Alter Orient und Altes Testament Band 377

M. Jursa

with contributions by J. Hackl, B. Jankovi, K. Kleber, E.E. Payne, C. Waerzeggers

and M. Weszeli

Aspects of the Economic History of Babylonia

in the First Millennium BC

Economic geography, economic mentalities,

agriculture, the use of money and the problem of economic growth

Verffentlichungen zur Wirtschaftsgeschichte Babyloniens

im 1. Jahrtausend v.Chr. Band 4

2010 Ugarit-Verlag Mnster

Preface nos qui ... libros scribimus ... proficiendo scribimus, cottidie discimus, scru-

tando dictamus, pulsando loquimur (Augustine of Hippo)

F. Dolbeau (ed.), Augustin dHippone, Vingt-six sermons au peuple dAfrique (Paris 1996), 55.

This book was written under the auspices of the START project Economic History of Babylonia in the First Millennium BC which I directed at the Uni-versity of Vienna between 2002 and 2009. The books aim is to identify and treat comprehensively those phenomena and trends that define the development of the Bablyonian economy in the first millennium BC: it is problem-oriented rather than an attempt at a full description of the economic history of the period. The main focus lies on the long sixth century between the fall of Assyria in the late seventh century and the Babylonian rebellions against Xerxes in 484 BC, arguably a decisive watershed in the later history of southern Mesopotamia.

The funds for the project were provided by the Austrian Fonds zur Frderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung (FWF). It is a pleasure to ac-knowledge here with thanks the FWFs considerable liberality and the profes-sionalism and helpfulness of its staff. Unpublished texts from the British Mu-seum, the Yale Babylonian collection and the Princeton Theological Seminary are cited with the kind permission of the Trustees of the British Museum, the curators of the Yale Babylonian Collection, B.R. Foster and U. Kasten, and R. Benedetto of the Princeton Theological Seminary Library, respectively. I am also indebted to M. van Ess for permission to cite unpublished material from Uruk known to me through photographs in the possession of the Deutsches Ar-chologisches Institut, and to J. Marzahn for permission to cite a few unpub-lished VAT letters (Sn-il archive). The book could not have been written with-out the transliterations of several thousand unpublished tablets in these collec-tions that have been prepared for the project by H.D. Baker (Uruk texts in the British Museum), E. Gehlken (Tattannu, Itti-ama-balu and EAH tablets at Yale), B. Jankovi (Uruk texts mostly from Yale and Princeton), K. Kleber (Uruk texts mostly from Yale and Princeton), E.E. Payne (Uruk texts from Yale and Princeton; the Late Babylonian collection of the New York Public Library), C. Waerzeggers (Borsippa, Esangila archive and Uruk texts in the British Mu-seum) and myself (texts from Sippar, Uruk and several other sites from the Brit-ish Museum, Yale, Princeton, Berlin). For reasons of space, citations of texts are generally brief; editions of several unpublished text groups are forthcoming. The various databases on which much of this book is based were complied mostly by H.D. Baker, J. Hackl, B. Jankovi, K. Kleber and myself. My thanks go to all my collaborators in the START project in Vienna, in particular to H.D. Baker, J. Hackl, B. Jankovi, K. Kleber and C. Waerzeggers, to whom I am greatly in-debted for factual information, discussion, suggestions and criticism. J. Hackl, B. Jankovi, K. Kleber and C. Waerzeggers, as well as E.E. Payne and M. Weszeli contributed material to this book. Sections not written by the under-

vi Preface

signed are marked by their authors name in the first section heading, my initials appear in the first following section heading denoting where my authorship re-sumes (J. Hackl: sections 5.5.3.2, p. 633-41, and 5.6.4.5, p. 700-25; B. Jankovi: section 4.7, p. 418-37; K. Kleber: sections 5.4.4.3, p. 540-63, and 5.4.6, p. 595-616; E.E. Payne: section 5.6.4.3, p. 688-694; M. Weszeli: section 2.4, p. 140-52). C. Waerzeggers contribution consists of her work on the unpublished Bor-sippa archives, in particular the compilation of several dossiers and tables that are credited to her and that can be found at various places throughout the book.

Writing this book I profited from information and collations supplied by nu-merous colleagues, in particular by K. Abraham, P.-A. Beaulieu, D. Charpin, P. Cor, R. Da Riva, N. De Zorzi, I.L. Finkel, P. Fldvri, E. Frahm, G. Frame, M. Geller, H. Hunger, F. Joanns, K. Kessler, F. van Koppen, M. Kozuh, M. Kre-bernik, M. Kunert, B. van Leeuwen, J. MacGinnis, J. Marzahn, J. Nielsen, J. Paszkowiak, E.E. Payne, R. Pringruber, K. Radner, L. Reinfandt, W. Scheidel, R. van der Spek, M.W. Stolper, J. Taylor, C.B.F. Walker, C. Wunsch, R. Zadok and S. Zawadzki, to all of whom I am profoundly grateful.

My thanks also go to the editors of the AOAT series for accepting this vol-ume for publication, and to K. Metzler for his meticulous editorial support.

The manuscript, or parts of it, was read by B. Jankovi, K. Kleber, E.E. Payne and M. Weszeli, all of whom provided helpful observations and correc-tions. K. Kleber very kindly helped with reference checking, as did J. Hackl, M. Schmidl and K. Wagensonner who undertook the unenviable task of checking the various tables presenting price data; they also helped with the preparation of the index. K. Wagensonner also drew the maps. E.E. Payne took upon herself the task of improving my English, as well as that of B. Jankovi, K. Kleber and M. Weszeli; I am most grateful for her considerable efforts. J. Hackls contribu-tions were read by H.D. Baker. Neither E.E. Payne nor H.D. Baker should be held accountable for the remaining stylistic shortcomings.

This book is dedicated to the memory of G. van Driel, the late master of

Neo-Babylonian archival studies. In this way I wish to acknowledge the debt I owe to his work in general and to conversations I had with him while planning the START project in particular. He might not have endorsed all conclusions that are presented here, but I like to think he would have approved of the ques-tions we asked and appreciated the effort that went into our attempt to answer them.

Michael Jursa

Survey of contents 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1 2. Routes of inner-Babylonian communication and exchange of goods ......................... 62 3. Economic strategies and investment patterns according to private archives ............. 153 4. Agriculture: the rural landscape, regional trends and diachronic change .................. 316 5. Silver, silver money and money-based exchange ...................................................... 469 6. General conclusions and further questions ................................................................ 754 7. Bibliography ............................................................................................................. 817

Detailed table of contents Preface .............................................................................................................................. v Detailed table of contents ................................................................................................ vii Figures ............................................................................................................................ xv Abbreviations and conventions ..................................................................................... xvii 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................. 1

1.1. First millennium Babylonia: historical framework and sources ........................... 1 1.2. Assyriology and economic history ..................................................................... 13 1.3. The Neo-Babylonian economy: the state of the question, problems and

models ................................................................................................................. 26 1.3.1. Ecological zones and the corresponding sectors of the economy .............. 26

1.3.1.1. Agriculture and land tenure .............................................................. 26 1.3.1.2. Animal husbandry ............................................................................ 28 1.3.1.3. The economic use of the marshes ..................................................... 28 1.3.1.4. The city ............................................................................................. 29

1.3.2. Modes of exchange .................................................................................... 30 1.3.3. Overall assessments of the Babylonian economy in the first millennium . 31 1.3.4. Determinants of economic structure and performance .............................. 33

1.3.4.1. Climate ............................................................................................. 33 1.3.4.2. Demography ..................................................................................... 36

1.3.4.2.1. Theory ..................................................................................... 36 1.3.4.2.2. The evidence ............................................................................ 37 1.3.4.2.3. The resulting problems, research agenda and models .............. 41

