His undoing came when the Chaldeans attempted to invade and Sargon II sought an alliance with them. a political unit consisting of a city and surrounding countryside. d. the development of political institutions that . [70], Early writing tablet for recording the allocation of beer; 31003000 BC; height: 9.4cm; width: 6.87cm; from Iraq; British Museum (London), Cuneiform tablet about administrative account with entries concerning malt and barley groats; 31002900 BC; clay; 6.8 x 4.5 x 1.6cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City), Bill of sale of a field and house, from Shuruppak; c. 2600 BC; height: 8.5cm, width: 8.5cm, depth: 2cm; Louvre, Stele of the Vultures; c. 2450 BC; limestone; found in 1881 by douard de Sarzec in Girsu (now Tell Telloh, Iraq); Louvre, The Sumerians credited their divinities for all matters pertaining to them and exhibited humility in the face of cosmic forces, such as death and divine wrath. opta sa Obliec sa vysok bio keup strati hadice sprvne. With their specialized knowledge and ability to provide direction and coordinate communal labor in water control projects, they gained power and prestige. Kurds and the Formation of the State of Iraq 1917-1932 M. R. Izady. Hope this helps. Triangular or wedge-shaped reeds were used to write on moist clay. [94][89][95] Lapis lazuli was imported in great quantity by Egypt, and already used in many tombs of the Naqada II period (c. 3200 BC). The Sumerians referred to themselves as the sa gg ga or 'black-headed people', while their land was called the ki-en-gi(-r) - which roughly translates to the 'place of the noble lords' or 'land of the civilized lords'.. Now the Akkadian word Shumer may have . They had jobs involving farming, fishing . The Sumerians adopted an agricultural lifestyle perhaps as early as c. 50004500 BC. When his friend is slain, Gilgamesh goes on a quest to discover the secret of eternal life, finding: "Life, which you look for, you will never find. The site, located at a mound called Ab Shahrayn, was excavated principally between 1946 and 1949 by the Iraq Antiquities Department; it proved to be one of . Why did they trade when they were not fighting? Sumerians are also responsible for the earliest form of written language, cuneiform, with which they kept detailed clerical records. Babylon became one of the most powerful cities of the ancient world under the rule of read more, The amazing works of art and architecture known as the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World serve as a testament to the ingenuity, imagination and sheer hard work of which human beings are capable. 'un-deflowered', or gi nunzua, 'never having known a penis'. The Persian Empire is the name given to a series of dynasties centered in modern-day Iran that spanned several centuriesfrom the sixth century B.C. Posted 3 years ago. Site created in November 2000. Under the rule of Ashurnasirpal II in 884 B.C., the empire created a new capitol, Nimrud, built from the spoils of conquest and brutality that made Ashurnasirpal II a hated figure. [63] The Sumerians widely believed that masturbation enhanced sexual potency, both for men and for women,[63] and they frequently engaged in it, both alone and with their partners. the throne was seized by Babylonian public official Nabopolassar, ushering in the rule of the Semitic dynasty from Chaldea. South Sudanese resettlement population in the United States. The most impressive and famous of Sumerian buildings are the ziggurats, large layered platforms that supported temples. Anu ziggurat and White Temple at Uruk. As the civilization of Sumer weakened, the Babylonians took over. There have been many failed attempts to connect Sumerian to other language families. Now Sumerian is an extinct language, and had a pretty primitive writing system. Each Mesopotamian City had its own patron god or goddess, and most of what we know of them has been passed down through clay tablets describing Mesopotamian religious beliefs and practices. [91] Various objects made with shell species that are characteristic of the Indus coast, particularly Turbinella pyrum and Pleuroploca trapezium, have been found in the archaeological sites of Mesopotamia dating from around 25002000 BC. The major exceptions to Assyrian dominance were the Babylonian Empire established by Hammurabi and some more chaotic dark ages where there wasnt a dominant power. Hi Rylee! [58], Sumerian culture was male-dominated and stratified. Babylon was once a small village in ancient Sumer. Ziggurats (Sumerian temples) each had an individual name and consisted of a forecourt, with a central pond for purification. Sumerians believed in an anthropomorphic polytheism, or the belief in many gods in human form. Mesopotamia 8000-2000 B.C. I love to write and share science related Stuff Here on my Website. Agricultural progress was the work of the dominant