The Old Babylonian Period

The Old Babylonian Period, roughly 1894 to 1595 BCE, refers to the era in which the city of Babylon rose from a minor Mesopotamian city-state to become the political and cultural center of southern Mesopotamia, a status it would retain in one form or another for well over a thousand years afterward. Its defining figure is Hammurabi, who ruled from about 1792 to 1750 BCE and, after conquering rival city-states including Larsa, Mari and Eshnunna to briefly unify most of Mesopotamia under Babylonian rule, issued the Code of Hammurabi, one of the earliest and most complete surviving law codes, inscribed on a large stone stele and covering matters from commerce and property to family law and criminal punishment under the principle of proportional retribution. The period saw significant advances in mathematics and astronomy, including a base-sixty numeral system whose legacy survives in the modern division of the hour into sixty minutes, and produced the Enuma Elish creation epic. Babylonian political power fragmented again after Hammurabi's dynasty weakened, and the period ends when Hittite raiders sacked Babylon around 1595 BCE, opening the way for Kassite rule over the city.