Mesopotamia

5,500 BCE O.S. – 539 BCE O.S.66 items

ancient worldempires
The “peace” side of the Standard of Ur: a banquet, and animals and goods brought to it, in shell, lapis lazuli and red limestone, from the Royal Cemetery at Ur, about 2500 BCE. British Museum. Photo: Juan Carlos Fonseca Mata, 2019. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The “peace” side of the Standard of Ur: a banquet, and animals and goods brought to it, in shell, lapis lazuli and red limestone, from the Royal Cemetery at Ur, about 2500 BCE. British Museum. Photo: Juan Carlos Fonseca Mata, 2019. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Five thousand years between the rivers

From the first temple at Eridu to the day in 539 BCE when Cyrus of Persia took Babylon without a battle. In between, the land between the Tigris and the Euphrates built the first cities, invented writing to run them, and saw the first empires, the first law codes and the first literature. The map runs from the Gulf marshes up to Assyria, and out to Syria, Anatolia, Elam, Judah and the Arabian desert.

How it is built

  • The periods archaeologists and historians use are bands, one after another: Ubaid, Uruk, Jemdet Nasr, Early Dynastic, Akkadian, Ur III, Old Babylonian and Kassite, then Middle Assyrian, Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian.

  • Shorter bands overlap them where one story runs across: the Assyrian merchants in Anatolia, and the reigns of Sargon, Hammurabi, Ashurbanipal and Nebuchadnezzar II. Events that belong to a reign sit inside it.

Filter by tag to follow one thread: cities, writing, law, war, religion, sky. Smaller threads follow women and trade.

…to bring about the rule of righteousness in the land, to destroy the wicked and the evil-doers; so that the strong should not harm the weak. — prologue to the Code of Hammurabi, translated by L. W. King

Dates

Dates after about 1400 BCE are fixed by the Assyrian lists of year-names, which an eclipse in 763 BCE ties to our calendar. Earlier dates hang on how long the gaps were, and the schemes differ by up to 150 years. This timeline uses the Middle Chronology, which puts Hammurabi in 1792–1750 BCE and the Hittite sack of Babylon in 1595, throughout. Prehistoric periods and the early third millennium carry a range of years; so does the Akkadian dynasty, because nobody knows how long the Gutians ruled after it.

Every date is in the proleptic Julian calendar, the convention for ancient history. That matters only for the few given to the day, which Babylonian and Assyrian records allow: the eclipse of 763 BCE, the capture of Jerusalem in 597, and Babylon’s fall in October 539.

Items

  1. Ubaid period

    1,300 years

  2. First temple at Eridu

    Eridu (Abu Shahrain), Iraq

  3. Uruk period

    900 years

  4. Uruk colonies on the Euphrates

    Habuba Kabira, Syria, now under Lake Assad

  5. Uruk, the first city

    Uruk (Warka), within its city wall

  6. Temple accountants invent writing

    Eanna precinct, Uruk (Warka), Iraq

  7. Jemdet Nasr period

    200 years

  8. The Uruk Vase

    Eanna precinct, Uruk (Warka), Iraq

  9. Early Dynastic period

    ≈ 550 years

  10. Gilgamesh, king of Uruk

    Uruk (Warka), within its city wall

  11. Mebaragesi, king of Kish

    Kish (Tell al-Uhaimir and Ingharra), Iraq

  12. Royal Tombs of Ur

    Ur, Iraq

  13. Stele of the Vultures

    Girsu (Tello), in the state of Lagash

  14. Akkadian Empire

    180 years · Akkad (Agade), whose site has never been found; sought between Sippar and the Diyala

  15. Reign of Sargon of Akkad

    ≈ 55 years · Akkad (Agade), whose site has never been found; sought between Sippar and the Diyala

