The Assyrians and Kassite Babylon

[UHP]

Is it all right if I ask a history question here?

Some days I have my six-year-old read to me, one page from "story of the world." We reached chapter 16, the return of Assyria, but I got confused by the opening of this chapter. The first paragraph is a story of the Assyrians rebelling against their "Babylonian masters" and digging canals through the city to flood and destroy it.

When did this flooding of Babylon happen? During the thousand years in between Shamshi-Adad and Ashubanipal, I don't understand which of Assyria and Babylonia had the upper hand. Clicking around on the internet it doesn't sound as simple as: Babylon ruled Assyria.

We made a digression for a few days to talk about the Hittites: where was Anatolia, who were the Hittites, the sack of Babylon, the statue of Marduk, the Kassites. My knowledge of these topics is one week old and not very many wikipedia articles deep. It only dawned on me today that the events of chapter 16 might still be hundreds of years away.

[caffeineandbooks]

Welcome to the WTM forums!  Isn't Story of the World a great series?

I was intrigued by your question and have done a little digging to see if I could shed any light.  It sounds to me like the focus of chapter 16 is King Ashurbanipal of Assyria, who put down a Babylonian rebellion led by his brother and destroyed the city in 689BC, though I haven't found any references outside SOTW to flooding specifically, even in SWB's high school book History of the Ancient World.  (Babylon was later rebuilt under Nebuchadnezzar.)

The Kassites were much earlier - ruling Babylon in the 16th to 12th centuries - and the Hittites were earlier too.  You are right that there was repeated back-and-forth between Assyria and Babylon over who would be "top dog".

You might find some more information at a level your child can understand in the Usborne Encyclopedia of World History.  It has a few pages about both the Assyrians and Babylonians, plenty of pictures, and a timeline.  We love it.

[UHP]

Thank you c&b! My daughter and I are already learning a lot from Volume 1.

I located the flooding story on Sennacherib's wikipedia article. It gives the year BC that you do, 689. Here it is in Sennacherib's words:

Quote

I destroyed the city and its houses, from foundation to parapet; I devastated and burned them. I razed the brick and earthenwork of the outer and inner wall of the city, of the temples, and of the ziggurat; and I dumped these into the Araḫtu canal. I dug canals through the midst of that city, I overwhelmed it with water, I made its very foundations disappear, and I destroyed it more completely than a devastating flood. So that it might be impossible in future days to recognize the site of that city and its temples, I utterly dissolved it with water and made it like inundated land.

Sennacherib and his grandson Ashurbanipal were part of what I think is called the Neo-Assyrian period. Since I already made the detour we might spend a little more time with the Middle Assyrians, before returning to chapter 16.