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The Assyrian and Babylonian culture became the heir of ancient Babylon.
Babylon, which was a part of the powerful Assyrian state, in VIth century BC
became the capital of the New Babylonian Kingdom or Chaldean state (after the
name of the ruling ethnic group – Chaldeans). It was a huge (over one million)

oriental city named the ‘navel of the earth’. At that time there appeared such
commom sayings as ‘the walls of Babylon’, ‘Hanging Gardens of Babylon’,
‘Tower of Babel’and others.

The Babylonians introduced into the world culture their positional system of
numbers, accurate system of measuring time (they were the first to divide an hour
into 60 minutes, and a minute – into 60 seconds), learned how to measure the

square of geometric shapes, distinguish stars from planets and invented a seven-
day week calendar devoting each day of it to a separate deity (this tradition is
preserved in the names of days of a week in the Roman languages). The

Babylonians left to the descendants the accomplishments in the astrology too (a
science of the alleged relationship of a human destiny with the position of the
heavenly bodies in different sectors of zodiacal constellations). In fact, it is not a
complete listing heritage of the Babylonian culture.

Summing up this brief overview, it should be noted that the culture of the
Mesopotamia was less totalitarian, unitary and conservative than the Egyptian one.

The Mesopotamian model of the world order provided some space for a person to
realize her own individuality. However, this expression often took on predatory,
bloodthirsty forms that were poorly associated in our minds with the notion of a
civilized human. However, that was the only possibility to show the ‘humanitarian’

trends of the development from a collective tribal primitive society to a conscious
individual of a civilized culture of the Ancient East. One should admit that the
Mesopotamian traditions became the underlying basis of the outlook of the

Mediterranean peoples (including Asia Minor) and determined the spirit of free
thinking and entrepreneurship of the Semitic tribes of Syria and Phoenicia,
population of the Cretan and Mycenean civilization and even ancient Greeks.

Questions

1. What manifested the essence of religious beliefs of the ancient Egyptians?
2. List the prominent architectural monuments of ancient Egypt.

3. What are the major cultural achievements of the peoples of Mesopotamia?
4. What peoples used writing that inhabited the valley of Mesopotamia?
5. What do you know about the most famous historical and cultural monuments

of Babylon?
6. Describe the Ancient East as a socio-cultural and civilizational phenomenon.

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