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By the end of 1400 BCE , the Babylonians had lost their earlier power and importance .
Repeated attacks by the HITTITES
and other rising powers who had mastered new technologies
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Increasing ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION
and pressure on agricultural lands
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Internal POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC problems
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Babylonian control gradually weakened
↓
They could not maintain their dominance
NEW POWERS emerged in West Asia
- The Hittites were Indo-European people who established a powerful empire in Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) around the second millennium BCE .
- They gained an advantage by mastering new technologies and adopting more efficient ways of using natural resources .
- Environmental degradation means the land and natural resources becoming spoilt or exhausted.
Worth remembering
The Sumerian number system was based on 60 . That is where the 60-minute hour, the 60-second minute and the 360-degree circle come from.
Still true today
Every time you read a clock or measure an angle, you are using Sumerian arithmetic .
1. What does the name Mesopotamia mean?
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The land in between
2. Why did the ziggurat have only one entrance?
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It also served as the city's treasury
3. Which Akkadian king's tablets name Meluhha, Dilmun and Magan?
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Sargon
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| 12,000 years before present | Farming begins in Mesopotamia |
| 7500 BCE | Neolithic |
| 5500 BCE | Chalcolithic |
| 4500 BCE | Copper tools arrive |
| 3500 BCE onwards | Bronze Age begins; the four city-based civilisations flourish, starting with the Sumerians |
| 3200 BCE | The Sumerians are the first to start writing - cuneiform |
| 3000 BCE | Cuneiform widely used all over Mesopotamia |
| 2334 BCE | Akkadians rise; world's first dynastic empire |
| 2154 BCE | Assyrians rise; Assur takes over |
| 1900 BCE | Babylonians gain dominance |
| 1792 BCE | Hammurabi comes to power; the Code of Hammurabi follows |
| Early 1700 BCE | The Assyrian civilisation ends |
| By 1400 BCE | Babylonians lose prominence; new powers emerge in West Asia |
