who, at different periods of history, were committing the narrative to writing. David
Brown’s account of Babylonian astronomy charts the development of this ‘very
Babylonian’ discipline from the second millennium onwards. The careful observation
of stellar phenomena and the meticulous record keeping over centuries, together with
advances in mathematical computation, resulted in astonishingly exact predictions.
Brown argues that this shows the methodology and intellectual aim of a true science
whose real scope and significance is only beginning to be understood.
Many of the astrologers and astronomers are known to us by name and they formed
the apex of Babylonian intelligentsia, the subject of Paul-Alain Beaulieu’s article. He
looks at the late periods of Mesopotamian civilization, a time when all the powerful
empires had long ceased to exist. Some of the temples of the ancient gods continued
to operate and they provided a base for scholarly activity which, as Beaulieu shows,
always had a theological grounding.
Finally, Part VII sets the Babylonian world within the historical context of the
Ancient Near East. David Warburton takes on the other great civilization of antiquity,
Egypt, and charts the interconnections between the two, practically non-existent in
the beginning, to direct military confrontation in the first millennium. He also
provides a detailed account of the complex rivalries between the major and minor
states in the mid-second millennium, which is so vividly illuminated by the cuneiform
tablets found at Amarna in Egypt. Trevor Bryce, metaphorically speaking from the
Hittite capital Hattusa, covers some similar historical ground, but both writers also
consider the relationship in terms of ideas, technologies and mutual influence. Petrus
Vermaak introduces the notion of ‘gateways’ to understand the complicated and
shifting politics in the Levant and Syria which impacted on Kassite Babylonia despite
the policies of containment deployed by Kassite rulers. Assyria was always much
closer and Babylonia’s fate was, for centuries, directly affected by Assyria’s ambition
to be the most powerful state in the Near East, as Hannes Galter documents. Israel,
by contrast, was never a major adversary as far as the Babylonians were concerned
but the Hebrew writers conveyed their situation most memorably, as demonstrated
by Baruch Levine. Amélie Kuhrt straddles the camp between Assyriology and
Achaemenid studies and draws on sources from both cultures, as well as classical
authors to provide an account of how Babylonian fared under Persian rule.
We have seen how scholars of today respond with diligence and acumen to the efforts
of their colleagues in antiquity to keep their memory alive. Of all the peoples of the
ancient world, the Babylonians were by far the most insistent on addressing an
audience beyond their time. The future king, coming across their tablets in the sand,
is told to read them carefully and treat them with respect lest their gods avenge
neglect with dreadful curses. This desire finds an echo in our time, however foolishly
our ‘kings’ decry the end of history and wreak havoc among ‘the cities of the Euphrates’.
— Introduction —