1.3.4.3. Technology and the productivity of agriculture ................................ 48 1.3.4.4. Social organisation and political structure ........................................ 53

2. Routes of inner-Babylonian communication and exchange of goods .................... 62

2.1. Introduction ........................................................................................................ 62 2.2. Movements of goods and people in the institutional archives ............................ 64

2.2.1. The Euphrates route................................................................................... 64 2.2.1.1. Babylon ............................................................................................ 64

2.2.1.1.1. Babylon as the seat of government .......................................... 64 2.2.1.1.2. Babylon as a religious centre ................................................... 68 2.2.1.1.3. Babylon as a centre of commerce, production and con-

sumption ............................................................................................ 73 2.2.1.2. Opis .................................................................................................. 80 2.2.1.3. Sippar ............................................................................................... 84 2.2.1.4. Borsippa ........................................................................................... 87

viii Detailed table of contents

2.2.1.5. Dilbat ................................................................................................ 89 2.2.1.6. Marad ............................................................................................... 90 2.2.1.7. The far south: the Sealand and Ur .................................................... 91

2.2.1.7.1. The Sealand ............................................................................. 91 2.2.1.7.2. Ur ............................................................................................. 95

2.2.1.8. Conclusion ........................................................................................ 98 2.2.2. Regional economic networks and satellite cities .................................... 99

2.2.2.1. The tribal regions around Uruk .................................................... 100 2.2.2.1.1. Puqdu ................................................................................... 100 2.2.2.1.2. Bt-Amuknu and Bt-Dakru ............................................... 103

2.2.2.2. Uruks satellite cities ...................................................................... 105 2.2.2.2.1. Larsa ...................................................................................... 105 2.2.2.2.2. Udannu .................................................................................. 108 2.2.2.2.3. Eridu ...................................................................................... 109

2.2.2.3. Sippars satellite cities .................................................................... 110 2.2.2.3.1. Akkad .................................................................................... 111 2.2.2.3.2. B (apazzu) ........................................................................ 112

2.2.2.4. Satellite cities: conclusion .............................................................. 113 2.2.3. Uruk and Sippar and central Babylonia ................................................... 114

2.2.3.1. Ki/Hursangkalama ........................................................................ 114 2.2.3.2. Cutha .............................................................................................. 115 2.2.3.3. Nippur ............................................................................................. 116

2.2.4. Conclusion ............................................................................................... 117 2.3. Movements of people and goods in private archives ........................................ 118

2.3.1. Opis ......................................................................................................... 120 2.3.2. Sippar ...................................................................................................... 121

2.3.2.1. Sippareans elsewhere in Babylonia ................................................ 121 2.3.2.2. Visitors to Sippar ............................................................................ 122

2.3.3. Ki ........................................................................................................... 123 2.3.3.1. Kiites elsewhere in Babylonia ....................................................... 123 2.3.3.2. Visitors to Ki ................................................................................. 123

2.3.4. Cutha ....................................................................................................... 124 2.3.4.1. Cutheans elsewhere in Babylonia ................................................... 125 2.3.4.2. Visitors to Cutha ............................................................................. 126

2.3.5. Borsippa .................................................................................................. 126 2.3.5.1. Borsippeans elsewhere in Babylonia .............................................. 126 2.3.5.2. Visitors to Borsippa ........................................................................ 128

2.3.6. Dilbat ....................................................................................................... 129 2.3.6.1. Dilbateans elsewhere in Babylonia ................................................. 129 2.3.6.2. Visitors to Dilbat ............................................................................ 129

2.3.7. Nippur ..................................................................................................... 130 2.3.8. Uruk ........................................................................................................ 132 2.3.9. Larsa ........................................................................................................ 133 2.3.10. Ur .......................................................................................................... 134 2.3.11. Babylon ................................................................................................. 135

2.3.11.1. Visitors to Babylon ....................................................................... 135 2.3.11.2. Citizens of Babylon elsewhere in Babylonia ................................ 136

2.3.12. Conclusion ............................................................................................. 138 2.4. Appendix: the costs of transporting goods (M. Weszeli) ................................. 140

2.4.1. The actual costs: the texts ........................................................................ 142 2.4.1.1. For comparison: costs for overland transport ....................................... 146 2.4.2. Prices in silver ......................................................................................... 146

Detailed table of contents ix

2.4.3. Other comparable data ............................................................................. 146 2.4.4. Transport of bitumen and fired bricks ..................................................... 148 2.4.5. Conclusion ............................................................................................... 150

3. Economic strategies and investment patterns according to private archives ..... 153

3.1. Introduction (MJ) ............................................................................................. 153 3.2. Survey of the most frequent spheres of business attested in private archives .. 155

3.2.1. Temple prebends, priestly offices ............................................................ 155 3.2.1.1. General considerations ................................................................... 155 3.2.1.2. Prebendary professions according to private archives .................... 157 3.2.1.3. The operation of the prebendary system and its documentation

in the private archives ............................................................................ 161 3.2.1.4. The economic importance and profitability of prebend ownership 165

3.2.2. Houses ..................................................................................................... 169 3.2.2.1. General considerations ................................................................... 169 3.2.2.2. Letting of houses ............................................................................ 170 3.2.2.3. Renting of houses ........................................................................... 171

3.2.3. Date gardening ........................................................................................ 171 3.2.3.1. General considerations ................................................................... 171 3.2.3.2. Ownership of date gardens ............................................................. 172 3.2.3.3. Management, extension and improvement of gardens .................... 179 3.2.3.4. On the renting of date gardens ........................................................ 182

3.2.4. Arable farming ........................................................................................ 184 3.2.4.1. General remarks ............................................................................. 184 3.2.4.2. Private ownership of fields ............................................................. 185 3.2.4.3. Rented fields in private archives..................................................... 187

3.2.5. Agricultural management ........................................................................ 193 3.2.5.1. General remarks ............................................................................. 193 3.2.5.2. Rent farmers on institutional land ................................................... 194 3.2.5.3. Rent farmers on the land of officials and Persian nobles ................ 197 3.2.5.4. Entrepreneurs in the land-for-service sector ................................ 198 3.2.5.5. Entrepreneurial management of private land .................................. 203 3.2.5.6. Summary ........................................................................................ 204

3.2.6. Business partnership agreements (harrnu) ............................................ 206 3.2.6.1. General remarks ............................................................................. 206 3.2.6.2. The business purposes of the harrnu companies .......................... 208

3.2.6.2.1. Trade ...................................................................................... 208 3.2.6.2.2. Agriculture ............................................................................. 209 3.2.6.2.3. Crafts, craft production and the trade in manufactured or

processed goods ............................................................................... 212 3.2.6.2.4. The size and financial potential of Neo-Babylonian

business companies ......................................................................... 213 3.2.7. Domestic and interregional trade ............................................................. 214

3.2.7.1. Sources ........................................................................................... 214 3.2.7.2. Staples: the modus operandi in the Nr-Sn file ............................. 216 3.2.7.3. Other archives documenting trade in staples .................................. 218 3.2.7.4. Textiles ........................................................................................... 220 3.2.7.5. Beer ................................................................................................ 221 3.2.7.6. Long-distance trade ........................................................................ 224 3.2.7.7. Slave trade ...................................................................................... 225

3.2.8. Craftsmen as archive owners ................................................................... 228 3.2.8.1. Introduction .................................................................................... 228

x Detailed table of contents

3.2.8.2. The archives ................................................................................... 229 3.2.9. Slaves ...................................................................................................... 232

3.2.9.1. General observations ...................................................................... 232 3.2.9.2. Privately owned slaves in agriculture ............................................. 234 3.2.9.3. Privately owned slaves as craftsmen .............................................. 235 3.2.9.4. Privately owned slaves as managers and entrepreneurs .................. 237

