Bonekickers

The history behind ‘The Eternal Fire’: Queen Boudicca

By Dr. Mark Horton

The lands between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers were the cradle of human civilisation, where urban life began and writing was invented around 3400 BC. The area’s long history has been uncovered through the archeology of the massive tell sites, with multiple levels of occupation, and preserved mud-brick architecture.

These tells represented city-states that over time were incorporated into a more centralised empires. Babylon’s origin was as one of these city-states, but the Assyrian empire to the north often threatened its independence. As a city, it was known as a centre of learning, astronomy and mathematics. Between 911 and 612 BC, much of the region was controlled by the Neo-Assyrian empire, but in the seventh century BC, Babylon rose to prominence, eventually sacking the Assyrian capital of Nineveh in 612 BC and becoming itself the centre of an important regional power.

Now at the centre of its own empire, Babylon rose to become not only the largest city in the world, but was adorned with lavish architecture including new palaces including the famous Ishtar Gate, moved to the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. Famously, the Hanging Gardens were meant to have been built by Nebuchadnezzar II (605-582 BC), but have never been located archaeologically. A particular feature of this architecture was the use of stamped bricks, which was imitated by Saddam Hussein in the 1980s during his attempt to reconstruct parts of the site.