Question

contributions of the Babylonians to society? Explain why each was important and how each contribution influenced change.

Answer 1

Answer: Babylonians came after Akkadians and Sumerians so it is important to bear this in mind because many of their skills were inherited from previous cultures and some of these skills can be viewed as an extension of Sumerian and Akkadian culture/civilization (Sumerian language continued being language of liturgy, some old Sumerian religious cults were still there, Sumerian mythology was still present, astronomy and mathematics and cuneiform characters were inherited). Day divided in 24 hours is a Babylonian invention, circle divided in 360 degrees is also Babylonian invention, capacity to predict lunar eclipse and discovery of lunation (and their symbolic interpretation) is a Babylonian invention. Big part of all that was acquired/inherited by old Greek thinkers (Thales for example).

Explanation: There is no doubt that astronomy/astrology is of Sumerian/Babylonian origin and this knowledge was spread in Middle East and later it came to Greece. Egyptian and Greek (and later western) astrology was influenced by Babylonian astrology. Many predictive techniques and divinations we can found among Egyptians and Greek were of Babylonian origin (study of planetary secondary progressions, eclipses etc.).