3.2.10. Money-lending ...................................................................................... 240 3.2.10.1. General observations .................................................................... 240 3.2.10.2. Banking ........................................................................................ 245

3.2.11. Taxes ..................................................................................................... 246 3.2.11.1. General observations .................................................................... 246 3.2.11.2. The land-for-service system ......................................................... 247 3.2.11.3. Dues and services owed for the transportation of goods .............. 251 3.2.11.4. Tax farming and general farming of rights ................................ 252

3.2.12. Animals ................................................................................................. 256 3.2.12.1. General considerations ................................................................. 256 3.2.12.2. Sheep (and goats) in private archives ........................................... 257 3.2.12.3. Cattle in private archives .............................................................. 259 3.2.12.4. Donkeys in private archives ......................................................... 259

3.2.13. Bricks .................................................................................................... 261 3.2.13.1. General considerations ................................................................. 261 3.2.13.2. Acquisition of bricks .................................................................... 261 3.2.13.3. Brick-making ................................................................................ 262

3.2.14. Officials and professionals as archive owners .................................... 264 3.3. Summary: typology of archives and business profiles ................................... 265

3.3.1. Introduction ............................................................................................. 265 3.3.2. Storage of wealth .................................................................................. 267 3.3.3. Secondary economic activities .............................................................. 275

3.3.3.1. Agriculture by contract ................................................................... 275 3.3.3.2. Trade............................................................................................... 278 3.3.3.3. Ownership of slaves ....................................................................... 279 3.3.3.4. Crafts and other professions ........................................................... 280 3.3.3.5. Animal husbandry .......................................................................... 281

3.3.4. Economic types: rentiers vs. entrepreneurs ........................................... 282 3.3.4.1. Rentiers ........................................................................................... 282 3.3.4.2. Entrepreneurs .................................................................................. 286

3.3.5. Concluding remarks ................................................................................ 294 3.3.6. Appendix 1: household incomes.............................................................. 296 3.3.7. Appendix 2: synopsis of archives and business activities ....................... 305

4. Agriculture: the rural landscape, regional trends and diachronic

change ..................................................................................................................... 316 4.1. Introduction ...................................................................................................... 316 4.2. Sippar ............................................................................................................... 322

4.2.1. Introduction ............................................................................................. 322 4.2.2. Ebabbars estates ..................................................................................... 323

4.2.2.1. Agriculture in the vicinity of Sippar ............................................... 324 4.2.2.2. The Kings Canal (Nr-arri) .......................................................... 326 4.2.2.3. The maennu canal ......................................................................... 334 4.2.2.4. The Pallukkat canal ........................................................................ 341 4.2.2.5. The Canal-of-Abundance (Nr-kuzbi) ............................................ 344 4.2.2.6. The Sumandar canal ....................................................................... 345

Detailed table of contents xi

4.2.2.7. Ebabbars estates south of Babylon ................................................ 346 4.2.2.8. Trans-tigridian holdings of Ebabbar ............................................... 347 4.2.2.9. Ebabbars land on the br .......................................................... 348

4.2.3. The Sipparean rural landscape: the size and shape of the plots ............... 348 4.2.4. The development of Sipparean agriculture ........................................ 355

4.3. Borsippa ........................................................................................................... 360 4.3.1. Introduction ............................................................................................. 360 4.3.2. The Borsippean rural landscape .............................................................. 363

4.3.2.1. The average size and yield of Borsippean date gardens ................. 363 4.3.2.2. Date gardens in the Tattannu archive ............................................. 375

4.3.2.2.1. Introduction ........................................................................... 375 4.3.2.2.2. The Tattannus rural possessions ........................................... 376

4.3.2.3. Conclusion ...................................................................................... 384 4.4. Babylon ............................................................................................................ 385

4.4.1. Introduction ............................................................................................. 385 4.4.2. The rural landscape around Babylon ....................................................... 386

4.4.2.1. The field plans ................................................................................ 386 4.4.2.2. Land in the Egibi archive................................................................ 388 4.4.2.3. Land in the Sn-il archive .............................................................. 389 4.4.2.4. The evidence of the Nr-Sn file .................................................... 391 4.4.2.5. Land in archives of (minor) clergy from Babylon .......................... 393 4.4.2.6. Land in non-prebendary sixth-century archives from Babylon ...... 395 4.4.2.7. Land in the Kasr archive and other late text groups from

Babylon ................................................................................................. 396 4.4.3. Conclusion ............................................................................................... 398

4.5. Dilbat ................................................................................................................ 399 4.5.1. Introduction ............................................................................................. 399 4.5.2. Aspects of the rural landscape ................................................................. 400 4.5.3. Land prices in Dilbat ............................................................................... 403

4.6. Nippur .............................................................................................................. 405 4.6.1. Introduction: the Mura archive ............................................................ 405 4.6.2. The evidence from the Nippur letter archive ........................................... 414 4.6.3. Sixth-century Nippur ............................................................................... 414 4.6.4. Nippur agriculture in the fifth-century texts apart from the Mura

archive ......................................................................................................... 416 4.6.5. Conclusion ............................................................................................... 417

4.7. Uruk (Bojana Jankovi) .................................................................................... 418 4.7.1. Introduction ............................................................................................. 418 4.7.2. Estates of Eanna ...................................................................................... 419 4.7.3. Plot sizes and productivity....................................................................... 429 4.7.4. Private land .............................................................................................. 433 4.7.5. Conclusion ............................................................................................... 435

4.8. Conclusion (MJ) ............................................................................................... 437 4.8.1. Synopsis of the regional surveys ............................................................. 437 4.8.2. Prices and agrarian change ...................................................................... 443

4.8.2.1. Barley prices ................................................................................... 443 4.8.2.2. Prices of products of intensive agriculture: sesame and dates ........ 451 4.8.2.3. Prices of date gardens ..................................................................... 457 4.8.2.4. Synopsis and interpretation of the price data for agrarian

goods ..................................................................................................... 462

xii Detailed table of contents

5. Silver, silver money and money-based exchange .................................................. 469 5.1. Introduction ...................................................................................................... 469 5.2. Silver qualities .................................................................................................. 474 5.3. Interest rates ..................................................................................................... 490 5.4. Cash and kind in the institutional economy ...................................................... 500

5.4.1. Introduction ............................................................................................. 500 5.4.2. Silver in the Nippur letter archive ........................................................... 500 5.4.3. Transactions in a temple archive from the eighth century ....................... 506 5.4.4. Sixth-century temple archives: typological breakdown of transactions ........................................................................................................ 509

5.4.4.1. Introduction .................................................................................... 509 5.4.4.2. The Ebabbar archive in the years 12-14 Nbn.................................. 510

5.4.4.2.1. Income ................................................................................... 510 5.4.4.2.2. Receipts for internal transactions: 35 .................................. 514 5.4.4.2.3. Expenditures .......................................................................... 514

5.4.4.3. The Eanna archive in the years 14-23 Nbk and 2-11 Nbn (Kristin Kleber) ..................................................................................... 540 5.4.4.3.1. Income ................................................................................... 541 5.4.4.3.2. Internal deliveries: finished products delivered by

Eannas craftsmen and processed foodstuffs ................................... 543 5.4.4.3.3. Expenditures .......................................................................... 549

5.4.4.4. Summary of the typological analysis of Eanna and Ebabbar texts (MJ) ............................................................................................... 563 5.4.4.4.1. Income ................................................................................... 564 5.4.4.4.2. Expenditure ............................................................................ 567 5.4.4.4.3. A hypothetical balance sheet for Ebabbar for 14 Nbn ........... 572

