Historical Interlude

 The circumstances surrounding the destruction of the temple and the subsequent Babylonian exile of the Israelites has always been more or less a muddle of dates and names for me.  Reading Samuel and Kings has helped, but in order to place the Babylonian exile in its proper time and place with greater clarity, I did a little background reading and the results are below:

6000 B.C.  -  evidence of settlement in Mesopotamia/Babylonia (present-day

4000-3000 B.C.   Invention of writing;  Sumerian cuneiform
        Sumers - Semitic?  native to Babylonian area;  polytheistic
        Akkadians  - Semitic; came into area from Arabia
        Neo Sumerian period or Ur period  2100 B.C.;  first written law; Gilgamesh stories; weights,measures,standardized calendar
        Amorites invaded - Semitic  1800 B.C.  entrenched in Babylon;  Hammurabi;  tended toward
           worship of one god, Marduk;  Hammurabi brought whole of Mesopotamia under his rule in 1760 B.C.
           
1600 B.C. - Indo-Europeans from Caucasus invaded;  western group heads for Turkey, Europe and
        Balkan Peninsula;   eastern group heads for Mesopotamia, Indus Valley, Iran;  Hittites went to Anatolia
1595 B.C.  Hittites ended Hammurabi's dynasty
1200 B.C.  Kissites   Indo-Aryan group
                   Elamites   Indo-Aryan?
1000 B.C.   Control of area held variously by Elamits, Assyrians, Arameans, Chaldeans
          Arameans  Semites borrowed hieroglyphic writing system from Egypt;  semi-nomaide;  always  trouble
 900 B.C.  Chaldeans  were they Arameans?  some say yes, but evidence says they were a separate
              Semitic tribe; tended toward worship of Marduk; had taken over southern Babylonia by this
              time;  like Arameans they were always trouble; always independent
700s B.C.   Assyrians conquered Israel and ended Babylonian power in the area but couldn't bring  
              down the Chaldeans and Assyrians
          Sargon II, king  722-705
           Sennacherib, king  705-681
680 B.C.  Babylon, which had been destroyed by Sennacherib was rebuilt and was absorbed into Assyrian empire
605 BC  end of Assyrian empire
605-562 BC  Nebuchadnezzar (a Chaldean) rules making Babylon the capital of his empire; worship
       Marduk;  ziggurat Etemenanki  (Tower of Babel)
597 BC   Nebuchadnezzar laid seige to Jerusalem;  first deportation of Hebrews
586 BC    Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Solomon's temple; second deportation
562-539    Chaldeans took control of Babylon;  Nabonidus, king;  Belshazzar, king, son of Nabonidus
539 BC  Persians;  from Parsa in southwest Iran;  Indo-Aryan
      539-529  Cyrus II
     529-486    Darius
     486-465    Ahasuerus  (Xerxes I)
     465-424     Artaxerxes I
      404-358    Artaxerxes II

      Cyrus  conquers Babylon and sends Hebrews back to 'Palestine'  Why?

331 B.C.  Alexander the Great conquered Babylonia