Ubaid culture, which had absorbed the Halaf culture before it. [34], Sumerian civilization took form in the Uruk period (4th millennium BC), continuing into the Jemdet Nasr and Early Dynastic periods. Since social classes were so separated in Mesopotamia, there was a lot of room for inequality between the social classes and gender that leads to war; becoming a reality of everyday life. The two beads etched with patterns in white were probably imported from the Indus Valley. There are texts written entirely in Old Akkadian dating from c. 2500 BC. It is one of the cradles of civilization in the world, along with ancient Egypt, Elam, the Caral-Supe civilization, Mesoamerica, the Indus Valley civilisation, and . The Akkadian Empire existed from 2234-2154 B.C. what division is north arkansas college. The nobles' place in society was essentially to function as middle-men between the peasants and the royal family. Ecologically, the agricultural productivity of the Sumerian lands was being compromised as a result of rising salinity. Keep in mind that ancient Mesopotamias history stretches over 3000 years and includes many cultures: Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians and Assyrians. These terms can also be associated with city-states, languages, religions, or empiresdepending on the time and context we are looking at. Some of the vases had pointed feet, and stood on stands with crossed legs; others were flat-bottomed, and were set on square or rectangular frames of wood. Sumerian artifacts show great detail and ornamentation, with fine semi-precious stones imported from other lands, such as lapis lazuli, marble, and diorite, and precious metals like hammered gold, incorporated into the design. Invaded Isreal, Judah, Mesopotamia, and Egypt 721 B.C Iron weapons and Cavalry; no saddles/ stirrups Demanded that conquered peoples submit to their kings and gods; forced to resettle Resettled to territories for development and isolation . in Ur is the intricate Standard of Ur, a shell and limestone structure that features an early example of complex pictorial narrative, depicting a history of war and peace. [15] Hebrew .mw-parser-output .script-hebrew,.mw-parser-output .script-Hebr{font-family:"SBL Hebrew","SBL BibLit","Taamey Ashkenaz","Taamey Frank CLM","Frank Ruehl CLM","Ezra SIL","Ezra SIL SR","Keter Aram Tsova","Taamey David CLM","Keter YG","Shofar","David CLM","Hadasim CLM","Simple CLM","Nachlieli",Cardo,Alef,"Noto Serif Hebrew","Noto Sans Hebrew","David Libre",David,"Times New Roman",Gisha,Arial,FreeSerif,FreeSans} inar, Egyptian Sngr, and Hittite anhar(a), all referring to southern Mesopotamia, could be western variants of Sumer. How can we recognize pronunciations of cuneiform? Complex societies are unequal societies in that some have more privileges and benefits than others. Cities were rivals and competitors and political squabbling was a part of life. Direct link to dhanik's post Why did they trade when t, Posted 4 years ago. The Sumerians' cuneiform script is the oldest (or second oldest after the Egyptian hieroglyphs) which has been deciphered (the status of even older inscriptions such as the Jiahu symbols and Tartaria tablets is controversial). "After the Battle is Over: The 'Stele of the Vultures' and the Beginning of Historical Narrative in the Art of the Ancient Near East". Eridu Eridu was revered as the oldest city in Sumer according to the king lists, and its patron god was Enki (Ea), lord of the sweet waters that flow under the earth. Society Sumerian cities implemented a strong hierarchal system which consisted of nobles, commoners, and slaves. Illustration by Angus McBride. [43]:23, The Uruk period civilization, exported by Sumerian traders and colonists (like that found at Tell Brak), had an effect on all surrounding peoples, who gradually evolved their own comparable, competing economies and cultures. Their attempts to keep the technology to themselves eventually failed, and other empires became a match for them. Modeling himself on Sargon the Great, he divided the empire into provinces and kept the peace. Ahgood question. The bulk of the Sumerian and Akkadian slaves originally came from the ranks of the native population, which is the case for every city-states at some point in time. Cities became walled, and increased in size as undefended villages in southern Mesopotamia disappeared. F Two Greek city-states were Athens and Sparta. [ambiguous], The term "Sumer" (Sumerian: eme-gi or eme-gir15, Akkadian: umeru)[5] is the name given to the language spoken by the "Sumerians", the ancient non-Semitic-speaking inhabitants of southern Mesopotamia, by their successors the East Semitic-speaking Akkadians. The extent to which there was significant influence between the early civilizations of the Near East and the Indus Valley with the Chinese civilization of East Asia (Far East) is disputed. The center of Sumerian culture remained in southern Mesopotamia, even though rulers soon began expanding into neighboring areas, and neighboring Semitic groups adopted much of Sumerian culture for their own. Typically, rulers - first priests then, later, kings - merchants, and craftsmen lived within the city's walls. These early names may be fictional, and include some legendary and mythological figures, such as Alulim and Dumizid. Temples to these gods were constructed atop massive ziggurats which were in the centers of most cities. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Hammurabi worked to expand the empire, and the Babylonians were almost continually at war. 2001. Ur-Nammu was the king of the Sumerians, and the code is a couple hundred years older than the code of Hammurabi. [109][unreliable source] They were also aware of the five planets that are easily visible to the naked eye.[110]. Each was centered on a temple dedicated to the particular patron god or goddess of the city and ruled over by a priestly governor (ensi) or by a king (lugal) who was intimately tied to the city's religious rites. Babylon was the capital city and center of the Babylonian Empire. Use of Old Akkadian was at its peak during the rule of Sargon the Great (c. 23342279 BC), but even then most administrative tablets continued to be written in Sumerian, the language used by the scribes. Another metal-based work, a goat standing on its hind legs and leaning on the branches of a tree, featuring gold and copper along with other materials, was found in the Great Death Pit at Ur and dates to 2500 B.C. During the Akkadian and Ur III phases, there was a shift from the cultivation of wheat to the more salt-tolerant barley, but this was insufficient, and during the period from 2100 BC to 1700 BC, it is estimated that the population in this area declined by nearly three-fifths. Cylinder seal and impression in which appears a ritual scene before a temple faade; 35003100 BC; bituminous limestone; height: 4.5cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City), Ram in a Thicket; 26002400 BC; gold, copper, shell, lapis lazuli and limestone; height: 45.7cm; from the Royal Cemetery at Ur (Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq); British Museum (London), Standard of Ur; 26002400 BC; shell, red limestone and lapis lazuli on wood; length: 49.5cm; from the Royal Cemetery at Ur; British Museum, Bull's head ornament from a lyre; 26002350 BC; bronze inlaid with shell and lapis lazuli; height: 13.3cm, width: 10.5cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art. The , Posted 5 years ago. To log in and use all the features of Khan Academy, please enable JavaScript in your browser. Besides farming, Mesopotamian commoners were carters, brick makers, carpenters, fishermen, soldiers, tradesmen, bakers, stone carvers, potters, weavers and leather workers. Mesopotamian civilization is the most ancient civilization recorded in human history until now. For another list of Mesopotamian finds of Indus seals: Roux, Georges (1992), "Ancient Iraq" (Penguin). Most of the Mes, Posted 4 years ago. The Kassites abandoned their own culture after a couple of generations of dominance, allowing themselves to be absorbed into Babylonian civilization. There was no common set of gods; each city-state had its own patrons, temples, and priest-kings. Is Mesopotamia a city? [63] Entu priestesses were forbidden from producing offspring[64][60] and frequently engaged in anal sex as a method of birth control. . This preview shows page 3 - 4 out of 4 pages. It appears that this culture was derived from the Samarran culture from northern Mesopotamia. The coastline was nearly reaching Ur in ancient times. King Hammurabi ruled Babylon, located along the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers, from 1792-1750 BCE however, today he is most famous for a series of judgments inscribed on a large stone stele and dubbed Hammurabi's Code. The Empire of Akkad collapsed in 2154 BCE, within 180 years of its founding. Under his rule, women and men had equal rights. [citation needed], Marriages were usually arranged by the parents of the bride and groom;[59]:78 engagements were usually completed through the approval of contracts recorded on clay tablets. Jericho, Palestinian Territories A small city with a population of 20,000 people, Jericho, which is located in the Palestine Territories, is believed to be the oldest city in the world. Most of the Mesopotamians believed deeply in religion and about connecting with the gods. The name comes from a Greek word meaning "between rivers," referring to the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, but the region can be broadly defined to include the area that is now eastern Syria, southeastern Turkey, and most of Iraq. 