  16. Uru-inimgina’s reforms at Lagash

    Girsu (Tello), in the state of Lagash

  17. Sargon defeats Lugalzagesi

    Nippur (Nuffar), Iraq

  18. Enheduanna, high priestess at Ur

    Ur, Iraq

  19. Naram-Sin makes himself a god

  20. Akkad falls

    Akkad (Agade), whose site has never been found; sought between Sippar and the Diyala

  21. Third Dynasty of Ur (Ur III)

    108 years · Ur, Iraq

  22. Laws of Ur-Nammu

    Ur, Iraq

  23. Ur-Nammu builds the Ziggurat of Ur

    Ziggurat of Ur

  24. Shulgi runs from Nippur to Ur

    Nippur to Ur

  25. Old Babylonian period

    ≈ 409 years

  26. Elamites sack Ur

    Ur, Iraq

  27. Assyrian merchants at Kanesh

    ≈ 205 years · Donkey-caravan road from Assur to Kanesh (approximate)

  28. The Old Babylonian Gilgamesh

  29. Plimpton 322

    Larsa (Tell Senkereh), Iraq

  30. Reign of Hammurabi

    ≈ 42 years · Babylon

  31. Hammurabi conquers Larsa

    Larsa (Tell Senkereh), Iraq

  32. Hammurabi destroys Mari

    Royal palace, Mari (Tell Hariri), Syria

  33. The Code of Hammurabi

    Sippar (Tell Abu Habbah), Iraq

  34. School tablets of House F, Nippur

    Nippur (Nuffar), Iraq

  35. The Venus Tablet of Ammisaduqa

  36. Kassite period

    440 years

  37. Hittites sack Babylon

    Babylon

  38. Kurigalzu builds Dur-Kurigalzu

    Ziggurat of Dur-Kurigalzu (Aqar Quf)

  39. Middle Assyrian period

    ≈ 451 years · Assur (Qal’at Sherqat), Iraq

  40. Tukulti-Ninurta I takes Babylon

    Babylon

  41. Elam carries off the stelae

    Acropolis of Susa, Iran

  42. Nebuchadnezzar I brings Marduk home

    Babylon

  43. Middle Assyrian Laws

    Assur (Qal’at Sherqat), Iraq

  44. Neo-Assyrian Empire

    302 years

  45. Ashurnasirpal II opens Nimrud

    Northwest Palace, Nimrud (Kalhu)

  46. Battle of Qarqar

    Near Qarqar on the Orontes (the battlefield is not known)

  47. Sammu-ramat, queen mother

    Assur (Qal’at Sherqat), Iraq

  48. The eclipse of Bur-Sagale

  49. Sargon II builds Dur-Sharrukin

    Dur-Sharrukin (Khorsabad), Iraq

  50. Sennacherib besieges Lachish

    Tel Lachish, Israel

  51. Sennacherib rebuilds Nineveh

    Kuyunjik mound, Nineveh (Mosul)

  52. Sennacherib destroys Babylon

    Babylon

  53. Reign of Ashurbanipal

    ≈ 37 years · Kuyunjik mound, Nineveh (Mosul)

  54. Astronomical Diaries begin

    Babylon

  55. The library of Ashurbanipal

    Kuyunjik mound, Nineveh (Mosul)

  56. Ashurbanipal sacks Susa

    Acropolis of Susa, Iran

  57. Neo-Babylonian Empire

    ≈ 87 years · Babylon

  58. The fall of Nineveh

    Kuyunjik mound, Nineveh (Mosul)

  59. Reign of Nebuchadnezzar II

    ≈ 43 years · Babylon

  60. Battle of Carchemish

    Carchemish, on the Turkish–Syrian border

  61. Nebuchadnezzar takes Jerusalem

    Jerusalem

  62. The Ishtar Gate

    Site of the Ishtar Gate, Babylon

  63. Nabonidus leaves for Tayma

    Tayma oasis, Saudi Arabia

  64. Nabonidus digs for the past

    Sippar (Tell Abu Habbah), Iraq

  65. Babylon falls to Cyrus

    Babylon

  66. Cyrus enters Babylon

    Babylon