When Jeff and I got married we went to London for our honeymoon. We spent large amounts of time in the British Museum traipsing about through ancient ruins, and trying to figure out what those people were thinking. The Babylonian ruins were particularly fascinating to explore as they had large portions of walls that were intact in the museum to explore. This has given me a few things to draw on as we’ve gone through our ancient Babylon units
Through our many years of teaching homeschool history, and covering ancient history twice now, I’ve collected a few Ancient Babylon lessons, so I decided to collect them all together into a Ancient Babylon Unit (I know it should be an Ancient Babylon unit, but when I say it out loud it sounds wrong, why is that?).
(So, I thought this was scheduled to go out next week because I’m still adding information and finding more posts, but apparently not, hence why it originally published with no pictures or anything. I’m going to come back later today and fix some stuff, because I actually have an entirely different post that’s supposed to come out today, it’s only 7:56 and it’s already THAT kind of Monday).
Ancient Babylon resources
Because it wouldn’t be me if I didn’t have a few books I’d found over the years, also I like books. It’s as simple as that.
- The Revenge of Ishtar– This is part of the Gilgamesh epic, which is technically Sumerian, but it’s also very Babylonian in the illustration style
- A History of the Ancient Near East– I bought this as a resource for me when I saw it in the store one day. I’d call this a high school level book, and it’s got some fun primary sources and information in it. Yes, I do read textbooks for fun sometimes.
- Hanging Gardens of Babylon- Warning, I have not read the full book, but I was looking through the sample and it intrigued me, but we don’t have a Kindle.
- Seven Wonders of the Ancient World- This will of course cover the other wonders, but it’s such an interesting topic.
- Science in Ancient Mesopotamia- Since we get our time-keeping method from Ancient Babylon, it’s worth learning more about their science and technology. I really do wonder why they chose to base their numbers on 60.
- Mystery of History 1– There are several lessons on Ancient Babylon.
Ancient Babylon lessons
- Hanging Gardens of Babylon– The Hanging Gardens were one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
- Darius 1 preschool lesson– who says ancient history is only for older kids?
- Fall of Jerusalem– see history acted out with Legos
- Epic of Gilgamesh– this is an Ancient Sumerian legend the Babylonians added into their mythos.
Biblical lessons
The Babylonian empire defeated the kingdom of Judah, and so I am including the lessons specific to the Babylonian empire, because it gives some interesting insights.
Still want more Ancient Babylon resources?
I’ve got over 400 ideas for Ancient history on my Mystery of History 1 pinterest board.
I loved that part of the British Museum too. It’s been a while since I visited though – I went for my 25th birthday. Babylon is SO intriguing, especially its discoveries that we still use today – such as using 60 minutes in an hour, etc.
It really is. Today at the library I saw this awesome book on one of their myths that when I update the post (which is now officially moved to tomorrow, because I”m not starting at 11:00 at night) I plan to add in.
We’re off up to London tomorrow to the National Art Gallery (I’ll think of you whilst I’m there 🙂 )