confused, Ancient History ? specific to Assyrians and Babylonians

[ThreeBlessings]

We're studying Ancient History, specifically the Assyrian and Babylonian empires. In SOTW it clearly states that Shamshi-Adad of the Assyrian empire never conquered Babylon as he knew of Hammurabi's strength. It also states that after Shamshi-Adad died Hammurabi conquered Assur. We're incorporating History Odyssey into our studies. I'm looking at the mapwork assigned for the Assyrian Empire, map 8. It has the Assyrian empire shown as the whole of Mesopotamia, including Babylon and all of where Babylonia would be, as well as part of Egypt. What am I missing? This seems to be in conflict with what we just read in SOTW 1 and also with the map we completed from the SOTW guide's map for the chapter. For right now I'm skipping the HO map because I'm not teaching from a confused state, but can someone enlighten me what I'm missing?

[Guest Cheryl in SoCal]

I think you are looking at 2 different time periods. Hammurabi's Babylon fell to the Hittites after Hammurabi's death around 1600 BC. Later (by around 750-625 BC), the Assyrian Empire covered the entire fertile crescent and into Egypt. I suspect you are studying the earlier time period (obviously prior to Hammurabi's death) but the HO map is of the Assyrian Empire from around the second time period.

Edited December 23, 2010 by Cheryl in SoCal

[ThreeBlessings]

Thanks! :) Yeah, I'm not sure where my head was at earlier, lol. I was looking for a quick answer before we started History, but I needed to go back and read through my books before I understood what was going on. This is what I get for having a not so great History background myself and trying to combine multiple curricula and sources, lol. It was simple to see though once I flipped through the books, then I was able to use the map with our lesson. I'm glad that by the time my little one is older I will feel like a veteran at this with more knowledge to work with. I need to find a good History book for myself to read through in spare time (what's that?) so that what I'm teaching will be fresh in my mind instead of blind leading blind!

[Diana B]

I appreciate the clarification as well! We just covered Assyria in SOTW as well and I thought Assyria had a further reach.

 

I also wanted to mention one great thing about homeschooling is the ability to learn with your children and to show your child that it's OK not to know everything, but to then do the research and find out the info. I don't know how many times my son has asked me a question which I respond with "I'm not sure..." and then we go look it up.