(C. 2000–1600 B.C.)
On the basis of linguistic rather than historical criteria, this period begins with the fall of the Third Dynasty of Ur, when documents began to be written again in Akkadian, until the end of the First Dynasty of Babylon. It also includes the time of the First Dynasty of Isin and the dynasty of Larsa. It was dominated by the rise in the empire of Hammurabi and marked by a different cultural orientation than that of the Neo-Sumerian period.
There were changes in the royal ideology: kingswere now seen as arbiters of justice and “shepherds” of their people rather than remote and “divine.” There was also a greater participation of private citizens in the economic exploitation of the country and a more intensive growth of rural settlements. Another development of this period was the shift of political power from the south to the north of Babylonia, and the replacement of Sumerian as the official language of documentation by Babylonian.
See also OLD BABYLONIAN.
Historical Dictionary of Mesopotamia. EdwART. 2012.