Hands-On Activity · Lesson 1.2
The Empire Timeline
Mesopotamia II: Cities, Kings, and Empires
You have been given scattered evidence spanning more than a thousand years of Mesopotamian power. Your job is to sequence it, connect it, and explain what changed.
Sequence, label, connect, defend.
Babylon and Assyria show how an empire is held together, and how it can come apart. Use the Evidence Cards to put their story in order and trace what changed and what stayed the same.
Evidence Cards
Nine pieces of evidence, shuffled out of order. Use the dates and clues on each card to decide when it happened and which power it belongs to. Remember that BCE dates count down: 1894 BCE came before 612 BCE.
A Burned Capital
Median and Babylonian armies destroyed the great Assyrian city of Nineveh. Two years earlier they had destroyed the capital, Asshur.
612 BCEA Law Pillar
King Hammurabi had legal rulings carved into stone pillars and set up in public, so people across many conquered cities lived under one set of rules.
1700s BCEA Professional Army
A reborn empire built a trained standing army that fought all year, combining spear fighters, archers, slingers, and horse-drawn chariots.
About 900 BCEA Small Town on the Euphrates
A fairly minor town was founded. For more than a century it controlled only a small patch of nearby land.
About 1894 BCERebuilt in Grand Style
King Nebuchadnezzar II rebuilt Babylon. Ancient writers described the Hanging Gardens, rising terraces of trees and flowers, though archaeologists have never found clear remains.
About 600 BCERaiders with Iron
The Hittites, a people from Anatolia, raided Babylon. They were among the first to work iron on a large scale, a harder metal for weapons than bronze.
About 1595 BCEDividing the Lands
The empire was finished. The Medes took the lands to the east, and the Neo-Babylonians took the western lands, including Syria and the Phoenician coast.
By 605 BCEA Library of Clay
King Ashurbanipal gathered thousands of cuneiform tablets at Nineveh into one of the earliest known libraries, showing that Assyrian kings valued knowledge as well as war.
600s BCERule by Fear
The most powerful force in the Near East used brutal public punishments and forced conquered peoples to move far from home to stop rebellions.
By 727 BCEWhere Babylon and Assyria Ruled
Babylon sat on the Euphrates in the south. Assyria's capitals, Asshur and Nineveh, sat on the upper Tigris in the north.
Build the Empire Timeline.
Fill in each part on screen, or print the page and write by hand.
Put the cards in order, earliest to latest.
Row 1 is the earliest event. Write the card number, its date, and a few words about what happened.
| Order | Card # | Date | What happened |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (earliest) | |||
| 2 | |||
| 3 | |||
| 4 | |||
| 5 | |||
| 6 | |||
| 7 | |||
| 8 | |||
| 9 (latest) |
Label each card.
Write each card's number and name under the label that fits best. If a card could fit two labels, pick one and be ready to explain why.
Babylon
Assyria
Fall of Assyria
Connect two cards.
Name the two cards and explain how one is linked to the other. Use a vocabulary word such as empire, tribute, or standing army.
| First card # | Second card # | How they connect |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ||
| 2 |
One continuity and one change.
A continuity is something that stayed the same. A change is something that became different. Write one sentence for each and name the card numbers you used.
| Type | Your sentence | Card #s |
|---|---|---|
| Continuity | ||
| Change |
Record what you found.
Your Evidence Log entry and checklist are part of your lesson points.
Evidence Log
Accountability Checklist
Use today's vocabulary.
Use at least two of these words in your writing.
Code of Law
A written set of official rules and punishments, like Hammurabi's Code, that told people what was legal and how justice would be carried out.
Empire
A large territory of many different lands and peoples controlled by one powerful ruler or government.
Tribute
Goods, money, or resources that a conquered or weaker kingdom was required to pay to a more powerful empire, similar to a tax.
Standing Army
A permanent, professionally trained military force, like the Assyrians', that stays ready to fight all year instead of only during certain seasons.
Vassal State
A smaller kingdom that governs its own daily affairs but must obey a more powerful empire and pay it tribute or send soldiers when ordered.