Mesopotamia · Bronze Age

Old Babylonian Empire

Hammurabi's law code and Mesopotamian revival

1,894 BCE – 1,595 BCE · 299 years

Best known for Hammurabi's inscribed law code, one of the earliest extensive written legal systems.

Where it sits on the calendar

14,000 BCE 2026 CE

Old Babylonian Empire

1,894 BCE–1,595 BCE

Government

Centralized empire

Writing system

Cuneiform (Akkadian)

Estimated peak population

1,500,000

How it ended

Invasion or conquest

Babylon was sacked by Hittite-allied Kassite forces, ending the dynasty.

8 other civilizations in this dataset overlap with Old Babylonian Empire's 299-year span.

14,000 BCE 300 BCE

Old Babylonian Empire

1,894 BCE–1,595 BCE

3,300 BCE–1,300 BCE

3,000 BCE–1,100 BCE

2,700 BCE–539 BCE

14,000 BCE–300 BCE

3,000 BCE–1,600 BCE

1,600 BCE–1,100 BCE