	An old Babylonian tablet (1900 - 1600 BC), shown on the left, contains the so-called Pythagorean Theorem, except that it predates Pythagoras by a millennium or more. According to Neugebauer and Sachs (1946), the tablet lists in the two middle columns the numbers that satisfy the so-called Pythagorean Theorem. Specifically, from the left, the first column indexes the contents of the table (1, 2, 3, …), the second and the third the hypotenuse c and the leg a of a right triangle all in sexagesimal numbers. The fourth column shows (c/b)2 where b is the basis of the triangle. For instance, the 11th row shows 75, 45, and 1.5625 = (75/60)2. A translation of another Babylonian tablet preserved in the British museum states (John Heise): 4 is the length and 5 the diagonal. What is the breadth? Its size is not known. 4 times 4 is 16. 5 times 5 is 25. You take 16 from 25 and there remains 9. What times what shall I take in order to get 9? 3 times 3 is 9. 3 is the breadth.
The first Thesaurus
	Ishtar Gate in Babylon and a model, Pergammon Museum, Berlin
	Procession Street of Babylon during the reign of Nebuchadnezar II, Pergamon Museum, Berlin. A German expedition brought these ceramic tiles from the old ruins of Babylonia.
	Columns in the ancient city Uruk (modern Warka), the city in which the Epic of Gilgamesh and the flood story originate. An archeologist's rendition of What the German expedition found in Uruk, where the Great Flood occurred, Pergammon M, Berlin.

	It looks like a geometry lesson tablet.




The first world map	Sumerians exported beer to faraway countries, even Egypt. They were the first beer drinkers. They knew how to make beer and they had raw materials. Soon there were surplus of beers and that was the reason for their beer exports. Even in modern times, the Communist bloc countries exported surpluses to other members and avoided trading with free market economies. This Babylonian clay tablet is the first map of the world. Circles were used to denote city centers, and this method has been adopted by cartographers ever since. Babylonians were interested in geography because of their exports of beer and other agricultural surpluses.


Assyrians were neighbors of Babylonians. Much of their culture came from Babylonia. Assyrians destroy Israel in 723 BCE and Babylonians vanquish Judah in the south in 586 BCE.


King of Elam ruled at Susa (now in Iran). Elam was conquered by the Assyrians later.



	Wing lions, British Museum.

Persian King, Cyrus, built a vast empire in 549 BC. He conquered Assyria and liberated Jews to return to their homeland in 538 BC. Of an estimated 150,000 Jews, a third returns to Jerusalem.