A small town before the kings
Babylon was not always a wonder, and for its first kings it was not an empire either. The city appears in written sources from the late third millennium BCE as a modest settlement on the Euphrates, with a temple and some local administration, much less prominent than Kish, Nippur, Ur or Uruk. Its rise began only after the collapse of the kingdom of the city of Ur around 2004 BCE, and it was the work of a dynasty of Amorite origin. The first Babylonian state is best described as a regional kingdom that gradually grew over about a century before it reached its peak, not an empire from the start.
The Akkadian name of the city, Babilim, was understood in antiquity as “gate of the god” (and later “gate of the gods”). Scholars think the name may be older and come from a language that is not Akkadian, so the popular etymology may be a reinterpretation. The Sumerian writing for the city, KA.DINGIR.RA, was read with the same meaning.
Who were the Amorites?
“Amorite” comes from Amurru, the Mesopotamian word for the west, and refers to West Semitic-speaking people who had long lived in and around Mesopotamia. Some were pastoralists, moving flocks between steppe and farmland, while others were settled farmers and townspeople. They are visible in the records of the Third Dynasty of Ur, whose kings tried to control Amorite movements, according to some sources by building a long defensive wall in the north. When Ur fell, Amorite leaders took power in many cities, a pattern that fits the broader shift in Mesopotamian politics after the end of Sumerian rule.
The names of the first Babylonian kings, Sumu-abum, Sumu-la-El, Sabium, Apil-Sin, Sin-muballit, are West Semitic rather than Sumerian or Akkadian. But these rulers wrote in Akkadian, worshipped the Mesopotamian gods and adopted the traditional model of Sumerian city-state kingship. Their ethnic background mattered less than their ability to govern, and they were quickly absorbed into the local culture. Some royal titles still refer to the land of Amurru, so the identity was not forgotten.
Founding the dynasty
Later king lists place the start of the First Dynasty with Sumu-abum, who, in the commonly used middle chronology, began to rule around 1894 BCE. That date is conventional, because the dating of this period is uncertain by decades. His successor Sumu-la-El is credited by the king lists with about 36 years and left a record of building and fortifying the city. The administration seems to have been run through year names, each recording an event such as constructing a wall, making a divine statue or digging a canal.
The early kings were not alone. The Babylonian region was one of many small kingdoms, and several were stronger:
- Isin, which had inherited the traditions of Ur’s court.
- Larsa, in the south, which grew powerful and later came under the rule of Rim-Sin.
- Eshnunna, on the Diyala river to the east.
- Assyria, whose king Shamshi-Adad I built a large state in the north in the decades before Hammurabi.
- Mari, on the middle Euphrates.
In this crowded landscape, the Babylonian kings mostly defended their territory and built up their city. Year names credit the early kings with strengthening Babylon’s walls, temples and canals, and over time they brought neighbouring districts under their control, laying the groundwork for Sin-muballit’s son Hammurabi. Babylon was still only a mid-sized power.
Why Babylon
Geography helped. Babylon sat on the Euphrates near the place where the Tigris and Euphrates come closest, in a zone of intersecting canals. A ruler here could influence the water supply of the surrounding districts, and control of canals was a source of both income and power. The city also sat on routes between the south and the middle Euphrates, so rulers could benefit from the movement of goods and armies.
Political skill mattered as well. The early Babylonian kings built their legitimacy by funding temples, repairing walls and claiming to deliver justice. They also learned when to ally and when to hold back, a skill that served Hammurabi when he finally moved against Larsa and Mari. The territory he took in those later wars rested on a century of preparation.
The city itself
What did early Babylon look like? We know less than we would like. The Old Babylonian levels of the city lie below the modern water table, because groundwater has risen over the centuries, and German excavators of the early twentieth century could not reach most of them. The city that archaeologists uncovered is mainly that of Nebuchadnezzar II, built over a thousand years later. Written sources therefore give most of our evidence for the city of Babylon in this period, including references to the temple of Marduk, the city walls and canals.
Marduk was originally a local deity, and his promotion to the head of the pantheon came gradually and mostly later. By Hammurabi’s reign, Babylon’s patron had a rising importance, and the king claimed his support. The “wonder” in this article’s title belongs to the later city of the Neo-Babylonian kings, the one associated with the Ishtar Gate. The Old Babylonian city was a respected political and religious centre, but not yet the metropolis of later memory.
What the early kings achieved
By the end of Sin-muballit’s reign, Babylon controlled a kingdom of perhaps several nearby cities and their lands, with a stable line of succession, walled defences and a growing administration. That was a platform, not a conquest. The leap to a larger kingdom came with Hammurabi, and the quality of the institutions inherited from his Amorite predecessors helps explain why his state functioned long enough to leave a lasting mark on Mesopotamian history.