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The Babylonians invaded Mesopotamia and defeated and replaced the Sumerian culture around 2000 BC, establishing their capital at Babylon around 1900BC. They adopted many Sumerian customs, such as cuneiform writing and mathematics using base 60.
The Babylonians invaded Mesopotamia and defeated and replaced the Sumerian culture around 2000 BC, establishing their capital at Babylon around 1900BC. They adopted many Sumerian customs, such as cuneiform writing and mathematics using base 60.
==The Chaldean race==
Noah was saved from the Great Flood by the Ark, together with his wife, his three sons and their wives. His sons were named Shem, Ham and Japeth. The bible relates the descedants of Shem, the elder brother of Japeth<ref>Genesis 10:21</ref>, as five sons: Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud and Aram<ref>Genesis 10:22</ref>. Flavius Josephus relates the national genealogy of the children of Shem, or Semites:
:Shem...had five Sons, who inhabited the land that began at Euphrates, and reached to the Indian Ocean. For ''Elam'' left behind him the ''Elamites'', the ancestors of the Persians. ''Ashur'' lived at the city Nineve; and named his subjects ''Assyrians'': who became the most fortunate nation, beyond others. ''Arphaxad'' named the ''Arphaxadites'', who are now called ''Chaldeans''. ''Aram'' had the ''Aramites''; which the Greeks call ''Syrians'': as ''Laud'' founded the ''Laudites'', which are now called ''Lydians''.<ref>Josephus, Flavius (c. 94 ''A.D.''). ''Antiquities of the Jews'' ed. Whiston, William (1737), translated by Siwart Havercamp (1726) in ''The Genuine Works of Flavius Josephus the Jewish Historian'' (London: W. Bowyer, 1737), book 1, ch. 6, sec. 4.</ref>
==Nabopolassar==
In 625 B.C., the Chaldean chieftain [[Nabopolassar]] conquered the city of Babylon and began the Neo-Babylonian Empire, his reign culminating in the conquering of the Assyrian Empire in 609 B.C.
==The Legend of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon==
==The Legend of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon==
This old Babylonian numbering system is likely to be the reason why we still have unusual base systems for things like time (hours, minutes and seconds), 24 hours in the day, the old Imperial measurement system etc. The beauty of this system is that numbers which are multiples of 12 (such as 24, 60, and 144) are all also divisible by 2, 3, 4, and 6, whereas 10 is only divisible by 2 and 5 - so it's easier to count halves, quarters and thirds in a base 12 system.<ref>http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/HistTopics/Babylonian_mathematics.html</ref>
This old Babylonian numbering system is likely to be the reason why we still have unusual base systems for things like time (hours, minutes and seconds), 24 hours in the day, the old Imperial measurement system etc. The beauty of this system is that numbers which are multiples of 12 (such as 24, 60, and 144) are all also divisible by 2, 3, 4, and 6, whereas 10 is only divisible by 2 and 5 - so it's easier to count halves, quarters and thirds in a base 12 system.<ref>http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/HistTopics/Babylonian_mathematics.html</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
==See also==
==See also==