Babylonia was a state in ancient Mesopotamia.
It was an ancient Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in central-southern Mesopotamia and parts of Syria.
The name “Babylon” is derived from the Akkadian word babilu meaning “gate of god.”
Akkad was the northern (or northwestern) division of ancient Babylonia.
The early inhabitants of this region were predominantly Semitic, and their speech is called Akkadian.
To the south of the region of Akkad lay Sumer, the southern (or southeastern) division of ancient Babylonia, which was inhabited by a non-Semitic people known as Sumerians.
The name Akkad was taken from the city of Agade, which was founded by the Semitic conqueror Sargon about 2300 BCE.
Sargon united the various city-states in the region and extended his rule to encompass much of Mesopotamia.
After the fall of Sargon’s dynasty about 2150 BCE, the central Iraq region was ruled by a state jointly composed of Sumerians and Akkadians.
Under the kings of Akkad, their Semitic language, known as Akkadian, became a literary language that was written with the cuneiform system of writing.
Akkadian is the oldest Semitic dialect still preserved.
The city of Babylon, whose ruins are located in present-day Iraq, was founded more than 4,000 years ago as a small port town on the Euphrates River.
It grew into one of the largest cities of the ancient world under the rule of Hammurabi.
Several centuries later, a new line of kings established a Neo-Babylonian Empire that spanned from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea.
During this period, Babylon became a city of beautiful and lavish buildings.
Biblical and archaeological evidence point toward the forced exile of thousands of Jews to Babylon around this time.
The town of Babylon was located along the Euphrates River in present-day Iraq, about 50 miles south of Baghdad.
It was founded around 2300 B.C. by the ancient Akkadian-speaking people of southern Mesopotamia.
Babylon became a major military power under Amorite king Hammurabi, who ruled from 1792 to 1750 B.C
A new line of kings established the Neo-Babylonian Empire, which lasted from 626 B.C. to 539 B.C.
The Neo-Babylonian Empire became the most powerful state in the world after defeating the Assyrians at Nineveh in 612 B.C.
The Neo-Babylonian Empire was a period of cultural renaissance in the Near East.
The Babylonians built many beautiful and lavish buildings and preserved statues and artworks from the earlier Babylonian Empire during the reign of king Nebuchadnezzar II.
After the Babylonian conquest of the Kingdom of Judah in the sixth century B.C., Nebuchadnezzar II took thousands of Jews from the city of Jerusalem and held them captive in Babylon for more than half a century. (it lasted for 70 years)
Many Judeans returned to Jerusalem after the Neo-Babylonian Empire fell to Cyrus the Great’s Persian forces.
In 539 B.C., less than a century after its founding, the legendary Persian king Cyrus The Great conquered Babylon.
The fall of Babylon was complete when the empire came under Persian control.
Many Judeans returned to Jerusalem after the Neo-Babylonian Empire fell to Cyrus The Great’s Persian forces.
Some stayed, and a Jewish community flourished there for more than 2,000 years.
Origin of Seven Days of the Week
The Babylonians are largely responsible for how time is viewed today.
It was the Babylonians who came up with the days of the week that we now observe.
The Babylonians determined that it would be beneficial to break down the 28-day lunar cycle.
Since they had observed seven significant bodies in the heavens, they felt it was appropriate to divide the month into four weeks with seven days per week.
Each day of the week was given a name that was associated with a specific celestial body.
The Babylonian influence was significant throughout the Near East and the surrounding areas.
This led to the adaptation of the Babylonian calendar into the Jewish, Greek, and Roman cultures.
Why Are There 7 Days in a Week?
The Babylonian month was based on the lunar cycle.
They observed that it takes seven days for the completion of each of the four moon cycles: full, waning half, new, and waxing half.
This is congruent with the seven heavenly bodies which the Babylonians considered to be significant:
The Sun
The Moon
the planets Venus, Mars, Saturn, Mercury, and Jupiter.
The days of the week were related to the planets that the Babylonians were able to see in the night sky as the Earth completed its annual rotation around the Sun.
Who Named the Days of the Week?
