The Babylonians lived in Mesopotamia. They also recorded their history on wet clay tablets that were baked in the sun. The writing is called cuneiform, which means "wedge-shaped".
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The Babylonians, 18th Century B.C.
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The Babylonians had an advanced number system. Their calendar was a lunar calendar consisting of 12 months made of 29 and 30 days in a cycle and 354 days in a year. They separated the year into weeks of 7 days and divided the day into 24 hours. Each hour consisted of 60 minutes and each minute consisted of 60 seconds. Their calendar days were named for the Sun, Moon and five stars in the sky that did not twinkle, according to their observations. The stars were actually the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Today, the days of the week are named after the five planets. |