5.4.5. Ebabbars trade in dates .......................................................................... 576 5.4.5.1. Chronological and seasonal patterns .............................................. 576 5.4.5.2. The organisation of the sales .......................................................... 578 5.4.5.3. The scale and frequency of the transactions ................................... 579 5.4.5.4. The buyers ...................................................................................... 580 5.4.5.5. Prices .............................................................................................. 584 5.4.5.6. Conclusion ...................................................................................... 591 5.4.5.7. Appendix: date prices ..................................................................... 592

5.4.6. Eannas trade in wool (Kristin Kleber) .................................................... 595 5.4.6.1. Income of wool ............................................................................... 595 5.4.6.2. Expenditures of wool other than sales ............................................ 595 5.4.6.3. The sale of wool ............................................................................. 596

5.4.6.3.1. The sample............................................................................. 596 5.4.6.4. The organisation of the sale of wool and its administrative

documentation ....................................................................................... 597 5.4.6.5. The price of wool............................................................................ 603

5.4.6.5.1. Summary of the price trends in Uruk ..................................... 605 5.4.6.6. The scale and frequency of the transactions ................................... 605 5.4.6.7. Small-scale transactions: retail sales .............................................. 607 5.4.6.8. Commercial transactions: wholesales ............................................. 607

5.4.6.8.1. The lower commercial scale .................................................. 608 5.4.6.8.2. The intermediate commercial scale ....................................... 608 5.4.6.8.3. The institutional scale ........................................................ 608

5.4.6.9. The buyers ...................................................................................... 608 5.4.6.9.1. Retail sales ............................................................................. 609 5.4.6.9.2. The commercial scale (lower and intermediate) .................... 609

Detailed table of contents xiii

5.4.6.9.3. The institutional-scale transactions ........................................ 612 5.4.6.10. Wool as a means of payment ........................................................ 614 5.4.6.11. Summary ...................................................................................... 615 5.4.6.12. Appendix: wool prices in the later part of the sixth century

(MJ) ....................................................................................................... 616 5.5. Silver in the non-institutional sector of the economy ....................................... 624

5.5.1. Introduction ............................................................................................. 624 5.5.2. Typical contexts of money usage ............................................................ 625 5.5.3. Silver: exclusively high-range money? ................................................... 629

5.5.3.1. Introduction .................................................................................... 629 5.5.3.2. Borsippean lists of silver payments from private archives

(Johannes Hackl) ................................................................................... 633 5.5.3.2.1. Formal Aspects ...................................................................... 633 5.5.3.2.2. Archival context .................................................................... 637 5.5.3.2.3. Items purchased ..................................................................... 637 5.5.3.2.4. The quantitative range of the silver payments ....................... 639

5.5.4. Street markets, markets in the gate areas, shops (MJ) ............................. 641 5.5.5. Taxation and money ................................................................................ 645

5.5.5.1. Introduction .................................................................................... 645 5.5.5.2. Indirect taxation: harbour taxes and related matters ....................... 646 5.5.5.3. Taxes in an urban context: service obligations and compensa-

tory payments ........................................................................................ 647 5.5.5.3.1. Introduction ........................................................................... 647 5.5.5.3.2. Service obligations, taxes and hired labour: case studies ...... 648 5.5.5.3.3. Tax payments in kind in the private sector of the

economy .......................................................................................... 654 5.5.5.3.4. A seasonal pattern for tax payments in cash .......................... 656

5.5.5.4. Conclusion: taxation, labour obligations and the circulation of money .................................................................................................... 657

5.6. Money and labour ............................................................................................ 660 5.6.1. Introduction ............................................................................................. 660 5.6.2. Hired mass labour in the institutional economy ...................................... 661 5.6.3. The cost of labour: rations vs. wages .................................................... 669

5.6.3.1. The remuneration of temple personnel in kind and in silver ....... 669 5.6.3.2. Salaries (paid in kind), not rations ............................................... 672 5.6.3.3. The cost of hired labour in comparison with institutional

salaries ................................................................................................... 673 5.6.4. Money and labour in the city: on independent craftsmen and

hirelings ....................................................................................................... 681 5.6.4.1. Introduction .................................................................................... 681 5.6.4.2. Wages and wage earners in the temple archives ............................. 683 5.6.4.3. A dossier of wage-earning smiths in the Eanna archive

(Elizabeth E. Payne) .............................................................................. 688 5.6.4.4. Free hired labour in an urban context: private archives (MJ) ......... 694 5.6.4.5. Apprenticeship contracts (Johannes Hackl) .................................... 700

5.6.4.5.1. Introduction ........................................................................... 700 5.6.4.5.2. Textual evidence and archival context ................................... 700 5.6.4.5.3. Formal Aspects ...................................................................... 703 5.6.4.5.4. Crafts and apprenticeships ..................................................... 705 5.6.4.5.5. Gewalthaber ........................................................................ 709 5.6.4.5.6. Apprentice ............................................................................. 710 5.6.4.5.7. Master .................................................................................... 710

xiv Detailed table of contents

5.6.4.5.8. Remuneration and alimentation ............................................. 711 5.6.4.5.9. Insufficient training and contractual penalties ....................... 712

5.6.5. Conclusion (MJ) ...................................................................................... 726 5.7. Money in agriculture ........................................................................................ 728

5.7.1. Introduction ............................................................................................. 728 5.7.2. Agricultural rents and money .................................................................. 731

5.8. On price trends and money circulation ............................................................. 734 5.8.1. Introduction ............................................................................................. 734 5.8.2. The development of sheep prices ............................................................ 735 5.8.3. The development of slave prices ............................................................. 741 5.8.4. Inflation in the second half of the sixth century ...................................... 745

6. General conclusions and further questions ........................................................... 754

6.1. Summary of principal findings ......................................................................... 754 6.1.1. Economic geography ............................................................................... 754 6.1.2. Agriculture .............................................................................................. 756 6.1.3. On the private sector of the economy ...................................................... 762 6.1.4. On the institutional economy ................................................................... 768 6.1.5. Modes of exchange and the role of silver money .................................... 772

6.1.5.1. Silver money ................................................................................... 773 6.1.5.2. The range of monetised exchange .................................................. 775 6.1.5.3. Money, prices and markets ............................................................. 780

6.2. Models .............................................................................................................. 783 6.2.1. The commercialisation model and the traditional model ......................... 783 6.2.2. Economic growth the Hopkins model .................................................. 800 6.2.3. Long-term perspectives? ......................................................................... 802

6.3. Consumption and standards of living as an indication of economic performance....................................................................................................... 804 6.3.1. Defining the problem ............................................................................... 804 6.3.2. Prosperity levels in Babylonia in the second and first millennia ............. 806 6.3.3. Prosperity in cross-cultural comparison: wheat wages ............................ 811

7. Bibliography ............................................................................................................ 817 Indices .......................................................................................................................... 850

General index .......................................................................................................... 850 Texts ........................................................................................................................ 860 Akkadian words ...................................................................................................... 889 Personal names ........................................................................................................ 892 Toponyms and hydronyms ...................................................................................... 895