'head' + 'black', or , sag-gg-ga phonetically /sa i a/, lit. Sumerian written history reaches back to the 27th century BC and before, but the historical record remains obscure until the Early Dynastic III period, c. 23rd century BC, when a now deciphered syllabary writing system was developed, which has allowed archaeologists to read contemporary records and inscriptions. Living along the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, Sumerian farmers grew an abundance of grain and other crops, the surplus from which enabled them to form urban settlements. What is the relationship between Mesopotamia. [21] However, with evidence strongly suggesting the first farmers originated from the Fertile Crescent, this suggestion is often discarded. [93] About twenty seals have been found from the Akkadian and Ur III sites, that have connections with Harappa and often use Harappan symbols or writing. Scribes also ran scribe schools to teach reading and writing to sons of the nobility. University of Chicago. It was considered the worlds first multicultural empire with a central government. Bottro, Jean, Andr Finet, Bertrand Lafont, and George Roux. Around 2334 BCE, Sargon of Akkad came to power and established what might have been the worlds first dynastic empire. Most difficult are the earliest texts, which in many cases do not give the full grammatical structure of the language and seem to have been used as an "aide-mmoire" for knowledgeable scribes. [6][9][10], The origin of the Sumerians is not known, but the people of Sumer referred to themselves as "Black Headed Ones" or "Black-Headed People"[6][11][12][13] ( , sag-gg, lit. Nowadays there is a widespread opinion that glass first appeared in the history of man in Mesopotamia, although . Sumerian cities during the Uruk period were probably theocratic and were most likely headed by a priest-king (ensi), assisted by a council of elders, including both men and women. [61] Neither Sumerian nor Akkadian had a word exactly corresponding to the English word 'virginity', and the concept was expressed descriptively, for example as a/-nu-gi4-a (Sum. The hereditary noble class were the kings, land-owning families and priests and priestesses and their families. Also known as the Cradle of Civilization, this area was the birthplace of a number of technological innovations, including writing, the wheel, read more, Palmyra is an ancient archaeological site located in modern-day Syria. [106] They were denominated in barley or other crops and the interest rate was typically much higher than for commercial loans and could amount to 1/3 to 1/2 of the loan principal. The Sumerians were great artists. An impressive lion image also figures into the Ishtar Gate in 585 B.C., during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II and fashioned from glazed bricks. Some believe it existed in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, others attribute its invention to the Arabs, and others believe its origin is Persian, Indian, or . What is the ICD-10-CM code for skin rash? To constrain bad behavior and to promote social order. [52] This greatly upset the balance of power within the region, weakening the areas where Sumerian was spoken, and comparatively strengthening those where Akkadian was the major language. Slave women worked as weavers, pressers, millers, and porters. The Hurrians enter the orbit of ancient Middle Eastern civilization toward the end of the 3rd millennium BC. The dead were buried outside the city walls in graveyards where a small mound covered the corpse, along with offerings to monsters and a small amount of food. Sargon II lost to the Chaldeans but switched to attacking Syria and parts of Egypt and Gaza, embarking on a spree of conquest before eventually dying in battle against the Cimmerians from Russia. Some archaeologists have speculated that the original speakers of ancient Sumerian may have been farmers, who moved down from the north of Mesopotamia after perfecting irrigation agriculture there. Uruk) era suggest that "Stone was scarce, but was already cut into blocks and seals. For other uses, see. They traded textiles, leather goods, and jewelry for Harappan semi-precious stones, copper, pearls, and ivory. For example, Imports to Ur came from many parts of the world. However, no affinity of Natufians to sub-Saharan Africans is evident in our genome-wide analysis, as present-day sub-Saharan Africans do not share more alleles with Natufians than with other ancient Eurasians" in, Margarethe Uepermann (2007), "Structuring the Late Stone Age of Southeastern Arabia" (, Leick, Gwendolyn (2003), "Mesopotamia, the Invention of the City" (Penguin), "The stepped design of the Pyramid of Zoser at Saqqara, the oldest known pyramid along the Nile, suggests that it was borrowed from the Mesopotamian ziggurat concept." T Proto-writing dates back before 3000 BC. Direct link to BEST20042007's post Hi Rylee! In particular, cedar from Lebanon was