The Romans had observed the same seven celestial bodies as the Babylonians, and they decided to name the days of the week after the gods and goddesses associated with them.
The Romans provided the Latin basis for the name of each day.
The names of the days as we now know them have been influenced by various Anglo-Saxon cultures, including Danish and German.
The way that the names of the days of the week are now pronounced in English has been largely based on the Germanic, or Anglo-Saxon, pronunciations.
The table below lists the Latin origins of each name.
Monday was named after the moon and in Anglo-Saxon, the moon is called mona.
Monandæg translates to “Moon’s day.”
We now pronounce Monandæg as Monday.
Mars was the Roman god of war.
The Anglo-Saxon equivalent of Mars is Tiw.
Therefore, Martis became Tiwesdæg and is now pronounced as Tuesday.
Wednesday was named for the Roman god Mercury, the messenger of the gods.
The Anglo-Saxon semi-equivalent was Woden, the god who served as a guide to the dead. Wodensdæg eventually became Wednesday.
Jupiter is the Roman god of the sky and thunder.
Thor is the Anglo-Saxon equivalent, so Thursday was originally called Thunresdæg.
For centuries the Romans used a period of eight days in civil practice, but in 321 CE Emperor Constantine established the seven-day week in the Roman calendar and designated Sunday as the first day of the week.
But that was a week.
No mention of weekends.
It took the industrial revolution, faith and workers’ rights to make those happen.
In 19th-century Britain, Sundays were a holy day, and nobody was expected to work.
This was a noble concept for anyone who spent their free time pursuing spiritual matters, but those who took advantage of an opportunity to kick their heels up and live the high life for 24 hours, found being perky for work on Monday mornings a bit of a problem.
Not turning up for work on a Monday became a bit of a tradition for some workers.
Thus the concept of ‘keeping Saint Monday’ came to be.
There was nothing remotely religious about it, although there must have been many a soul waking up with a sore head at the supposed start of the working week who gave thanks for it.
Productivity suffered as a result of Saint Monday, to the extent that factory owners decided to make Saturday a half-day instead.
This would ensure workers arrived on Mondays with clear heads and increased enthusiasm.
It seemed to work, so three-quarters of the weekend as we know it was born.
Sunday is a holy day for Christians but this traditional day off didn’t acknowledge the many Jewish workers in factories for whom Saturday was the Shabbat, or Sabbath.
This begins at nightfall on Friday, running through to nightfall on Saturday, and is the most sacred time of the week.
The first change regarding the Jewish day of rest happened in America in 1908.
A mill in New England allowed a two-day weekend so that its Jewish staff could observe the Sabbath.
This was a hit with workers and led other industries nearby to introduce a five-day week too.
Henry Ford, the legendary car maker, made Saturday and Sunday days off for his staff as early as 1926 and he was also keen to set down a 40-hour working week.
An altruistic move in part, it also gave his workers the opportunity to spend their down time buying consumer products, keeping cash circulating through the economy.
The USA officially adopted the five-day system in 1932, in a bid to counter the unemployment caused by the Great Depression.
At around the same time, something similar was happening on the other side of the Atlantic.
In 1933, John Boot, chairman of the Boots corporation, faced a working environment where it was not uncommon for workers to be made redundant, something he was keen to put an end to.
A factory opened in Nottingham that same year which was intended to increase efficiency.
It did, in that it produced so much stock there was a surplus, putting people’s jobs at risk.
The solution was to close the factory on Saturdays and Sundays (staff usually worked Saturday mornings too) but keep the same number of workers on the same pay.
The reduced hours meant there was less chance of a surplus and Mr Boot had a workforce which showed up ready and invigorated on Monday mornings after having more time for leisure and family activities.
Further study showed that two days off each week reduced absenteeism and had a positive effect on productivity. The weekend was therefore made official Boots policy in 1934.
Could the weekend be longer?
Ever since the 1960s, there has been talk of the weekend being extended to make it almost as long as the working week.
Three or four day weeks have been a dream for many who believe advances in technology make it possible for people to complete their required work in a shorter time.