Figures Fig. 1: Babylonia and its major rivers and canals ........................................................... 62 Fig. 2: archive owners roles in business companies ..................................................... 268 Fig. 3: monthly household subsistence requirements and wages .................................. 301 Fig. 4: the Sippar countryside ....................................................................................... 323 Fig. 5: dimensions of Sippar fields ................................................................................ 350 Fig. 6: Sippar fields: the ratio of length to width .......................................................... 350 Fig. 7: Borsippa: imittu values and garden sizes ........................................................... 373 Fig. 8: barley prices (scatter graph and polynomic regression line) .............................. 448 Fig. 9: barley prices: moving ten-year averages ............................................................ 450 Fig. 10: sesame prices: scatter graph and polynomic regression line ............................ 455 Fig. 11: date prices (sales): scatter graph and polynomic regression line ..................... 456 Fig. 12: garden prices in Babylon and Borsippa ........................................................... 460 Fig. 13: prices of commodities, slaves and land in comparison (-560 = index 100) ..... 463 Fig. 14: comparative price development disregarding inflation (-560 = index 0) ...... 467 Fig. 15: date prices: scatter graph, regression line and moving ten-year averages ........ 586 Fig. 16: date prices: moving ten-year averages (shekel per kurru) ............................... 588 Fig. 17: date prices at Sippar: the relation between the amounts sold and the rates ...... 589 Fig. 18: Urukean wool sales .......................................................................................... 597 Fig. 19: Urukean wool rates (minas of wool per shekel of silver) ................................. 604 Fig. 20: Eanna's silver income from the sale of wool .................................................... 608 Fig. 21: wool prices ....................................................................................................... 619 Fig. 22: the prices of wool, sheep and blankets in comparison ..................................... 622 Fig. 23: Borsippean lists of silver payments, distribution of silver quantities ............... 640 Fig. 24: Month dates of tax payments (Babylon, Borsippa) .......................................... 657 Fig. 25: staple prices (moving ten-year averages) and wages (full employment) ......... 679 Fig. 26: sheep prices in the sixth century (5 Npl-36 Dar) ............................................. 740 Fig. 27: slave prices in the sixth century ....................................................................... 744 Fig. 28: prices of commodities, slaves and land (-560 = index 100) ............................. 746

Abbreviations and conventions Three-part personal names are rendered as {name}/{fathers name}/{ancestors or family name}. Dates are given as day.month.regnal year kings name (abbrevi-ated).

The following list contains kings names from Esarhaddon onwards, with abbrevia-tions where applicable. Esarh Esarhaddon 681-669 Asb Assurbanipal 668-631/28 u ama-umu-ukn 668-648 Kan Kandalnu 648-627 Aei Aur-etel-ilni 630-627 Si Sn-arru-ikun 628-612 Npl Nabopolassar 626-605 Nbk Nebuchadnezzar II 604-562 AM Aml-Marduk 561-560 Ner Neriglissar 559-556 nLM Lbi-Marduk 556 Nbn Nabonidus 555-539 Cyr Cyrus 538-530 Cam Cambyses 529-522 Bar Bardiya 522 Nbk III Nebuchadnezzar III 522 Nbk IV Nebuchadnezzar IV 521 Dar Darius I 521-486 Xer Xerxes I 485-465 ama-erba 484 Bl-imnni 484 Art I Artaxerxes I 464-424 Dar II Darius II 423-405 Art II Artaxerxes II 404-359 Art III Artaxerxes III 358-338 Arses 337-336 Dar III Darius III 335-331 Alx III Alexander III 330-324 Philippos 323-316 Antigonos 315-312 Alx IV Alexander IV 311-306 SE Seleucid Era 305-

Weights: 1 . (shekel, iqlu) 8.3 g 1 m. (mina, man) 500 g 1 talent (biltu) 30 kg

xviii Abbreviations and conventions

Measures of length: 1 cubit (ammatu) 50 cm Capacity measures: 1 kurru = 5 pnu = 30 stu = 180 q = 1800 akalu 180 litres 1 pnu = 6 stu = 36 q = 360 akalu 36 litres 1 stu = 6 q = 60 akalu 6 litres 1 q = 10 akalu 1 litre The notation 1;2.3.4 renders 1 kurru, 2 pnu, 3 stu, 4 q; 3 kurru can also

be given as 3;0. For the metric equivalents, we follow Powell 1987-1990. See ibid. 503f. for

the margin of uncertainty regarding the size of the q. The Ur III sila (= q) norm is actually 0.97-1.07 litre, whereas a cosmetic bottle from Persepolis, i.e. from the Achaemenid period, brackets the q at c. 0.85-1.0 litre.

6. General conclusions and further questions 6.1. Summary of principal findings 6 . 1 . 1 . E co n o m i c g e o g r a p h y

Before restating the questions formulated in the introduction, in particular in section 1.3.4.2.3, it may be useful to summarise some of the principal results of the foregoing chapters. We begin with the problem treated in chapter 2, viz. whether it is admissible to consider Babylonia in our period as a single inte-grated economic space.

Flowing through Babylonia in its new, western channel, the Euphrates acted as the main conduit for connecting the countrys principal cities. The river passed through, or closely by, Sippar, Babylon, Dilbat, Marad and Uruk; Bor-sippa was not far off, and the largest cities of central Babylonia after Babylon, Cutha and Ki, were connected to the Euphrates axis by major canals. Of the major old cities of the alluvium, only Nippur was not closely integrated into this communication system. Sippar in the north was the first main Babylonian city on the Euphrates coming from the northwest and also the main point of entry into Babylonia coming from the north and northeast after Opis in the Diyala region. In the south, the Euphrates route led on to the Sealand and the Gulf. Travellers to Susa also had to follow the Euphrates route southwards before turning northeast.

The Tigris and the trans-tigridian lowlands constituted a secondary commu-nication axis between the far southern part of Babylonia and the north, in par-ticular the Diyala area. This must have been the route followed by Eannas sheep towards their northern pastures, for instance, and occasional evidence for economic contacts between Larsa and Sippar point in the same direction. The Euphrates route was not the only option for travellers wishing to cross the entire country. Its predominance is owed in part to its greater convenience, i.e., to the Euphrates easier navigability in comparison with the Tigris, but particularly to the fact that it connected not just the main points of entry into Babylonia, but also the principal cities, including Babylon, the hub through which most of the interregional flow of goods and movement of people within Babylonia was channelled.

In addition to being part of an interregional system of communications, every major city was the focus of a local network governing the movement of people and the flow of goods. This is best visible in Uruk and Sippar, both of which had a number of satellite cities whose institutions and citizens were dependent on the local centre economically, administratively and to some extent also with respect to the local cults. These connections were re-enforced through the presence of men or entire families from the local centre in the peripheral towns. For Uruk, these satellite cities were Larsa, Udannu and Eridu; for Sippar, Akkad and a-pazzu in the Diyala area. Uruk and the Eanna archive also offer an opportunity to study at least some aspects of the interaction between a Babylonian urban centre and (sedentary) tribal communities in the surrounding countryside. The

6.1. Summary of principal findings 755

regional economic network of Babylon is a special case. Arguably it included at least one major city, viz. Borsippa, and it probably blended with the region of influence of Ki (and Cutha) in the east and of Sippar in the north, creating the most closely integrated economic space within Babylonia in this period.

Different economic agents utilised these communication channels to differ-ing degrees. Institutions, i.e., the temples, certainly found it comparatively straightforward to extend their network of contacts and economic interests over the entire country. They had the need to do so to a varying degree, however. Eannas economic reach was more extensive than that of Ebabbar. This is owed primarily to the latter temples more balanced household economy and to Eannas stronger involvement in royal building projects in the north, but also to the greater proximity of Sippar and Ebabbar to Babylon: the temple had little need to look beyond the capital city. In any case the sources show clearly that bulk transport of large quantities of staples upstream and downstream through-out the entire country was possible and was undertaken as a matter of routine, at manageable cost. The ubiquitous availability of relatively cheap water transport was a feature of major importance enabling Babylonia to function as a compara-tively well-integrated economic space.

The geographical reach or outlook of individuals depended primarily on their social and economic focus. A majority of businessmen and traders in sta-ples and the like tended to concentrate on the hinterland of their cities of origin, including satellite cities, the only frequent exception being trade with Babylon, the most important centre of exchange and consumption. Some traders however had a much wider network of contacts spanning most of Babylonia, and of course the few Babylonians whom we know to have engaged in long-distance trade necessarily had to look beyond the alluvium. Priests, an important section of the urban population, and property-owning city notables normally restricted their movements to their city of origin, its rural hinterland, satellite cities and Babylon. Exceptions are rare; they were probably caused by contacts with co-professionists in other cities and/or by official duties on behalf of the temples or the state.3804 Artisans on the other hand seem to have been frequently prepared to seek work outside their home city: temple archives mention a relatively large number of cases of inter-city mobility of craftsmen, some on behalf of the tem-ples, some, apparently on the craftsmens own initiative.