prized. The city was provided with towers and stood on an artificial platform; the house also had a tower-like appearance. The earliest traces of the Babylonian numerals also date back to this period. If this story sounds familiar, it should; foundational Mesopotamian religious stories about the Garden of Eden, the Great Flood, and the Creation of the Tower of Babel found their way into the Bible, and the Mesopotamian religion influenced both Christianity and Islam. Uruk was the first of these cities, dating back to around 3200 B.C. The big landowners - the nobles - were vassals of the king, and peasants . The king-priest and his acolyte feeding the sacred herd. Ashur was originally one of a number of Akkadian-speaking city states ruled by Sargon and his descendents during the Akkadian Empire. Gilgamesh is believed to have been born in Uruk around 2700 B.C. Then, the earliest cities in the world such as Uruk in the south, and Tell Brak and Hamoukar in the north expanded . Direct link to Hecretary Bird's post Most people recognize the, Posted 5 years ago. city of Uruk The First City The city of Uruk, today considered the oldest in the world, was first settled in c. 4500 BCE and walled cities, for defence, were common by 2900 BCE throughout the region. c. the organization of human communities based on kinship and class. Unfortunately, the high evaporation rate resulted in a gradual increase in the salinity of the fields. Sumerian cities were surrounded by defensive walls. Direct link to 1tskeke's post The Kassites (/ksats/), Posted 2 years ago. Soil salinity in this region had been long recognized as a major problem. Bezlepka: Bio keup RAPUNZEL 450 ml. Mesopotamian cities started to develop in the 5000 BCE initially from the southern parts. Sumerian temples and palaces made use of more advanced materials and techniques, such as buttresses, recesses, half columns, and clay nails. Hailing from the mountains east of Mesopotamia, their period of rule saw immigrants from India and Europe arriving, and travel sped up thanks to the use of horses with chariots and carts. Esarhaddon struggled to rule his expanded empire. Mesopotamia represents a diversity of perspectives and opinions on homosexual conduct. Associated with Mesopotamia are ancient cultures like the Sumerians, Assyrians, Akkadians, and Babylonians. The Sumerians progressively lost control to Semitic states from the northwest. A prime example of cuneiform writing would be a lengthy poem that was discovered in the ruins of Uruk. In early Mesopotamia, homosexual conduct apparently received little attention. Citizens had a labor duty to the temple, though they could avoid it by a payment of silver. Direct link to 17mloges's post Ancient Mesopotamia has b, Posted 6 years ago. The present population of Kyperounta is estimated to be about 1500 persons. The Babylonian Empire established by Hammurabi lasted for 260 years until Babylon got sacked by invaders in 1531 BCE. Gelb and Westenholz differentiate three stages of Old Akkadian: that of the pre-Sargonic era, that of the Akkadian empire, and that of the Ur III period that followed it. Mesopotamian art returned to the public eye in the 21st century when museums in Iraq were looted during conflicts there. [62]:9193 It is unclear whether terms such as iitu in Akkadian medical texts indicate the hymen, but it appears that the intactness of the hymen was much less relevant to assessing a woman's virginity than in later cultures of the Near East, and most assessments of virginity depended on the woman's own account. The region was the centre . Priests were responsible for pleasing the gods. Ea had the humans build an ark and mankind was spared. "People spoke different languages and presumably had different underlying cultural traditions. The Sumerians had three main types of boats: Evidence of wheeled vehicles appeared in the mid-4th millennium BC, near-simultaneously in Mesopotamia, the Northern Caucasus (Maykop culture) and Central Europe. The Gutian rule is considered a disorderly one that caused a severe downturn in the empires prospects. For Akoy basketball provided a sense of belonging and an avenue to realize his potential. in the areas between the lands controlled by the Hittites and the Kassites. The most widespread material in Sumer was clay, as a result many Sumerian objects are made of clay. At its height the Inca Empire controlled 10-11 million people, covering lands from present-day Quito, Ecuador, all the way to Santiago, Chile. In many cities, a form of currency was common. gives an example of the sophistication of Babylonian art, portraying either the goddess Ishtar or her sister Ereshkigal, accompanied by night creatures. The obligations, loans and prices in general were usually denominated in one of them. what was the significance of early ancient mesopotamia. Wall plaque showing libations to a seated god