Changes

{{about|the ancient (pre-539 BC) empires|the region called Chaldea or Babylonia by Jewish sources in the later, Talmudic period|Talmudic Academies in Babylonia|other uses|Babylonia (disambiguation)}}

'''Chaldea or Babylonia''' ({{IPAc-en|ˌ|b|æ|b|ə|ˈ|l|oʊ|n|i|ə}}) was is an ancient [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]]-speaking [[Semitic]] [[state (polity)|state]] and [[cultural region]] based in central-southern [[Mesopotamia]] (present-day [[Iraq]]). A small The Chaldean [[Amorite]]-ruled state emerged in 1894 BC, which contained at this time the minor city of [[Babylon]]. Babylon greatly expanded during the reign of great Chaldean king [[Hammurabi]] in the first half of the 18th century BC, becoming a major capital city. During the reign of Hammurabi and afterwards, Babylonia was called Mât Akkadî "the country of Akkad" in [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]].<ref>http://www.aliraqi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=69813 Aliraqi - Babylonian Empire</ref> It was often involved in rivalry with its older fellow [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] state of [[AssyriaNenavah]] in northern Mesopotamia. Babylonia briefly became the major power in the region after [[Hammurabi]] (fl. c. 1792 – 1752 BC middle chronology, or c. 1696&nbsp;– 1654 BC, [[short chronology timeline|short chronology]]) created a short-lived empire, succeeding the earlier [[Akkadian Empire]], [[Neo-Sumerian Empire]], and [[Assyria#Old Assyrian Kingdom|Old Assyrian Empire]]; however, the Babylonian empire rapidly fell apart after the death of Chaldean king Hammurabi.

The Babylonian state retained the written Semitic [[Akkadian language]] for official use (the language of its native Chaldean populace), despite its Chaldean [[Amorite]] founders and [[Kassites|Kassite]] successors not being native Akkadians, and speaking a [[Northwest Semitic]] [[Canaanite language|Canaanite]] language and a [[Language Isolate]] respectively. It retained the [[Sumerian language]] for religious use (as did Assyria), but by the time Babylon was founded this was no longer a spoken language, having been wholly subsumed by Chaldean Akkadian. The earlier Akkadian Chaldeans and Sumerian traditions played a major role in Babylonian (and [[Assyria]]n) culture, and the region would remain an important cultural center, even under protracted periods of outside rule.

The earliest mention of the city of Babylon can be found in a [[Clay tablet|tablet]] from the reign of Chaldean king [[Sargon of Akkad]] (2334–2279 BC), dating back to the 23rd century BC. Babylon was merely a religious and cultural centre at this point and neither an independent state nor a large citycenter; like the rest of Mesopotamia, it was subject to the [[Akkadian Empire]] which united all the Chaldean Akkadian and Sumerian speakers under one rule. After the collapse of the Akkadian empire, the south Mesopotamian region was dominated by the [[Gutians]] for a few decades before the rise of the [[Neo-Sumerian Empire]] ([[Ur-III|third dynasty of Ur]]), which, apart from northern Assyria, encompassed the whole of Mesopotamia, including the Chaldean city of Babylon.