The importance of Babylon that is owed to the citys position in the centre of the countrys economic geography cannot easily be over-emphasised. The city was a major centre of consumption because of its impressive size, the presence of the court3805 and the ambitious royal building projects that must have changed the city substantially in the course of the sixth century. By the same token, it 3804 The best example is the connection through marriage between a Sipparean and a Urukean family of prebendary brewers found in the ang-ama B archive from Sippar (see the conclusion of section 2.2.1.3 above). 3805 The huge quantities of staples that are mentioned in the barley (and date) delivery texts of the Palace Archive of Nebuchadnezzar are a good illustration of this particular aspect of the citys role in the sixth centurys network of economic exchange.

756 6. General conclusions and further questions

was a centre of production (it visibly drew large numbers of craftsmen). As an administrative and religious centre, it was regularly visited by notables of all provincial cities, some of whom held property there.3806 A major part of the countrys disposable resources of goods and labour must have been concentrated there. Babylon was also a hub for long-distance trade. What goods were brought into the country from the Levant and Syria predominantly made their way to Babylon. We have seen that the temple administration of Eanna frequently did not need to look beyond Babylon when it commissioned agents to procure pres-tige goods for its cultic needs.

As by far the largest city of the country, Babylon was certainly also the most populous; its citizens will have been present everywhere in Babylonia. Several cases of families moving from Babylon to other cities are known. More impor-tantly, we can now show that several provincial cities had more or less distinct, self-enclosed bodies of Babylonians, i.e., expatriate citizens of Babylon, among their inhabitants. This has long been known for Uruk, and it is now also attested for Dilbat, Ur, Sippar and Marad; probably such communities were found also in other cities. These citizens of Babylon probably enjoyed royal support for establishing these communities. Their existence as a distinct body with special obligations and presumably rights was recognised by the authori-ties. They may have been seen as a force potentially counteracting local separa-tist traditions and tendencies and promoting administrative centralisation in-stead.3807

The survey of the patterns of communication and the flow of goods in chap-ter 2 has thus established the fact that Babylonia in the sixth century can be con-sidered a single integrated economic space. Goods and persons travelled freely and established numerous forms of interconnections between the constituent regions albeit to varying degrees through numerous forms of interaction. We have emphasised the centralising role of Babylon and the anomalous character of the Nippur region.

6 . 1 . 2 . A gr i c u l t u r e

Making a case for considering Babylonia a single, well-integrated economic space is not tantamount to claiming that it was economically homogenous: it was not. The survey of agrarian regions in chapter 4 establishes marked distinc-tions between the rural landscapes and agricultural practices around Sippar, Babylon, Borsippa, Dilbat, Nippur and Uruk. These regions display different agricultural regimes in terms of the intensity of land use, crop choices, patterns

3806 Such as the royal resident (qpu) of Eanna, Sn-iddin (ZA 66, 282f. NCBT 178 // NBC 4513). 3807 This is not directly provable but can be deduced from the fact that the Babylonian community in Uruk was removed from its position of influence in the city after the rebel-lions against Xerxes, while the genuine Urukean priestly families remained unscathed: the men from Babylon must have taken the side of the rebels in their mother-city, whereas the local elite may have chosen a more prudent course.

6.1. Summary of principal findings 757

of land tenure and so forth. The introduction to chapter 4 and section 1.3.4.3 describe the basic framework of Neo-Babylonian agriculture: we are dealing with irrigation agriculture based on two leading crops barley and dates and two fundamentally different types of farming: extensive arable farming, requir-ing fewer investments, a (comparatively) low input of labour and yielding lower returns,3808 and intensive horticulture, requiring more investments in the infra-structure, a long-term commitment (since date gardens need several years to bear fruit) and a higher input of labour. In return, the productivity of horticulture was higher than that of arable farming in absolute terms and in relation to the labour invested. Regions differed in their preference for one or the other of these two modes of farming, and so did certain categories of landowners within indi-vidual regions. The character of agrarian regions was also determined by the level of royal interference with, and investment in, the infrastructure (i.e., the irrigation system) and landholding patterns,3809 by demographic factors, espe-cially by the presence (or absence) of large cities and the demand they gener-ated, and of course by geography and topography.

Agricultural development in northern Babylonia was shaped by a general trend towards a more intensive form of land use and an increasing marginalisa-tion of arable farming as far as private landownership is concerned. Perhaps the most important case study for the overall purposes of this book is furnished by the dynamic region around Sippar in the north. This region benefited from sub-stantial investments in the agrarian infrastructure in the sixth century, especially through the work on the Royal Canal. Incidentally, this ambitious undertaking is the earliest observable case of the new kind of centrally planned water manage-ment schemes which transformed Babylonian agriculture in the first millennium BC and led to the unprecedented extension of irrigation agriculture in the Sa-sanian period. During the period covered by our sources we witness an intensifi-cation of production through a preference of date gardening over arable farming and a resulting increase in the productivity of the region, both in terms of overall output as well as of productivity per capita.

Rapid change in Sippar can be contrasted with (comparative) stagnation at Borsippa after royal land allotment schemes had transformed landownership patterns around the city in the late seventh century. Borsippas hinterland was possibly the most intensively farmed area documented in our sources: the urban elite owned nearly exclusively date gardens and no fields; plots were small, yields higher than elsewhere.

One might have expected a similar picture at Babylon, but this is not the case because the available archives cover a different, wider segment of the population

3808 Extensive farming is a relative term: average yields were higher in our period than in the late third and early second millennium because more seed was used per sur-face area. 3809 Land-use patterns were shaped by the crown in two principal ways: through the allotment of service land to groups or individuals, and through large-scale reclamation and re-allocation of land in the rural hinterland of the old cities mostly in the seventh and the early sixth centuries.

758 6. General conclusions and further questions

than at Borsippa. An emphasis on date gardening and the resulting intensifica-tion of the production is frequently visible. Importantly, agrarian change can be observed on the margins of the belt of intensively farmed land which was owned by the old families of the city. This change was caused by the activities and investment patterns of entrepreneurs or entrepreneurial families such as the Egi-bis, who bought (marginal) arable land and turned it into gardens. We also find (in the Nr-Sn file) evidence for growing vegetables (onions) under contract as a cash crop for the urban market: another form of intensification of agrarian production.

Nippur and Uruk show a remarkably different picture. In Nippur, arable farming retained its importance for private landholding and dominated the hin-terland of the city overall. Much of the land around Nippur was in the posses-sion of the king and his family, royal officials and, after 539 BC, Persian nobles. Nowhere else is a comparable concentration of royal and quasi-royal holdings found. This accounts for the presence of the many (groups of) foreigners pro-vided with service land (bow-fields and so forth) which are visible in the Mura archive. In the late fifth century, the period covered by this much-studied archive, more land in the region will have been taken under the plough and cultivation was intensified to some degree, but the general nature of Nip-purean agriculture remained unchanged.

In Uruk, we find again a comparatively static picture. The basis for the agri-cultural regime of the sixth century was laid in the late eighth and the seventh century through royal land allotment schemes and canal construction. In our period the Urukean hinterland probably experienced a stable, but only gradual development. In the immediate surroundings of the city date growing predomi-nated. As expected, the urban upper class, especially the priests, held a large stake in this zone. But this intensively farmed area seems to have been dwarfed by the huge expanse of the Eanna temples arable land. In Uruk it was also not unusual for private citizens, especially businessmen, to own grain fields and engage in arable farming. Urukean agriculture was quite traditional (and exten-sive) in its focus.

