Transcript Class Session 9

Mesopotamia
Maps by David P. Barrett, used by permission
2330 B.C.
• Sargon the
Great
• Guti invasion
2100 B.C.
• Sumerians
• Abram
Migrations in 2000 B.C.
2000-1800 B.C.
• City States
• Assyria growing

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Died 1750
• Succeeded his father
as King of Babylon
• Drove out the
Elamites
• United all the lands
of Mesopotamia
under his rule
Died 1750 B.C.
• Mesopotamia
united
• Little or no
delegation in
evidence

Code of
Hammurabi
1750 B.C.
• Found at Susa by
de Morgan in 1902
• Caste system
• Lex Talionis
• Wages
• Trial by ordeal
Marriage
Laws
• Only legal
when in writing
• Penalty for
adultery is
death
• Wives own
property
• Monogamy
• Assyrian
independence
• Treaties with
surrounding
city-states
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• Andre Parrot excavated from
1933-1938 and 1952-1956
• More than 20,000 tablets
• Akkadian from 1800-1750
B.C.
• Biblical names
• Travel and commerce
• Covenant: “To kill a young
donkey”
• Assyrian
independence
• Treaties with
surrounding
city-states
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• Smaller town
• Destroyed around 1450 B.C.
• Customs and culture similar to
that of the Patriarchs
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• Hittites conquer Babylon
• Kassite dynasty in Babylon
(1500-1200 B.C.)
The Hittites: A Canaanite tribe
encountered in Palestine by the
Israelites, resident and along side the
Amorites in the region of Bethel. They
were pressed into service by Solomon.
Still later, however, an independent and
monarchically governed Hittite tribe
existed nearer Syria. (Meyers Neus
Konversationislexikon, 1871).
In Search of the Hittites
• Charles Texier
– Found ruins near Boghazkoy
• Archibald Sayce
– Suggested these were Biblical
Hittites
• Hugo Winckler
– Translated Hittite writings
Hattasus

• Known in the Bible as the
Hurrians
• Kassite dynasty in Babylon
(1500-1200 B.C.)
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• Discovered by a farmer in 1928
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• Discovered by a farmer in 1928
• Royal palace with 90 rooms
• Two temples
– Baal, son of El
– Dagon
• Tablets dating to 1450-1200 B.C.
– Alphabet looks like cuneiform
– Semitic language related to Hebrew
– Ugaritic poetry similar to Hebrew poets
Mycenaean
ivory box lid
found in Ugarit
“My husband has died and I have no
son. They say about you that you
have many sons. You might give me
one of your sons to become my
husband. I would not wish to take
one of my subjects as a husband”
• Rameses given
false report
Ptah
Set
• Rameses given
false report
• Rameses goes
in pursuit
Set
Amun
Re
Set
• Rameses given
false report
• Rameses goes
in pursuit
• Hittites attack
across the
Orontes
Amun
Set
• Rameses given
false report
• Rameses goes
in pursuit
• Hittites attack
across the
Orontes
• Hittites attack
Rameses
• Began excavations in
Crete in 1900
• Excavated ruins at
Knossos
• Labeled the culture
Minoan after the
legendary King
Minos
!
!
Early Assyrian 2000-1200
• Kassites in Babylon
Period
B.C.
• Mitanni period
Dark Ages
1200-900 B.C. • New Migrations
• Assyrian cavalry
Neo-Assyrian 900-626 B.C. Assyrian expansion
Empire
into the Levant
Fall of
626-612 B.C. Assyrian decline in
Nineveh
face of attacks
• A Literary People
• Assyrian Epynom Lists
• Assyrian Military Machine
Slingers
Assyrian
Terror
Tactics
Tiglath-Pileser I
1116 – 1076 B.C.
• Conquered most of Syria, Urartu, and
Babylon
• Took tribute from Sidon and Byblos
• Followed by a period of decline
Shalmaneser III
Not the good-looking fellow in the
foreground
• Fought Ahab at Qarqar
• Laid siege to
Damascus
• Tribute from Jehu
• Nineveh
Joppa
• Jerusalem
The Edict of the King
• He is not named
• The Assyrian Empire was in a state
of decline at the end of the 9th
century
• Adad-Nirari III (810-782 B.C.)
Jonah 4:10-11
Then the LORD said, “You had
compassion on the plant for which you did not
work, and which you did not cause to grow,
which came up overnight and perished
overnight. 11 And should I not have
compassion on Nineveh, the great city in
which there are more than 120,000 persons
who do not know the difference between their
right and left hand, as well as many animals?”
Salmaneser IV
Ashur-Dan III
Ashur-Nirari V
• Brothers
• Assyria gradually gave up her foreign
possessions
Tiglath-pileser III
• Pul
• Ascended to
throne via
assassination
• Bribed by Ahaz
of Judah to
attack Aram (2
Kings 16:7-10)
• Began policy of
deportations
Shalmaneser V
• Hoshea of Israel entered
into an alliance with Egypt
• Shalmaneser V came and
besieged Samaria for three
years before he died
Sargon II
• Brother of
Shalmaneser V
• Continued siege
of Samaria
• Carried Israel off
into captivity
Sennacherib
• Brother of Sargon II
• Besieged Jerusalem
in days of Hezekiah
• Assassinated (2nd
Kings 19:37)
Esarhaddon
• Invaded Egypt
• Imprisoned Manasseh,
King of Judah
Assurbanipal
• Scholar-king
• Collected library
of more than
6000 cuneiform
texts.
Chaldeans
Medes
Nabopolasser
Cyaxeres
Nebuchadnezzar
Amyhia
Astyages
Carchemish
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Scythians
Assyria
Megiddo
EGYPT

Medes
Babylon