An Early civilization

Title

Language

English

Year

1941

Subject

Civilization.

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Abstract

History section.

Scholars are unable to tell us whether civilization first arose in Egypt or in that part of the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers of western Asia which we call Babylonia. At all events, there lay one of the earliest cradles of civilization.

Fulltext

MARCH, 1941 THE YOUNG CITIZEN HISTORY SECTION AN EARLY .CIVILIZATION ) The Palace of a King Four Thousand Years A go. Sargo11 II built this palace on a great elevated plat! orm covering 25 acres. Tliere were inclined roadways 011 which he could drive in hit cliariot .. from the streets of the city below. Such temple towers as that behind the largest court developed into the towers we see on churches today . • SCHOLARS are unable to tell us whether civilization first arose in Egypt or in that part of the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers of western Asia which we call Babylonia. At all events, there lay one of the earliest cradles of civilization: Long before 3000 B. C., th.e predecessors-the forerunners--of the a·ncient Babylonians (called Sumerians) were living in tiny· city-states along the lower course of the twin rivers, in small towns built of sun-dried bricks. They irrigated their barley and wheat fields by extensive canals, and they wrote letters and kept records on tablets of baked day by means of curious writing. They used a system of counting by 60's instead of by 1 OO's, from which has come our division of the hour. into 60 minutes, and of the minute into 60 seconds. In the center of the plain of Ba•by. Ionia rose a great tower on a temple, which is -regarded as the original tower of Babel 0 where the confusion of languages occurred as rela-ted in the eleve~th chapter of the book of Genesis of the Bible. This tower was the remote ancestor of our modern church steeples. Each one of the little towns of the Plain of.· Shinar-·as Babylonia was then called-in that early day owned land . for a few miles around it, and the period 3050 to 27 50 B. C. is known as the Age of the Sumerian City Kingdoms. The inhabitants had come from tqe mountains to the east in what was lat.er called Persia. They apparently were not related to any of the groups of people that we now know. The petty states were constantly 106 THE YOUNG CITIZEN MARCH, 1941 warring with one another. They also had an outside enemy to meet in the wandering tribes of the Arabian desert to the west. Finally one of these chieftains from the desert, named Sargon, proved too strong for the Sumcrians, and made himself master of the whole plain. Sargon (abotit 2750 B. C.) · was the first great leader in history, and the first to build up a great nation. His kingdom reached from the Persian 'gulf to the M·editerranean sea. Gradually his wandering followers dropped their unsettled life .and took up fixed abodes m the p I a ins. They adopted the civilization of their former enemies, gaming new arts of peace and war. They I earned to make helmets of leather and The cities of this kingdom have long been nothing ·but deserted mounds of earth and crumbled bricks. But in these ruins many baked clay tablets. have been found containing letters written by the king, and a record of his l~ws. These writings enable us to bridge the gap of more than 4,000 years and to know something of the daily life of these people. These ' clay letters of this ancient king contain orders directed to officials in different .parts of the kingdom. There is also· an order that' the river Euphrates be cleared of its obstacles to river commerce. He ordered that taxes be collected, and that those who did not pay be punished. Unjust jud.ges and corrupt officials were ordered to be brought copper, which to j us tic e. are the earliest 0th er letters known exam- de a I with pies of the use Map Showing the Location of an Early Civilization s he e p-shearof metal for ing,. the temprotection in war. From this humble pies and religion, the regulation of ·the· beginning came the armor of the knights calendar, anq similar matters. of the Middle Ages and our modern These very old laws are the earliest steelclad battleships and mechanized . code of laws for any people which has armies. · come down to us. They are thus a priceAs the kings who followed Sargon less· aid to making clear the earliest life slowly weakened, a new desert ·'tribe in-· of civilized man, long before the ancient vaded the land, and in turn established days of Greece and Rome. In them we the kingdom of Babylonia, so named find a highly developed political and from its capital Babylon. About 2100 social system. years B. C. this kingdom reached its There were three classes .of people in height. . Agriculture was extensively the community-a ruling class of nobles practic~d, commerce. flourished, and law and officials, a middle class, and slaves. and government were highly developed. Much attention was given to commerce, MARCH, 1941 THE YOUNG CITIZEN . . 