A straightforward survey of the available evidence results in an image of landholding patterns which is checkered and fragmented. The information is sufficiently dense especially in northern and central Babylonia to allow us to conclude with some confidence that the available evidence is a reasonably accu-rate reflection of actual ancient realities.3810 No single type of land tenure can be

3810 In other words, it is unlikely that we are missing a decisive part of the puzzle sim-ply owing to archival bias. Of course, it is true for instance that the Ebabbar archive, the single most important source of information for agriculture in northern Babylonia, deals predominantly with temple land and that Ebabbars estates made up only a small portion of the agricultural land in the area. But indirect information given by this vast archive e.g., plot descriptions which name holders of property adjacent to temple land expands the area which is covered to some extent. Had northern Babylonian agriculture been dominated by huge grain-farming royal estates, for instance, we would hear much more about the kings land and its farmers in such indirect sources.

6.1. Summary of principal findings 759

said to have predominated over the others, all types of land holding were proba-bly represented in all parts of the country, albeit to a greatly varying degree, depending on local, partly contingent, circumstances.

Of all the economic agents documented by our sources, the temples owned the largest estates. But this is of less importance than has often been assumed. The economic power of the two temples that are well known through huge ar-chives was demonstrably limited by their chronic lack of the other means of production (labour, ploughs and plough oxen, water); the overall productivity of their agricultural sector was correspondingly modest. Strategies chosen by the temple administrations (or imposed on them by the royal administration) that were intended to deal with the structural problems of temple agriculture varied in detail, but they all depended on outside resources (of capital and labour). How does the performance of temple agriculture appear when set against that of pri-vate land? In section 4.8.1 we have compared the agricultural output of Eanna undoubtedly a major temple, and, supposedly, the dominant agricultural pro-ducer in the Uruk area with that of intensive horticulture typically pursued by the Borsippean priests on their privately owned land. With their small, but inten-sively farmed gardens, as few as 300 to 400 of these families which were by no means all particularly rich would have produced as much as Eanna, or even more, if one takes into account the unquantifiable yield of the minor cultures grown under the date palms. We do not know whether there were three hundred such families in Borsippa (though it is possible3811), but there were certainly many more than one hundred: we have direct evidence for some thirty of them. A similar argument could be made for Ebabbar in Sippar: it produced less than 150 households of propertied Borsippeans. In short: the productivity of private, intensively farmed land owned by city dwellers was such that it matched, and cumulatively may well have exceeded, the output of the large, but under-staffed and often poorly managed temple estates with their extensive farming regime. We should not be misled by the abundance of information on the temple econ-omy: the temples were of course important landowners, but they did not domi-nate the rural landscape by any means. When put into context, the sources clearly show the many weaknesses of temple agriculture and the relatively better performance of land in the hands of private city-based landowners.

The overall importance of royal land and land owned by notables with close ties to the crown is hard to gauge owing to the lack of pertinent archives. Royal land can be found in all agricultural regions for which we have documentation, but there is no indication that such estates dominated the hinterland of the old towns of the alluvium, and for cities like Borsippa, Babylon or Sippar the avail-able information concerning the rural landscape is so dense that we can actually

3811 Kessler 2005: 280f. assumes that the Urukean temple community (whose income structure is not as well known as that of their Borsippean homologues) numbered 200 to 250 priestly households. Including other branches of the same families, he suggests there were 300 to 400 inner-city families of mr-bans (Kessler 2008: 81). These figures are plausible, but contrary to Kessler we are not convinced that the temple community in Uruk (and elsewhere) essentially accounted for the entire urban population.

760 6. General conclusions and further questions

exclude this possibility. Nippur is a special case. Settlements of non-Babylonian groups which were integrated into the fabric of the state through the land-for-service system were a dominant feature of the hinterland only in this city, as far as we can tell. Perhaps in the future more such clusters will be found in similarly underdeveloped regions, especially in the south, but they are not to be ex-pected in the well-developed, intensively farmed land around the great cities along the western arm of the Euphrates.

Independent village communities existed they are mentioned as sources of seasonally available manpower, but nothing is known about land tenure patterns in such small rural settlements. Although villages are often associated with communal landownership (in the Marxist tradition), there is no a priori reason why land tenure patterns should have been structurally different from those found in cities.

It is impossible to attempt a complete reconstruction of land-use patterns for any region of Babylonia; we will always have to make inferences from incom-plete information. But on the basis of what is known today we can rule out as unlikely the assumption that the sources present us with a fundamentally skewed picture. The conclusion then is that in the sixth century, land held by institutions may have exceeded private land in terms of surface area, but not necessarily in terms of output. The contribution of land in private ownership to the overall agrarian production was certainly not on a fundamentally lower order of magni-tude than that of any other type of land; and when it came to intensive horticul-ture, private urban landowners outperformed all others. Since large-scale horti-culture was the decisive key to achieving intensive growth in terms of an in-creased per-capita productivity in the agrarian society that was Babylonia in the first millennium (section 1.3.4.3), private landownership is to be seen as a par-ticularly dynamic factor of the economy, as a forerunner of economic change.

Even our long sixth century is a short period to study agrarian change on the basis of the sketchy documentation that we have. Relatively short-term fluc-tuations in agrarian conditions are best approached through the price data (sec-tion 4.8.2). In fact, the prices of the principal commodities barley, dates and sesame reflect both long-term trends of agricultural development as well as mere temporary fluctuations.

The interpretation of the available prices is not a straightforward task. In all the discussions of price data throughout the book, we have made an effort to take into account the origin of our price data and the economic situation from which they result. The importance for this approach is apparent from the study of date prices (section 5.4.5.5). Most of them come from the Ebabbar archive and might thus be expected to be simple to analyse. This is not the case. It can be shown that conversion prices, i.e., prices deducted from the analysis of temple-internal administrative transactions, are influenced by the administrators tendency to employ convenient round conversion rates. Ideally, only prices referring to real purchases should be considered for statistical analysis. Price data that are controlled in this sense lend themselves to a range of different types of analysis (but no attempt has been made to exhaust the potential of this

6.1. Summary of principal findings 761

body of data). We make two preliminary observations that have a bearing on the problem of understanding the process of price formation and of assessing market efficiency.

Most commodity prices come from institutional archives. This means that for the Achaemenid period, we are nearly exclusively dependent on Ebabbar mate-rial (Sippar); for the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, we usually have much more in-formation from the Eanna archive (Uruk). Only for the intervening years does one normally find a significant overlap of information from Uruk and Sippar (and occasionally other regions). This limits the usefulness of the price data for the study of economic integration. However, whenever information from differ-ent places of origins is available for a certain year, the prices tend to fall within the same order of magnitude: as far as it goes, our data confirms the conclusions of chapter 2, which argues for taking Babylonia as a single economic space.

Price volatility is high (see below p. 793), there is a great deal of short-term price fluctuation. Nevertheless, the basic pattern of price development in our period is the same for all commodities:3812 all price series increase after the mid-sixth century, and exhibit a sharp rise during the early reign of Darius. When-ever there are enough data to investigate the subsequent development one finds that this is followed by a moderate decrease towards the very end of the sixth century and in the early years of the fifth century. There are differences too, of course, but the fact that the same recognisable trend appears in several inde-pendent bodies of data proves had this been doubted that the available in-formation is not random, but can be used with some confidence, also for statisti-cal purposes. This conclusion is also supported for instance by the fact that the date prices allow, for the first time in Ancient Near Eastern price studies, we believe, the identification of a case of price discrimination: larger quantities of dates were sold for cheaper unit prices (section 5.4.5.5). The prices were thus demonstrably shaped by consistent economic factors which in principle should be amenable to analysis: foremost among these are the interplay of supply and demand and monetary matters.

