The Hanging Gardens of Babylonia-NOTES

 

The Hanging Gardens of Babylonia-NOTES

The legendary Hanging Gardens were created on the banks of the river Euphrates around 7th Century B.C.E. This was one of the seven wonders of the Old World. But it is surprising to note that the Babylonian cuneiform records which make a mention of the city, its palaces and its walls, are totally silent about the Hanging Gardens. Most of the scholars are of the view that King Nebuchadnezzar II was the one who created the gardens.

 Nebuchadnezzar’s wife Amitis was from Mead. It is said that Nebuchadnezzar got the gardens built in order to console his wife who was missing the beautiful environment of hills, trees and flowers of her motherland. Some scholars Opine that the gardens were created by Assyrian queen Sammu-Ramat. In reality, the gardens did not hang in the air. The trees and bushes were grown at different levels (or terraced land) of the ziggurats. When the branches hung at different levels and swayed, they gave the onlooker an impression of being a hanging garden. The Euphrates provided the water for these gardens.

The history of Mesopotamia is a story of end less hatred and conflict. The Sumerians, the hilly tribe from the north, were the first to come here. They who used to worship their gods on top of the hills, after coming to the plains, built artificial hills and established their places of worship there. These were called Ziggurat. The Jews called these the Towers of Babel.

The Law Codes of Hammurabi

The main source of the law codes of Hammurabi are the rock edicts found in 1901. Today this has been kept in ‘The Louvre’ museum of Paris. Hammurabi’s law enforced the logic of ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’. Hammurabi’s Law Codes are one among the most ancient of the codes available to us. They were probably written to protect the rights of all sections of Babylonian society, especially women and slaves.

The Sumerians had entered Mesopotamia in 4000 B.C.E. Later they were overpowered by the Akkadians, one of the tribes of the Arabian desert. These are known as Semites. After a thousand years, these Akkadians came to be ruled over by the Amorites, another Semitic tribe. The most famous king of the Amorites was Hammurabi. He got built a fabulous palace for himself in Babylonia. He framed the codes of justice and made Babylonia to be considered the bestadministered kingdom in the whole of the Old World. The Hittites who came later, occupied the valley and destroyed all that they could not carry away. These Hittites were defeated by the Assyrians who were the followers of ‘Ashura’, the desert God. The Assyrians occupied.

the whole of West Asia and Egypt till about 7th Century B.C.E., and collected taxes from all the people there Another Semitic tribe, the Chaldeans, re-established Babylonia in the 7th Century B.C.E. and developed it into a prominent capital of that time. Nebuchadnezzar was the greatest king among them. He encouraged the study of science. But the Chaldeans came under the attack of the Persians in the 6th Century B.C.E. Two hundred years later, Alexander transformed this place of the Semitic peoples into a Greek province. After the rulers of the Romans and Turks who followed Alexander, this civilization declined and turned into a wilderness.

The Chinese Civilization It is a special feature of all ancient civilizations that they were established on river valleys. The Chinese civilization was no exception to this. But the river which led to the establishment of the Chinese civilization was known as ‘China’s Sorrow’. This was the Hwang Ho river. During the floods this river changed its course in an unpredictable manner and inundated houses and agricultural lands. It would render all the canals useless.

This was the reason the people of that area referred to it as the ‘Symbol of Sorrow’. According to excavations, the first ruling family of the Chinese civilization was the Shang dynasty. It ruled in the period between the 18th century B.C.E. and the 12th century B.C.E. Under the rule of this dynasty, the people had developed a wonderful culture by the 14th century B.C.E. The Shang dynasty was overpowered by the neighbouring Chau dynasty. T

he Chau dynasty continued the good traditions of the Shang culture and ruled till 250 B.C.E. In the Chou dynasty there was a section of officials below the kings. The king allotted portions of land to the officials. In return for that, the officials supported the king during battles. In the social stratification, the communities in the next level were the merchants and craftsmen. Apart from them we can find a great majority of peasants as well. In the lowest strata of social hierarchy were the slaves. The prisoners of war were made slaves by the kings.