107· The Babylonian Story of the Flood money, ahd banking, as well as to agriculture and the canals and ditches needed for irrigating the soil. Justice was insisted on for the widow, the orphan, and the poor. The position of women in those laws was a high one, and they frequently engaged in business on their ·own account. After the death of the ruler, the kingdom went to pieces. The wild . tribes again descended from the eastern mountains to the plains, this time bringing with them a strange animal which we call the horse. A new language, a Semitic language related to the Hebrew of the time of · Christ, took the place of the old language. In the northern part of the valley between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers there had arisen a new nation called Assyria from its chief town Assur. Its people ·borrowed the calendar, writing, sculpture, and other improvements of civilization from their Babylonian neighbors. The Assyrians "gained skill in warfare until t~ey aspired tp rule the whole of what was then the civilized world about them, just as Germany aspires today to rule all of Europe. Before Assyria had accomplished this, the little kingdoms of Palestine and Syria has risen to power. Syria especially was fich . in busy cities, and carried on com-. merce with all the known world. They spread far and wide their system of writing-the first system to make use of an alphabet. These cities checked the advance of the Assyrians, and it was not until the middle of the 8th .century .before . Christ that Damascus, the· most powerful city of Syria fell. (See the map on pag~ 106.) Assyria not "'only conquered Syria and . Palestine, but her rule for a time ex-. . tended even into Egypt. There are two reasons for this milita·ry success: ( 1) they were the first people to learn the use ot" iron weapons; (2) the organization of their country was· based on war and conquest. Like that of the Germans of the present time, their rule was .ope of "blood and iron." One Assyri_ an " king, Sargon II (722 to 705 B. C.) destroyed the (Please turn to page 117.) MAR.CH, 19+1 THE YOUNG CITIZEN 117 EARLY CIVILIZATION The new masters rebuilt RESPECT OUR FLAG (Continued from page 107) the old city of Babylon and (Continued from page 109). northern kingdom ·.of the made it their capital. Here That ended their conHebrews (called Israel) lived and ruled N ebuchad- versation. I am sure that and carried away as cap- nezzar, greatest of the Chai- in the hearts of those boys tives part of its people. dean e~perors. He en- is a strong love and respect Sargon's son Sennacherib larged the city and built for the flag of their country, (705 to 681 B.C.) destroyed enormous walls around it, and a desire to have ~heir the ancient city of Babylon, like the walls of old Ma- flag clean of every stain that and even turned the waters nila, only larger and strong- could cause its dishonor. of the canal over its ruins. er. He constructed some Young reader; do you have Sargon II had built for wonderful hanging . gar- that sar.ne respect for the himself a palace far sur- dens, which the Greeks flag? passing anything else yet counted as one of the seven built · the buildings covered wonders of the world. This 25 a~res and were large is the Babylon described in enough to shelter 80,000 the Bible a~ _the city of people But this was not Hebrew capt1v1ty, after the DO THIS Study about the meaning of our flag . . Then tell it in your own words. h . f · h. S destruction of the Hebrew enoug . or is son en- . ----------. . . . city Jerusalem. nachenb, and he built as S 1 B b 1 . . d h . . 1 h d . evera a y oman an A STUDENT'S PSALM {Continued from page 109) is capita t e prou city A . d II f N . h . ssynan recor s te o a of mevah on t e upper fl d h. h How often at night, with · . . . great oo w ic once . . part of the nver T1gns. covered all the land, and tears and supphcat10ns, Thousands of clay tablets how a man and his family hast thou taken our names, have been discovered in the were saved. The flood is one by one, before the ruins of Ninevah. This is represented as sent on earth Heavenly Fathe_r:s thro_ne the.earliest library of which f th · f en of grace beseeching Him or e sms o m . . we know and in it were Th t f th' ft d that somehow our hves , e accoun o is oo . · . religious scientific and · t 1 · I might change. And our hves , , was written on we ve c ay h . d d h d literary works, all carefully tablets found in . the ruins avTehm ee ' c .ange · I d . . ou wert kmd ! Thou cata ogue . of the palace at Nmevah. bl 1 B 1 d ·h Th d f h. A · p· f f h 1 wert no e. e ove teac _ e en o t is ssynan 1ctures o two o t ese c ay h k h f h. · · 606 B C bl h er, we t an t ee, . or t ou . empire came m . . ta ets are s own on page d.d t 1 . h · . h · ·. 0 1 s strugg ·e wit us wit . A desert tribe called the 1 7. t. d 1 · · · k. d . . . . . . . f pa 1ence an ovmg m - Chaldeans Joined with the The great c1v1hzat1on o . B b . I . d .c1 • f. 11 ness. Medes, a tribe from the a y oma an "'~ssyna e , S 1 th t' · f d . . h ure y y un iring e - East and conquered Nine- and the Ian ever smce as f t h b ht ' b 1 d b f . or s ave roug us to a vah, the mighty c;:ity of the een ru e Y a oreign realization of our short! Assyrians. Two hundred people. comings. As long as our years later a Greek historian memory lasts, .thy kindness, could not even learn the REVIEW patience, and love shall be name of the ruins where I. Read and study about our treasure, our benediconce Ninevah had stood. this interesting civilization. tion.

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