The Witch of Babylon

have sworn someone had, with the touch of a finger, turned a piece of real fruit into gold.

I stayed until closing time. Bleecker even at this late hour was teeming with people. Already I felt a little out of place here. Subtle changes. Like the slowing of a friendship when one of you moves on to other things. The night air had a touch of chill. A few leaves drifted onto the sidewalk, early harbingers of the year closing in on itself. I looked up to see the lighted windows of my old home. A stranger leaned on the balcony railing the way I used to, a drink in his hand. I waved to him. He tipped his glass to me. A small omen, I hoped, of better things to come.

Mesopotamian Culture

Mesopotamia is a Greek word describing the “land between two rivers”—the region bounded by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers approximately corresponding to modern-day Iraq. Professor Leo Oppenheim’s highly regarded book Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a Dead Civilization is recommended as a starting point for anyone interested in learning more about the early history of this region. What follows is the briefest of snapshots of the three pre-eminent Mesopotamian cultures.

SUMERIANS

It is not known whether Sumerians were indigenous to southern Mesopotamia or migrated there. Their language group is not Semitic and has no proven affiliates. Intensive agriculture, irrigation, and the specialization of labor created conditions for Sumerians to develop the first city-states ruled by priest-kings. Cities were temple- centered and under the protection of a specific deity.

Sumerian achievements were so exceptional as to represent almost an evolutionary advance in human accomplishment. The Sumerians developed geometry and the sexagesimal (base sixty) numeral system still used today (for example, measurement of angles, the minute); the lunar/solar calendar; the wheel; the early chariot; and cuneiform, the first writing system.

Periods of Sumerian Dominance (B.C.)

Early Dynastic (Sumerian city-states)

3100–2390

Neo-Sumerian

2168–2050

ASSYRIANS

The Assyrian homeland occupied the territory between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in northern Mesopotamia (the area just north of Baghdad today), which had sufficient rainfall to carry out agriculture without need for intensive irrigation. Ancient Assyrians were Semitic-speaking tribes noted for their prowess with the bow and superb horseman-ship. Assyrian dominance ebbed and flowed, but at the height of their power in the seventh century

B.C.

, they controlled the entire Levant area of the Near East, Egypt, Phrygia, and what is now southwestern Iran. Assyrians developed a complex system of government and are considered to have built the first empire.

Periods of Assyrian Dominance (B.C.)

Old Assyrian Period

1869–1837

Middle Assyrian Period

1350–1000

Neo-Assyrian Period

883–612

Assyrian Kings, 722–609 B.C.

Sargon II

722–705

Sennacherib

705–681

Esarhaddon

c. 681–669

Ashurbanipal

c. 669–627

Ashur-etil-ilani

c. 631–627

Sin-shar-iskkun

c. 627–612

Ashur-uballit II

c. 612–609

BABYLONIANS

Babylonians were also Semitic speakers; their name is derived from Babylon, where the kings resided. At its height the Babylonian empire controlled territory stretching from modern-day Egypt to Iran. The sixth king of Babylon, Hammurabi, developed the first code of law. Other achievements included advances in architecture, mathematics, astronomy, and astrology. Babylonians introduced the zodiac, and a Babylonian, Seleucus of Selecucia, may have been the first to propose the heliocentric model of astronomy, describing the earth and planets as revolving around the sun.

Periods of Babylonian Dominance (B.C.)

Old Babylonian Period

1950–1651

Middle Babylonian Period

1651–1157

Neo-Babylonian Period

625–539

Notes

Prologue

1     The Gods have abandoned us: Alex Whitaker (trans.), Sumerian Home Page, www.ancient-wisdom.co.uk/iraqur.htm. “The Lamentation over the Destruction of Ur” was originally translated by Samuel Noah Kramer, 1940, University of Chicago.

Chapter 4

34    Bruce Springsteen was headlining: Crawdaddy! February 2005. From the Kenny’s Castaways website describing a Bruce Springsteen performance at the pub.

Chapter 8

82    Every stone in it has been soaked in blood: Lieutenant-General George Molesworth, Afghanistan, 1919: An Account of Operations in the Third Afghan War (London and New York: Asia Publishing House, 1962).

Chapter 11

120  As to Hezekiah, the Judahite: Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman, The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology’s New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Sacred Texts (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002), 260.

122  Ashurbanipal had beheaded: H.W.F. Saggs, The Might That Was Assyria (London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1984), 113.