and a temple. Sumerian agriculture depended heavily on irrigation. Keup 450ml BIO RAPUNZEL | Zelen obchodk. Akkadian and Sumerian coexisted as vernacular languages for about one thousand years, but by around 1800 BC, Sumerian was becoming more of a literary language familiar mainly only to scholars and scribes. They have been discovered by Leonard Woolley when the Royal Cemetery of Ur has been excavated between from 1922 and 1934. Mesopotamian art often depicted its rulers and the glories of their lives. They believe that population growth, not food surplus, was the incentive for intensified agriculture and even- tually more complex societies. A diverse, richly cultural civilization grew up over several thousand years and was shaped by many ethnic groups. Uruk continued as principality of Ur, Babylon, and later Achaemenid, Seleucid, and Parthian Empires. Generally speaking, though, from the rise of the cities in c. 4500 BCE to the downfall of Sumer in 1750 BCE, the people of the regions of Mesopotamia did live their lives in similar ways. He was the last ethnically Sumerian king before Sargon of Akkad.[35]. After the Gutian period, the Ur III kingdom similarly united parts of northern and southern Mesopotamia. Metals such as gold, silver, copper, and bronze, along with shells and gemstones, were used for the finest sculpture and inlays. Five thousand years later, these houses formed farming communities following the domestication of animals and the development of agriculture, most notably irrigation techniques that took advantage of the proximity of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Mesopotamia is located in the region now known as the Middle East, which includes parts of southwest Asia and lands around the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Nippur retained this status throughout the Sumerian period. Flanking the aisles would be rooms for the priests. and slaves (most of the population) on the bottom. Pictorial Narrative in Antiquity and the Middle Ages. It was laid out on several clay tablets and is thought to be the earliest known surviving example of fictional literature. Ancient Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt are the oldest civilizations. The final king of the Akkadian Empire, Shar-kali-sharri, died in 2193 B.C., and Mesopotamia went through a century of unrest, with different groups struggling for control. He was at one point an officer who worked for the king of Kish, and Akkadia was a city that Sargon himself established. We believe Sumerian civilization first took form in southern Mesopotamia around 4000 BCEor 6000 years agowhich would make it the first urban civilization in the region. Uruk, one of Sumer's largest cities, has been estimated to have had a population of 50,00080,000 at its height;[53] given the other cities in Sumer, and the large agricultural population, a rough estimate for Sumer's population might be 0.8 million to 1.5 million. Strong winter dust storms may have caused the collapse of the Akkadian Empire. Sumerian nobles consisted of royal and religious World War Two Timeline From The Great War To Germanys Surrender. The whole of Mesopotamia was divided into two parts - Northern Mesopotamia and Southern Mesopotamia. [16], Others have suggested that the Sumerians were a North African people who migrated from the Green Sahara into the Middle East and were responsible for the spread of farming in the Middle East. a. Babylon: Mesopotamia and the Birth of Civilization. The Assyrians came in and defeated the lands rulers, making Mesopotamia come under Assyrian rule. He seems to have used terror as a matter of policy. Kings were considered deities and the most famous of these was Hammurabi, who ruled 17921750 B.C. Although there is no exact definition for an urban society . By the time Alexander the Great conquered the Persian Empire in 331 B.C., most of the great cities of Mesopotamia no longer existed and the culture had been long overtaken. In the early Sumerian Uruk period, the primitive pictograms suggest that sheep, goats, cattle, and pigs were domesticated. Graduated from ENSAT (national agronomic school of Toulouse) in plant sciences in 2018, I pursued a CIFRE doctorate under contract with SunAgri and INRAE in Avignon between 2019 and 2022. This sexagesimal system became the standard number system in Sumer and Babylonia. The term Sumer is today used to designate southern Mesopotamia. 11., 1939), Jacobsen, Thorkild (1976), "The Harps that Once; Sumerian Poetry in Translation" and "Treasures of Darkness: a history of Mesopotamian Religion", George, Andrew (Translator) (2003), "The Epic of Gilgamesh" (Penguin Classics). Babylon never really fit in the Sumer civilization. Inca Civilization 1200 1542 AD (Modern day Peru) , Maya Civilization 2000 BC early 16th Century (Modern day Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras).