The Babylonians: Literary Analysis Essay

Introduction

In the book The Babylonians: An Introduction, Gwendolyn Leick introduces the people, culture and the reality of the Babylonians as one that is behind the popularly known myth of Babylon. The subject of the book as portrayed by the author is to look into how various aspects of Babylon spanning from 1800 years in history of the Babylonians such as the discoveries as well as the cuneiform tablets that were recovered from the cities of Babylon give us an impression about the Babylonian people, their cultures, society, spiritual as well as their intellectual preoccupations. The impression can be found by exploring the lives of various people in the Babylonian societies such as the kings, slaves, women as well as merchants and also the cultural, historical, geographical, historical as well as the social context in which the civilization of the Babylonians flourished. The author's thesis for the book is that the city of Babylon was the most symbolic representation of the civilization of Mesopotamia that has been remembered for a long time by the world.

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In the book, Leick tries to prove how the various discoveries recovered from the cities of Babylon and more so Mesopotamia makes Babylon the most symbolic representation of the civilization that Mesopotamia has been known for by looking at the cultures, societies, spiritual beliefs as well the intellectual state of the people of Babylon. The author notes that despite the many administrative as well as legal documents that have been discovered Babylon, a real understanding of their social complexity that could have led to the levels of civilization portrayed by these people remains impossible (Leick 70). To prove that Babylon is one of the best symbols of ancient civilization, first, the cuneiforms recovered from cities of Babylon show that the records pertain to certain institutions that included the palaces, temples as well as large business enterprises where demand determined the types of transactions that were filed in them (Leick 70). Additionally, Leick states that the tablets referred to many people as well as services and obligations but never gave a detailed account of how the various organizations operated. Therefore, this efficient bookkeeping practices portrayed by the people of Babylon in those days show that they wrote up data that was for administrative purposes.

Despite these cuneiform sources not evenly distributed in space and time thus leading to the skewing of the evidence, record keeping was a sign that the Babylonian people were stable politically and economically (Leick 70). It is to emphasize that Babylonians are the source of civilization that Leick compares people without a Foreman to a river without a canal inspector and also compares laborers without a supervisor to a field without a ploughman to emphasize on how there is need for structured leadership like the one portrayed by the Babylonians then (Leick 70). Therefore, Leick is in the position to convince readers that having none of the ancient societies having such a structured form of governance as well as an accountable economic system that the people of Mesopotamia were the pioneers of civilization thus deserve the remembrance they have among people today.

To prove further that the Babylonian people are a symbolic representation of ancient civilization, Leick looks into the religious practices as well as the beliefs among the Babylonians. He states that religious beliefs and practices in any society cannot be summarized or generalized because of the fact that the attitudes of people may change as one matures are very personal in nature and thus may change and one becomes less involved in religious observances as well as rituals as he matures up (Leick 100). Such example given by the author is that an official of the temple may be more detailed on religious knowledge as well as procedures as compared to an ordinary individual (Leick 100). Having a prayer to the various gods that were worshipped then shows how the Babylonians were coordinated when it comes to religion, and also the content of the prayer showed their level of civilization. First of all, few communities had such as structured prayer that was direct to what the people wanted from their gods. Issues like wealth accumulation being part of their prayers show that the Babylonians had known the importance of personal wealth as compared to other societies that owned everything communally. Thus, these religious aspects among the Babylonians in the ancient times shows how civilized they were.

On their material culture, Leick states that the Babylonians had cities that were good in appearance as compared to others in parts like Iraqi (Leick 129). Despite those cities not having telephone poles as well as satellite dishes like modern-day cities, archeologists have discovered that there are many architectural features that depict the presence of simple residential buildings then. Also, the availability of representations of reed buildings on the early artifacts of Mesopotamia shows that such houses were common despite archeological records not suggesting so as they could not leave any visible traces (Leick 129). Additionally, Leick states that rectangular homesteads surrounded by walls to ensure privacy were common in the rural areas (Leick 129). All these traces of ancient buildings have been incorporated by the author to prove that the Babylonians deserve the credit of being regarded as the most emblematic representation of civilization as such buildings were not common among other communities then.

Conclusion

The book The Babylonians: An Introduction by Gwendolyn Leick is structured in several topics that look into the various aspects of the life of the Babylonians. The first topic is the one on society and economy which looks into the importance of leadership among the Babylonian people. For example, Leick states that "A people without a foreman is like a water without a canal inspector" to show how important leadership was among the Babylonians (Leick 70). Additionally, the topic looks into the way of administration of various organizations among the Babylonians as well as the way private business enterprises were run. Another main topic of the book is that on religion that highlights the levels of religious engagements among the Babylonians. The chapter also highlights the prayer by the Babylonians to show their level of civilization for praying for specific personal issues. For instance, part of the prayer states "I have made my effort. Now let an increase in wealth, flocks and divine favor" to show that people then had started pursuing personal goals (Leick 100). The topic of material culture also highlights how people in Babylon constructed their house as well as the arrangement of various Babylonian cities as compared to those of other societies of the world then (Leick 129).

It is therefore in order to state that the book The Babylonians by Gwendolyn Leick, having provided scholars as well as history students with a new insight into the world civilization issues as well as selling Babylon as the pioneer of modern civilization based on the unique aspects of their life that have influenced the nature of life today. However, the book has negatively undermined other societies that played a crucial role in nurturing the modern civilization by concentrating only on Babylon.

Works Cited

Leick, Gwendolyn. The Babylonians: An Introduction. Ebrary, 2007.