Noah's Ark in Sumerian, Akkadian, Assyrian & Babylonian Lore, Part 1 - Setting

Noah's Ark in Sumerian, Akkadian,

Assyrian & Babylonian Lore

Part 1 - Setting

by R.E. Slater

NASB Bible Verses - Genesis 5:32 to 10:1

ESV Bible Verses - Genesis 5:32 to 10:1

RSV Bible Verses - Genesis 5:32 to 10:1

Wikipedia - Noah's Ark

SERIES - "INDEX - Noah & the Genesis Flood"

Sumerians, Akkadians, Assyrians and then Babylonian.

The Sumerians were called the «Black people». They probably split from the earlier civilisation of Aratta in the Armenian Highlands/Ukraine.

There was a huge flood which caused mass destruction of the contemporary civilisations when the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea connected, some time from 4000–5000 BC.

It may be that this flooding caused the myth of the biblical flood milleniums later.

- Quora: Shivan Perumaal

Mesopotamian timelines, references and maps...

[Global] Cradle(s) of Civilizations

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cradle_of_civilization

History of the Middle East

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Middle_East

World History Encyclopedia - Ancient Mesopotamia

https://www.worldhistory.org/Mesopotamia/

History of Mesopotamia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Mesopotamia

Ancient Mediterranean + Europe

https://smarthistory.org/ancient-mediterranean/

click to enlarge

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Sumerians were neither Indo-European nor Semitic people, but everyone else on this list was largely Semitic - as in, they spoke Semitic languages (Babylonians and Assyrians spoke Akkadian, Assyrians today speak various Aramaic dialects and Akkadians spoke Akkadian themselves).

Akkadians were a Semitic-speaking people who ruled over Mesopotamia when they conquered Sumer and eventually established an empire - Akkadian Empire, which reached its peak during the rule of Sargon of Akkad.

Akkadian Empire

Assyrians ruled Northern Mesopotamia, while Chaldeans ruled in the south, in an empire called Babylon or Babylonia. Consequently, the Assyrians are the Assyrians, while the Chaldeans are/were the Babylonians.

Assyrians formed a military dynasty while Babylonians became merchants and agriculturalists.

Assyrians worship animism or animistic beliefs, while Babylonians are polytheistic. They worship several gods and thousands of minor gods.

- Quora: Alice Giam

Assyrian Empire

On the map are two major cities, Asshur the center of Assyria, and Babylon. Each was an empire at different times.

However, Babylon was the center of an empire for only two relatively brief periods. For much of the time, it was subject to Assyria.

The Assyrians lived in that area from at least 2600 BCE. Apparently, they were influenced by Akkad and spoke Akkadian

Babylon, however, was founded by Amorites who had moved into Mesopotamia around 2000 from northern Canaan. In 1792, Hammurabi established a kingdom and built the city of Babylon up from a town. His empire rapidly declined after his death in 1750.

Sometime after that, the Assyrians gained control over Babylon, although Babylon remained an important religious center.

In 625, as the Assyrian Empire finally began to fail, Babylon joined the Medes and others in rebelling against Assyria, which was wiped out by 609. The Babylonians had a second empire until 539 when the Medes and Persians conquered Babylon. Babylon remained an important city for a long time after that.

Bottom line, Babylon gets a lot of credit for what Sumer and Akkad accomplished, but it wasn’t a great power for any length of time. Instead, it was an important trading and religious center.

The Babylonians’ big significance was taking the Jews into exile from 605–586, when they destroyed Jerusalem. The Medes and Persians returned the Jews and other exiled nations in 539. 

- Quora: Steve Page

Babylonian Empire + Wikipedia

Assyrian vs Babylonian

The two neighboring sister-states of ancient Mesopotamia competed for dominance and as such grew widely different in character.

History

Assyria took its name from the town of Ashur, which was the main town but it may also apply to the wide empire that was captured and ruled by the Assyrians. Assyria had better climate than Babylonia owing to the fact that it was located in a highland region north of Babylonia. Assyrians were not entirely Semitic and their true origin is not really known. Their culture, however, was largely indebted to the Babylonians, the Hurrians and the Hittites. Their religion was an adoption from the Babylonians except that the presiding god of the city of Ashur became Assyria’s chief deity. Their nature of worship was animistic.

Babylonia was located at the eastern end of the fertile crescent of west Asia with its capitol as Babylon. At times it was referred to as the land of the Chaldeans. There were originally two political divisions namely Sumer and Akkad. Both the Assyrians and Babylonians made use of the Cuneiform script and all people including royalty, priests, merchants and teachers relied on writing. Nebuchadnezzar ruled Babylon for many years, his reign eventually becoming one of the longest and most accomplished in human history. Some historical moments during his reign include twice capturing. Jerusalem and destroying it and the buildings and walls he built in the city, which were admired by Greek historians.

Organization

While merchants and agriculturalists sprung up in Babylonia, Assyrians became more militaristic, forming an organized military camp ruled over by an autocratic king as the supreme ruler. Successful generals then founded Assyrian dynasties and the king was the autocratic general of an army, who was in the early days surrounded by feudal nobility. These nobles were aided, from the reign of Tiglath-Pileser onwards, by an elaborate bureaucracy. The king’s palace was more sumptuous than the worship houses (temples) of the gods from which it was separate. All people were soldiers or little else to the extent that even the sailor belonged to the state. This resulted to the sudden collapse of the Assyrian during the age of Ashurbanipal when it was drained of its warrior population. In the neighboring Babylonia, the priesthood was the highest authority with priests having been raised to the throne by the revolution. Under the control of a powerful hierarchy, the Babylonian king remained a priest to the end.

Summary

1. Assyria was located north of Babylonia, its highland location giving it better climate than Babylonia.

2. Assyrians formed a military dynasty whereas Babylonians became merchants and agriculturalists.

3. The supreme ruler in Assyria was an autocratic king while in Babylonia, priesthood was the highest authority.

4. Assyrians’ nature of worship was animistic and that of idolatry while for Babylonians it was in a Supreme God.

- Source: Wikipaedia / Quora: Mary Bennett