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4,000 Years Ago in West Asia

Ebla, an ancient in Syria was clearly an important commercial centre, exporting woollen cloth, wood and furniture to areas as far flung as Assur in Mesopotamia and Kanesh Anatolia. The settlement of this period was destroyed by King Naram-Sin of the Sumerian city of Akkad, although the city was rebuilt. Excavations have found an archive containing more than 15,000 clay tablets inscribed in the cuneiform script in two languages, Sumerian and the local language of Ebla, unknown before this time, related to the modern languages of Hebrew and Arabic.

Hammurabi (1728-1686 BC), was king of Babylon, one of the six major city states in the Tigris and Euphrates river valley that had grown out of the Sumerian civilization. After more than 15 years of warfare, Hammurabi united the whole valley into the Babylonian kingdom. Hammurabi's kingdom lasted about 100 years. In 1595 BC, a Hittite army captured Babylon and plundered the city.

The Code of Hammurabi is the first set of public laws written down. It established a series of set punishments for each type of crime. The laws were carved on a stela, like a stone billboard, set up in Babylon, so all the citizens could read it and know what the laws were. The picture of the carving shows Hammurabi, standing, receiving the laws from the god Shamash. Underneath, the laws are written in the letters invented by the Sumerians called cuneiform (an enlarged sample of cuneiform, meaning "earth", is shown). This only shows the top part of the stele, which in total is more than two metres high.

Around 2000 BC, the Indo-European Se people settle in Turkey, conquering the Hatti people. Because of this the Se were called the Hatti or Hittites by their neighbours. The Hittite kingdom was founded in 1640 BC. The religion of the Hittites included a number of gods, such as Indra, Mitra, Varuna and Nasatyas, the same names as the Hindu gods of the Vedic people in India.

The Hittite homeland, for at least 1000 years before, probably had been the most important metal producing region in the world. The Hittites continued this tradition producing fine metal craft. They were among the first people to use iron weapons. Capable of piercing the softer bronze armour, iron edged swords, spears and arrows gave the Hittites a decisive advantage in battle.

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