In Babylon Paul Kriwaczek tells the story of ancient Mesopotamia from the earliest settlements around 5400 BC to the eclipse of Babylon by the Persians in the sixth century BC. He chronicles the rise & fall of dynastic power during this period; he examines its numerous material social & cultural innovations & inventions: The wheel civil engineering building bricks the centralized state the division of labour organised religion sculpture education mathematics law & monumental building. At the heart of Kriwaczeks magisterial account though is the glory of Babylon
- gateway to the gods
- which rose to glorious prominence under the Amorite king Hammurabi who unified Babylonia between 1800 & 1750 BC. While Babylonian power would rise & fall over the ensuing centuries it retained its importance as a cultural religious & political centre until its fall to Cyrus the Great of Persia in 539 BC.""