Returning to the prices of barley, dates and sesame, we see falling prices at the beginning of the century. These reflect the returning prosperity of Babylonia after the political crisis of the late seventh century: peace and the Chaldean kings reclamation programmes raised agrarian production. The trend started to change during the reign of Nabonidus. We have argued in section 5.8.4 that monetary influences, rather than supply- or demand-driven factors, were respon-sible for the general and (to some extent) uniform increase in prices. However, the barley prices (mostly from northern Babylonia), which increase more than those of any other commodity, suggest that there was also a crisis in arable farming: barley was clearly scarce. There is explicit evidence for years of par-ticularly bad harvests during the reign of Cambyses and later. This barley crisis was probably owed primarily to (comparatively) transitory reasons such as bad weather, floods or pests. There is no convincing evidence suggesting that poli-

3812 For a more detailed summary, see section 6.1.5.3 below.

762 6. General conclusions and further questions

tics, i.e., demands made by the Persian overlords on the resources of the rich province of Babylonia, contributed directly to this process.3813 To some degree, these developments can be linked also to the agricultural longue dure of the period, in that simple arable farming was increasingly supplanted by intensive horticulture around Sippar and probably throughout northern Babylonia: rela-tively speaking, this must have reduced the output of grain farming. The supply of dates in the region was more secure; dates experienced the price rise later than all other commodities because their supply increased significantly in north-ern Babylonia throughout the second half of the sixth century.

While commodity prices, including the price of slaves, sheep and processed goods (as represented by blankets of a standardised size and shape), all follow a similar pattern of development, land prices do not. We have analysed the prices for productive, privately owned date gardens in Babylon and Borsippa, the most coherent data series for real estate available (section 4.8.2.3). Prices scatter widely. This is expected given the variability of productive agricultural land. The price trend remains fairly stable also after 550 BC, when most commodity prices start to increase. And around 510 BC, when commodity prices tripled, garden prices increased by a modest sixty to eighty percent over the price level of the mid-century. This was a nominal increase; when compared to the income these gardens could generate, prices remained stable or perhaps even fell.3814 The real estate market (if that is the apt designation) was not fully in step with the commodities market. It was subject to other, or additional, influences, most likely social forces and constraints (which remain unknown).3815 One point should be emphasised: there is no convincing evidence for a serious shortage of land owing to severe demographical pressure. At most one could argue there was a moderate pressure of this kind, but it did not alter the basic quantitative parameters of the land market.

6 . 1 . 3 . O n t h e p r i v a t e s e c t o r o f t h e e c o n o m y

A large part of this book is devoted to the treatment of private archives. These text groups come from an urban background and typically belonged to the prop-erty-owning strata of the urban population: households which in most cases owned some urban real estate and at least a small piece of land in the rural hin-terland people who engaged in transactions which required the use of writing. 3813 The Persians did not withdraw huge quantities of staples from the province. But taxation did have a role to play in the context of changes in the monetary system; see below p. 777. 3814 This is because commodity prices, including the price of dates, had increased and with it the monetary value of the date harvests that could be expected from the purchased gardens. 3815 There were no legal constraints on the sale of the type of properties whose prices we have analysed. The transactions from which the prices have been taken, at least the Borsippean part of them, were set in a homogenous segment of the population (the Bor-sippean priesthood). In which way this influenced the setting of land prices cannot be established.

6.1. Summary of principal findings 763

This group is repeatedly referred to as urban elite, urban bourgeoisie or ur-ban upper class. These terms, which are used faute de mieux, are not intended to convey the impression that the available sources refer exclusively to an ex-tremely thin segment of the population, the top of the social hierarchy very rich men3816 who held what power and offices were available in an urban con-text. We are not dealing with a homogeneous group by any means. The social range covered by the available documentation is wide, the economic inequality reflected in it is substantial. Archive owners include high state officials (e.g., the Kasr archive) and high-ranking priests and bishops (e.g., a-niu C), but also minor royal officials, such as judges and notaries (e.g., Ilia A), military officers (Zru-ukn of Nippur), numerous priests, ranging from the rich to the quite humble (e.g., Ri-alpi and Atkuppu of Borsippa), successful and rich business-men making their career in the capital (Egibi) as well as modest traders working in peripheral cities (e.g., the archive of the sons of Akkad-re), independent craftsmen plying their trade and building their patrimony in large and small cities (e.g., the smiths of the Dullupu [Babylon] and Arkt-ili [Elammu] ar-chives) as well as manual labourers making a living as hired hands in the build-ing trade (the Mardonios dossier).

A majority of archives comes from a somewhat narrower group, holders of moderate amounts of property including many priests of various descriptions. The income of these people was often not as far above subsistence levels as one might have expected: it might be described as middling. In section 3.3.6 it is argued that the normal income range of Borsippean priestly households was three to thirty times the minimum household subsistence requirement. Some priestly households in fact earned even less and may have survived on a subsis-tence income, at least temporarily. The majority of households of this group probably fell into the five to nine times subsistence income bracket. It is unlikely that any of the known priestly families in sixth-century Borsippa exceeded the thirty times subsistence threshold, and also overall, only a small number of households demonstrably earned more than this. Examples of such exceptionally rich families include the principals of the fifth-century Tattannu and Kasr ar-chives, the sixth-century Egibis of Babylon and their in-laws of the Nr-Sn family and possibly a small number of others whose fragmentary archives sug-gest great prosperity.3817

The majority of the population had to make a living with subsistence in-comes, and frequently with less. In every complex pre-modern economy, in-

3816 We are usually talking about men, reflecting the bias of the sources: while the right of women to own property, including real estate and temple prebends, and to act as prin-cipals in economic transactions of most kinds was safeguarded by law, in practice the range of documented business activities that were undertaken by women is normally restricted to straightforward property management (including the granting of loans). 3817 Nab-ahh-bulli (Uruk), a high temple administrator who on one occasion sold as many as twenty slaves to Eanna, may be a case in point: owning twenty slaves marks a Babylonian as exceptionally rich. A similar argument could be made for the protagonists of the Nr-Sn archive from Uruk.

764 6. General conclusions and further questions

come distribution was unequal, often extremely so,3818 and first millennium Babylonia was no exception. That said, it is clear that the income bracket re-flected in most of the private archives3819 was not so far removed from the level of mere subsistence that the concerns connected with such a condition were entirely alien to the protagonists of our texts. Typically, owners of subsistence incomes are reflected in ancient written sources only indirectly from the per-spective of the Mesopotamian longue dure it is exceptional that in our period at least once working poor appear as owners of written documentation in their own right.3820 We also have a few fairly well-preserved archives (principally Atkuppu and Dullupu) of families who owned some property but whose own manual labour was decisive for raising their income above mere subsistence. There will have been many such cases which are not easily recognisable owing to a lack of background information: property ownership and urban residence imply the presence of textual documentation (and hence visibility in our record), but they do not imply an income that is necessarily substantially above poverty levels. The upper end of the common range of incomes (thirty times subsistence requirements, we assume) would seem comparatively modest for households belonging to the highest echelons of the part of society whose main focus was on the temple and who played an important role in city administration. In sum one can conclude that the texts reflect the economic concerns of a substantial segment of the urban population. This is certainly true in terms of their aggre-gate income, but probably also, albeit to a much lesser extent, in terms of abso-lute numbers. On the basis of the available information, it is impossible even to model a Lorenz curve and a Gini coefficient for the Babylonian (urban) econ-omy in order to visualize and quantify the degree of inequality in income distri-butions,3821 but it would seem that the segment of the putative Babylonian Lo-renz curve we see is rather flat and hence reflects the distribution of compara-tively low incomes.

Discussing the private sector of the economy, we have broadly distinguished between two categories of subsistence strategies: the rentier and the entrepre-

3818 See the literature and examples cited by Scheidel 2009: