FIG. 40.THE OLD BABYLONIAN FORM OF PLOUGH IN USE.The drawing is taken from seal-impressions on a tablet of the Kassite period.(After Clay.)
FIG. 40.
THE OLD BABYLONIAN FORM OF PLOUGH IN USE.
The drawing is taken from seal-impressions on a tablet of the Kassite period.
(After Clay.)
The manner in which the agricultural implements employed in early Babylonia have survived to the present day is well illustrated by their form of plough, which closely resembles that still in use in parts of Syria. We have no representation of the plough of the First Babylonian Dynasty, but this was doubtless the same as that of the Kassite period, of which a very interesting representation has recently been recovered. On a tablet found at Nippur and dated in the fourth year of Nazi-Maruttash, are several impressions of a cylinder-seal engraved with a representation of three men ploughing.[16]The plough is drawn by two humped bulls, or zebu, who are being driven by one of the men, while another holds the two handles of the plough and guides it. The third man has a bag of seed-corn slungover his shoulders and is in the act of feeding seed with his right hand into a tube or grain-drill, down which it passed into the furrow made by the plough. At the top of the tube is a bowl, with a hole in the bottom opening on to the tube, which acted as a funnel and enabled the sower to drop the seed in without scattering it. This is the earliest representation of the Babylonian plough that we possess, and its value is increased by the fact that the plough is seen in operation. The same seed-drill occurs in three later representations. One of these also dates from the Kassite period, being found upon a boundary-stone of the period of Meli-Shipak II.,[17]on which it is sculptured as the sacred symbol of Geshtinna, the goddess of the plough.[18]The other two are of the Assyrian period, one being represented in enamelled brick on the walls of the palace at Khorsabad,[19]the other being carved among the symbols on the Black Stone of Esarhaddon, on which he gives an account of his restoration of Babylon.[20]Similar ploughs, with grain-drills of precisely the same structure, are still used in Syria at the present time.[21]
Before ploughing and sowing his land the Babylonian farmer prepared it for irrigation by dividing it up into a number of small squares or oblong patches, each separated from the others by a low bank of earth. Some of the banks, that ran lengthways through the field, were made into small channels, the ends of which were connected with his main irrigation-stream. No gates nor sluices were employed, and, when he wished to water one of his fields, he simply broke away the bank opposite one of his small channels and let the waterflow into it. When it reached the part of his land he wished to water, he blocked the channel with a little earth and broke down its bank so that the water flowed over one of the small squares and soaked it.
A MODERN GUFA.Photo by Messrs. Underwood & Underwood.
A MODERN GUFA.Photo by Messrs. Underwood & Underwood.
He could then repeat the process with the next square, and so on, afterwards returning to the main channel and stopping the flow of water by blocking up the hole he had made in the bank. Such is the present process of irrigation in Mesopotamia, and there is no doubt that it was adopted by the early Babylonians. It was extremely simple, but needed care and vigilance, especially when water was being carried into several parts of an estate at once. Moreover, one main channel often supplied the fields of several farmers, and, in return for his share of the water, it was the duty of each man to keep its banks, where it crossed his land, in repair. If he failed to do so and the water forced a breach and flooded his neighbour's field, he had to pay compensation in kind for any crop that was ruined, and, if he could not pay, his goods were sold, and his neighbours, whose fields had been damaged, shared the proceeds of the sale. Similarly, if a farmer left his water running and forgot to shut it off, he had to pay compensation for any damage it might do to a neighbouring crop.
The date-palm formed the chief secondary source of the country's wealth, for it grew luxuriantly in the alluvium and supplied the Babylonians with one of their principal articles of diet.[22]From it, too, they made a fermented wine, and a species of flour for baking; its sap yielded palm-sugar, and its fibrous bark was suitable for weaving ropes, while its trunk furnished a light but tough building-material. The early Babylonian kings encouraged the laying out of date-plantations and the planting of gardens and orchards; and special regulations were made with that object in view. For a man could obtain a field for the purpose without paying a yearly rent. He could plant and tend it for four years, and in the fifth year of his tenancy theoriginal owner of the land took half the garden in payment, while the planter kept the other half for himself. Care was taken to see that the bargain was properly carried out, for, if a bare patch had been left in the plantation, it was reckoned in the planter's half; and should the tenant neglect the trees during his first four years of occupation, he was still liable to plant the whole plot without receiving his half of it, and he had to pay compensation in addition, which varied in amount according to the original condition of the land. In this way the authorities ensured that land should not be taken over and allowed to deteriorate. For the hire of a plantation the rent was fixed at two-thirds of its produce, the tenant providing all labour and supplying the necessary irrigation-water.
FIG. 41.ASSYRIAN KELEK ON THE TIGRIS.(After Layard.)
FIG. 41.
ASSYRIAN KELEK ON THE TIGRIS.(After Layard.)
From the royal letters of the period of the First Dynasty we know that the canals were not only used for irrigation, but also as water-ways for transport.—-The letters contain directions for the bringing of corn, dates, sesame-seed, and wood to Babylon, and we also know that wool and oil were carried in bulk by water. For transport of heavy goods on the Tigris and Euphrates it is possible that rafts, floated on inflated skins, were used from an early period, though the earliest evidence we have of their employment is furnished by the bas-reliefs from Nineveh. Such rafts have survived to thepresent day,[23]and they are specially adapted for the transport of heavy materials, for they are carried down by the current, and are kept in the main stream by means of huge sweeps or oars. Being formed only of logs of wood and skins, they are not costly, for wood was plentiful in the upper course of the rivers. At the end of the journey, after the goods were landed, they were broken up, the logs being sold at a profit, and the skins, after being deflated, were packed on donkeys to return up stream by caravan.[24]
FIG. 42.THE ASSYRIAN PROTOTYPE OF THE GUFA.(From a bas-relief in the British Museum.)
FIG. 42.
THE ASSYRIAN PROTOTYPE OF THE GUFA.
(From a bas-relief in the British Museum.)
The use of suchkelekscan only have been general when through-river communication was general, but, since we know that Hammurabi included Assyria within his dominions, it is not impossible that they may date from at least as early a period as the First Dynasty. For purely local traffic in small bulk thegufa,or light coracle, may have been used in Babylonia at this time, for its representation on the Assyrian monuments corresponds exactly with its structure at the present time as used; on the lower Tigris and Euphrates. Thegufais formed of wicker-work coated with bitumen, but some of those represented on the sculptures from Nineveh appear tohave been covered with skins as in the description of Herodotus.[25]
In the texts and inscriptions of the early period ships are referred to, and these were undoubtedly the only class of vessels employed on the canals for conveying supplies in bulk by water. The size of such ships, or barges, was reckoned by the amount of grain they were capable of carrying, measured by thegur,the largest measure of capacity. We find vessels of very different size referred to, varying from five to seventy-fivegurand over. The larger class probably resembled the sailing barges and ferry-boats in use to-day,[26]which are built of heavy timbers and have flat bottoms when intended for the transport of beasts. In Babylon at the time of the First Dynasty a boat-builder's fee for constructing a vessel of sixtygurwas fixed at two shekels of silver, and it was proportionately less for vessels of smaller capacity. A boat-builder was held responsible for unsound work, and should defects develop in a vessel within a year of its being launched, he was obliged to strengthen or rebuild it at his own expense. Boatmen and sailors formed a numerous class in the community, and the yearly wage of a man in such employment was fixed at sixtygurof corn. Larger vessels carried crews under the command of a captain, or chief boatman, and there is evidence that the vessels owned by the king included many of the larger type, which he employed for carrying grain, wooland dates, as well as wood and stone for building-operations.
FIG. 43.ASSYRIAN RAFT OF LOGS ON THE TIGRIS.(From a bas-relief in the British Museum.)
FIG. 43.
ASSYRIAN RAFT OF LOGS ON THE TIGRIS.
(From a bas-relief in the British Museum.)
It is probable that there were regular officials, under the king's control, who collected dues and looked after the water-transport in the separate sections of the river, or canal, on which they were stationed. It would have been their duty to report any damage or defect in the channel to the king, who would send orders to the local governor that the necessary repairs should be put in hand. One of Hammurabi's letters deals with the blocking of a canal at Erech, about which he had received such reports. The dredging already undertaken had not been thoroughly done, so that the canal had soon silted up again and boats were prevented from reaching the city; in his letter Hammurabi sent pressing orders that the canal was to be rendered navigable within three days.[27]Special regulations were also in force with regard to the respective responsibilities of boat-owners, boatmen and their clients. If a boatman hired a boat from its owner, he was held responsible for it, and had to replace it should it be lost or sunk; but if he refloated it, he had only to pay the owner half its value for the damage it had sustained. Boatmen were also responsible for the safety of goods, such as corn, wool, oil or dates, which they had undertaken to carry for hire, and they had to make good any total loss due to their own carelessness. Collisions between two vessels were also provided for, and should one of the boats have been moored at the time, the boatman of the other vessel had to pay compensation for the boat that was sunk as well as for the lost cargo, the owner of the latter estimating its value upon oath. Many cases in the courts probably arose out of loss or damage to goods in course of transport by water.
The commercial activities of Babylon at the time of the First Dynasty led to a considerable growth in the size of the larger cities, which ceased to be merely local centres of distribution and began to engage in commerce farther afield. Between Babylonia and Elam close commercial relations had long been maintained, but Hammurabi's western conquests opened up new marketsto the merchants of his capital. The great trade-route up the Euphrates and into Syria was no longer blocked by military outposts and fortifications, placed there in the vain attempt to keep back the invasion of Amorite tribes; and the trade in pottery with Carchemish, of which we have evidence under the later kings of the First Dynasty,[28]is significant of the new relations established between Babylonia and the West. The great merchants were, as a body, members of the upper class, and while they themselves continued to reside in Babylon, they employed traders who carried their goods abroad for them by caravan.
Even Hammurabi could not entirely guarantee the safety of such traders, for attacks by brigands were then as common in the Nearer East as at the present day; and there was always the additional risk that a caravan might be captured by the enemy, if it ventured too near a hostile frontier. In such circumstances the king saw to it that the loss of the goods was not borne by the agent, who had already risked his life and liberty in undertaking their transport. For, if such an agent had been forced in the course of his journey to give up some of the goods he was carrying, he had to specify the exact amount on oath on his return, and he was then acquitted of all responsibility. But if it could be proved before the elders of the city that he had attempted to cheat his employer by misappropriating money or goods to his own use, he was obliged to pay the merchant three times the value of the goods he had taken. The law was not one-sided and afforded the agent equal protection in relation to his more powerful employer; for should the latter be convicted of an attempt to defraud his agent, by denying that the due amount had been returned to him, he had to pay his agent as compensation six times the amount in dispute. The merchant always advanced the goods or money with which to trade, and the fact that he could, if he wished to do so, fix his own profit at double the value of the capital, is an indication of the very satisfactory returns obtained at this period from foreign commerce. But the more usual practice was for merchant and traderto share the profits between them, and, in the event of the latter making such bad bargains that there was a loss on his journey, he had to refund to the merchant the full value of the goods he had received. At the time of the First Dynasty asses and donkeys were the beasts of burden employed for carrying merchandise, for the horse was as yet a great rarity and was not in general use in Babylonia until after the Kassite conquest.[29]
A large number of the First Dynasty contracts relate to commercial journeys of this sort, and record the terms of the bargains entered into between the interested parties. Such partnerships were sometimes concluded for a single journey, but more often for longer periods of time. The merchant always demanded a properly executed receipt for the money or goods he advanced to the trader, and the latter received one for any deposit or pledge he might have made in token of his good faith. In reckoning their accounts on the conclusion of a journey, only such amounts as were specified in the receipts were regarded as legal obligations, and, if either party had omitted to obtain his proper documents, he did so at his own risk. The market-places of the capital and the larger towns must have been the centres where such business arrangements were transacted, and official scribes were probably always in attendance to draw up the terms of any bargain in the presence of other merchants and traders, who acted as witnesses. These had their names enumerated at the close of the document, and since they were chosen from local residents, some were always at hand to testify in case of any subsequent dispute.
The town-life in Babylonia at this time must have had many features in common with that of any provincial town in Mesopotamia to-day, except that the paternal government of the First Dynasty undoubtedly saw to it that the streets were kept clean, and made strenuous efforts to ensure that private houses should be soundly built and maintained in proper repair. We have already followed out the lines of some of the streets in ancient Babylon,[30]and noted that, while thefoundations of the houses were usually of burnt brick, crude brick was invariably employed for their upper structure. They were probably all buildings of a single story, their flat mud roofs, supported on a layer of brush-wood with poles for rafters, serving as a sleeping-place for their inmates during the hot season. Contemporary evidence goes to show that, before the period of Hammurabi, private houses had not been very solidly built, for his legislation contemplates the possibility of their falling and injuring the inmates. In the case of new houses the law fixed the responsibility upon the builder, and we may infer that the very heavy penalties exacted for bad work led to a marked improvement in construction. For, when such a newly built house fell and crushed the owner so that he died, the builder himself was liable to be put to death. Should the fall of the house kill the owner's son, the builder's own son was slain; and, if one or more of the owner's slaves were killed, the builder had to restore him slave for slave. Any damage to the owner's possessions was also made good by the builder, who had in addition to rebuild the house at his own cost, or repair any portion of it that had fallen. On the other hand, payment for sound work was guaranteed, and the fact that the scale of payment was fixed by the area of ground covered by the building, is direct evidence that the houses of the period consisted of no more than one story. The beginning of town-planning on systematic lines, with streets running through and crossing each other at right angles, of which we have noted evidence at Babylon, may perhaps date from the Hammurabi period; but no confident opinion on the point can be expressed until further excavation has been undertaken in the earlier strata of the city.[31]
I. A SMALL KELEK ON THE TIGRIS AT BAGHDAD.II. FERRY-BOATS ON THE EUPHRATES AT BIREJIK.
I. A SMALL KELEK ON THE TIGRIS AT BAGHDAD.II. FERRY-BOATS ON THE EUPHRATES AT BIREJIK.
We have recovered from contemporary documents a very full picture of family life in early Babylonia, for the duties of the separate members of a family to oneanother were regulated by law, and any change in relationship was duly attested and recorded in legal form before witnesses. Minute regulations were in force with regard to marriage, divorce and the adoption and maintenance of children, while the provision and disposal of marriage-portions, the rights of widows and the laws of inheritance were all controlled by the state upon traditional lines. Perhaps the most striking feature in the social system was the recognized status of the wife in the Babylonian household, and the extremely independent position enjoyed by women in general. Any marriage to be legally binding had to be accompanied by a duly executed and attested marriage-contract, and without this necessary preliminary a woman was not regarded as a wife in the legal sense. On the other hand, when once such a marriage-contract had been drawn up and attested, its inviolability was stringently secured. Chastity on the wife's part was enforced under severe penalty;[32]but on the other hand the husband's responsibility to maintain his wife in a position suitable to their circumstances was also recognized.
The law gave the wife ample protection, and in the case of the husband's desertion allowed her, under certain conditions, to become the legal wife of another man. If the husband wilfully deserted her and left his city under no compulsion, she might remarry and he could not reclaim her on his return. But if his desertion was involuntary, as in the case of a man taken in battle and carried off as a prisoner, this rule did not apply; and the wife was allowed to shape her action during his absence in accordance with the condition of her husband's affairs. The regulations in such a case were extraordinarily in favour of the woman. If the husband was possessed of property sufficient to maintain the wife during the period of his captivity, she had no excuse for remarriage;and, should she become the wife of another man, the marriage was not regarded as legal and she was liable to the extreme penalty for adultery. But if the husband had not sufficient means for his wife's maintenance, it was recognized that she would be thrown on her own resources, and she was permitted to remarry. The returning captive could claim his wife, but the children of the second marriage remained with their own father. The laws of divorce, too, safeguarded the woman's interests, and only dealt with her severely if it could be proved that she had wasted her household and failed in her duty as a wife; in such a case she could be divorced without compensation, and even reduced to the condition of a slave in her husband's house. But, in the absence of such proof, her maintenance was fully secured; for the husband had to return her marriage-portion, and, if there had been none, he must make her an allowance. She also had the custody of her children, for whose maintenance and education the husband had to provide; and, at his death, the divorced wife and her children could inherit a share of his estate.[33]The contraction of a permanent disease by the wife was also held to constitute no grounds for a divorce.
Such regulations throw an interesting light on the position of the married woman in the Babylonian community, which was not only unexampled in antiquity but compares favourably, in point of freedom and independence, with her status in many countries of modern Europe. Still more remarkable were the privileges capable of attainment by unmarried women of the upper class, who in certain circumstances were entitled to hold property in their own names and engage in commercial undertakings. To secure such a position a woman took vows, by which she became a member of a class of votaries attached to one of the chief temples in Babylon, Sippar, or another of the great cities.[34]The duties of such women were notsacerdotal, and, though they generally lived together, in a special building, or convent, attached to the temple, they enjoyed a position of great influence and independence in the community. A votary could possess property in her own name, and on taking her vows was provided with a portion by her father, exactly as though she were being given in marriage. This was vested in herself, and did not become the property of her order, nor of the temple to which she was attached; it was devoted entirely to her maintenance, and after her father's death, her brothers looked after her interest, and she could farm the property out. Upon her death her portion returned to her own family, unless her father assigned her the privilege of bequeathing it; but any property she inherited she could bequeath, and she had not to pay taxes on it. She had considerable freedom, could engage in commerce on her own account, and, should she desire to do so, could leave, the convent and contract a form of marriage.
While securing her these privileges, the vows she took entailed corresponding responsibilities. Even when married, a votary was still obliged to remain a virgin, and, should her husband desire children, she could not bear them herself, but must provide him with a maid or concubine. But, in spite of this disability, she was secured in her position as the permanent head of the household. The concubine, though she might bear the husband children, was always the wife's inferior, and should she attempt to put herself on a level with the votary, the latter could brand her and put her with the female slaves; while in the event of the concubine proving barren, she could be sold. Unmarried votaries, too, could live in houses of their own and dispose of their time and money in their own way. But a high standard of commercial and social morality was expected from them, and severe penalties were imposed for its infringement. No votary, for example, was permitted to open a beer-shop, and should she even enter one, she ran the risk of being put to death. An unmarried votary also enjoyed the status of a married woman, and the penalty for slandering one was branding in the forehead. That the social position enjoyed by a votary wasconsiderable is proved by the fact that many women of good family, and even members of the royal house, took vows.
It is a striking fact that women of an Eastern race should have achieved such a position of independence at the beginning of the second millennium. The explanation is perhaps to be sought in the great part already played by commerce in Babylonian life. Among contemporary races, occupied mainly by agriculture and war, woman's activity was necessarily restricted to the rearing of children and to the internal economy of the household. But with the growth of Babylonian trade and commercial enterprise, it would seem that the demand arose, on the part of women of the upper class, to take part in activities in which they considered themselves capable of joining.[35]The success of the experiment was doubtless due in part to the high standard of morality exacted, and in part to the prestige conferred by association with the religious cult.
The administration of justice at the period of the First Dynasty was carried out by duly appointed courts of law under the supervision of the king. The judges were appointed by the crown, and a check was put upon any arbitrary administration of the law by the fact that the elders of the city sat with them and assisted them in hearing and sifting evidence. When once a judgment had been given and recorded, it was irrevocable, and if any judge attempted to alter such a decision, he was expelled from his judgment-seat and debarred from exercising judicial functions in the future. The regulation was probably intended to prevent the possibility of subsequent bribery; and, if a litigant considered that justice had not been done, it was always open to him to appeal to the king. Hammurabi's letters prove that he exercised strict supervision, not only over the cases decided in the capital, but also over those which were tried in the other great cities of Babylonia, and itis clear that he attempted to stamp out corruption on the part of all those invested with authority. On one occasion he had been informed of a case of bribery in the town of Dûr-gurgurri, and he at once ordered the governor of the district to investigate the charge and send the guilty parties to Babylon for punishment. The bribe, too, was to be confiscated and despatched to Babylon under seal, a wise provision that would have tended to discourage those inclined to tamper with the course of justice, while at the same time it enriched the state.[36]The king probably tried all cases of appeal in person, when it was possible; but in distant cities he deputed this duty to local officials. Many of the cases that came before him arose from the extortions of money-lenders,[37]and the king had no mercy when fraud on their part was proved.
The relations maintained by the king with the numerous classes of the priesthood was also very close, and the control he exercised over the chief priests and their subordinates appears to have been as effective as that he maintained over the judicial authorities throughout the country. Under the Sumerians there had always been a tendency on the part of the more powerful members of the hierarchy to usurp the prerogatives of the crown,[38]but this danger appears to have been fully discounted under the rule of the Western Semites. One important section of the priestly body were the astrologers, whose duty it probably was to make periodical reports to the king on the conjunctions and movements of the heavenly bodies, with the object of ascertaining whether they portended good or evil to the state. The later Assyrian practice may well have had its origin at this period, and we may conclude that the regulation of the calendar was carried out in accordance with such advice. One of Hammurabi's letters has come down to us in which he writes to inform Sin-idinnam, his local governor of Larsa, that it had been decided to insert an intercalary month in the calendar. He writes that, as the year, that is thecalendar, had a deficiency, the month that was beginning was to be registered as the second Elul; and he adds the very practical reminder, that the insertion of the extra month would not justify any postponement in the payment of the regular tribute due from the city of Larsa.[39]The lunar calendar of the Babylonians rendered the periodical intercalation of months necessary, in order that it should be made to correspond to the solar year; and the duty of watching for the earliest appearance of the new moon and fixing the first day of each month, was among the most important of the functions performed by the official astrologers.
In the naming of the year the priesthood must also have played an important part, since the majority of the events from which the years were named were of a religious character. The system, which was inherited from the Sumerians, cannot have been a very convenient one,[40]and no doubt it owed its retention to the sanctity of the religious rites and associations attaching to it. There can be little doubt that, normally, the naming of the year took place at the New Year's Feast, and, when the event commemorated in the formula was the installation of a chief priest or the dedication of temple-furniture, the royal act, we may assume, was performed on the day the year was named.[41]Often merely a provisional title was adopted from the preceding formula, and then perhaps no ceremony of naming was held, unless in the course of it a great victory, or other important occurrence, was commemorated by the renaming of the year. The king must have consulted with his priestly advisers before the close of the old year, and have settledon the new formula in good time to allow of its announcement in the outlying districts of the kingdom.
Another important religious class at this period was the guild of soothsayers, and they also appear to have been directly under the royal control. This we gather from a letter of Ammi-ditana, one of the later kings of the First Dynasty, written to three high officials of Sippar, which illustrates the nature of their duties and the sort of occasion on which they were called upon to perform them.[42]It had come to the king's knowledge that there was a scarcity of corn in Shagga, and since that town was in the administrative district of Sippar, he wrote to the officials concerned ordering them to send a supply thither. But, before the corn was brought into the city, they were to consult the soothsayers, in order to ascertain whether the omens were favourable. The method of inquiry is not specified, but it was probably liver-divination, which was in common use during all periods.[43]Only if the omens proved favourable, was the corn to be brought into the town, and Ave may conclude that the king took this precaution as he feared that the scarcity of corn in Shagga was due to the anger of some local deity. The astrologers would be able to ascertain the facts, and, in the event of their reporting unfavourably, no doubt the services of the local priesthood would have been called in.
We have already seen that flocks and herds which were owned by the great temples were sometimes pastured with those of the king, and there is abundant evidence that the king also superintended the collection of temple-revenues along with his own. Collectors of both secular and ecclesiastical tribute sent reports directly to the king, and, if there was any deficit in the supply expected from a collector, he had to make it up himself. From one of Hammurabi's letters, for example, we gather that two landowners, or money-lenders, had lent money or advanced seed-corn to certain farmers near the towns of Dûr-gurgurri and Rakhabu and along the Tigris, and in settlement of their claims had seized the crops, refusing to pay the proportion dueto Bît-il-kittim, the great temple of the Sun-god at Larsa. The governor of Larsa, the principal city in the district, had rightly, as the representative of the palace, caused the tax-collector to make up the deficiency, but Hammurabi, on receiving the subordinate officer's complaint, referred the matter back to the governor, and we may infer from similar cases that the defaulting parties had to make good the loss and submit to fines or punishment.[44]The document throws an interesting light on the methods of government administration, and the manner in which the king gave personal supervision to the smallest details.
It will be obvious that for the administration of the country a large body of officials were required, and of their number two classes, of a semi-military character, enjoyed the king's special favour and protection. They were placed in charge of public works and looked after and controlled the public slaves, and they probably also had a good deal to do with the collection of the revenue. As payment for their duties, they were each granted land with a house and garden; they were assigned sheep and cattle to stock their land, and in addition they Received a regular salary. They were, in a sense, personal retainers of the king, and were liable to be sent at any moment on a special mission. Disobedience was severely punished, for if such an officer, when detailed for special service, hired a substitute, he was liable to be put to death and the substitute could take his office. Sometimes an officer was sent to take charge of a distant garrison for a long period, and when this was done his home duties were performed by another man, who temporarily occupied his house and land, and gave it back to the officer on his return. If the officer had a son old enough to perform the duty in his father's absence, he war allowed to do so; and, if he was too young, his maintenance was paid for out of the estate. Should the officer fail to arrange, before his departure, for the proper cultivation of his land and the discharge of his local duties, another could take his place after the lapseof a year, and on his return he could not reclaim his land or office. When on garrison duty, or on special service, he ran the risk of capture by the enemy, and in that event his ransom was assured. For if his own means did not suffice, the sum had to be paid from the treasury of the local temple, and in the last resort by the state. It was specially enacted that his land, garden, and house were in no case to be sold to pay for his ransom. They were inalienably attached to the office he held, which appears to have been entailed in the male line, since he was precluded from bequeathing any of the property to his wife or daughter. They could only pass from him and his male issue through neglect or disobedience.
IMPRESSIONS OF BABYLONIAN CILINDER SEALS.Brit. Mus., Nos.89771, 89388, 89110, 89367.
IMPRESSIONS OF BABYLONIAN CILINDER SEALS.Brit. Mus., Nos.89771, 89388, 89110, 89367.
It is not improbable that the existence of this specially favoured class of officer dates back to the earliest settlement of the Western Semites in Babylonia. The first of their number may well have been personal retainers and followers of Sumu-abum, the founder of the dynasty. Originally soldiers, they were probably assigned lands throughout the country in return for their services to the king, and they continued to serve him by maintaining order and upholding his authority. In the course of time specified duties were assigned to them, but they retained their privileges, and they must have remained a very valuable body of officers, on whose personal loyalty the king could always rely. In the case of war, they may have assisted in mobilization for the army was probably raised on a territorial basis, much on the lines of thecorvéefor public works which was under their control.
By contemporary documents of the period much light is thrown on other classes of the population, but, as they were all connected with various departments in the commercial or agricultural life of the community, it will be unnecessary to describe them in further detail. One class perhaps deserves mention, the surgeons, since lack of professional skill was rather heavily penalized. For if a surgeon, when called in by a noble, carried out an operation so unskilfully as to cause his death or inflict a permanent injury upon him, such as the loss of an eye, the punishment was amputation ofboth hands. No penalty appears to have been enacted if the patient were a member of the middle class, but should the slave of such a man die as the result of an operation, the surgeon had to give the owner another slave; and, in the event of the slave losing his eye, he had to pay the owner half the slave's value. There was, of course, no secular class in the population which corresponded to the modern doctor, for the medicinal use of herbs and drugs was not separated from their employment in magic. Disease was looked upon as due to the agency of evil spirits, or of those that controlled them, and though many potions were doubtless drunk of a curative nature, they were taken at the instance of the magician, not of the doctor, and to the accompaniment of magical rites and incantations.[45]
In the religious sphere, the rise of Babylon to the position of capital led to a number of important changes, and to a revision of the Babylonian pantheon. Marduk, the god of Babylon, from being a comparatively obscure city-god, underwent a transformation in proportion to the increase in his city's importance. The achievements and attributes of Enlil, the chief Sumerian deity, were ascribed to him, and the old Sumerian sagas and legends, particularly those of the creation of the world, were rewritten in this new spirit by the Babylonian priesthood. The beginning of the process may be accurately dated to the year of Hammurabi's conquest of Rîm-Sin and his subsequent control of Nippur, the ancient centre of the old Sumerian faith. It does not appear that the earlier Semites, when they conquered that city, had ever attempted to modify the old traditions they found there, or to appropriate them for their local gods. But a new spirit was introduced with the triumph of the Western Semites. The Sumerians were then a dying race, and the gradual disappearance of their language as a living tongue was accompanied by a systematic translation, and a partial transformation, of their sacred literature. Enlil could not be entirely ousted from the position he had so long enjoyed, but Marduk became his greater son. The younger god is represented as winning hisposition by his own valour, in coming to the help of the older gods when their very existence was threatened by the dragons of chaos; and, having slain the monster of the deep, he is portrayed as creating the universe from her severed body.[46]The older legends, no doubt, continued to be treasured in the ancient cult-centres of the land, but the Babylonian versions, under royal sanction and encouragement, tended to gain wide recognition and popularity.
Under the later kings of the First Dynasty a great impetus was also given to all branches of literary activity. The old Sumerian language still bulked largely in the phraseology of legal and commercial documents, as well as in the purely religious literature of the country. And, to aid them in their study of the ancient texts, the Semitic scribes undertook a systematic compilation of explanatory lists of words and ideograms—the earliest form of dictionary,—which continued in use into the Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian periods. The Sumerian texts, too, were copied out and furnished with inter-linear Semitic translations. The astronomical and astrological studies and records of the Sumerian priests were taken over, and great collections were compiled in combination with the early Akkadian records that had come down to them. A study of the Babylonian literature affords striking proof that the semitizing of the country led to no break, nor set-back, in Babylonian culture. The older texts and traditions were taken over in bulk, and, except where the rank or position of Marduk was affected, little change or modification was made. The Semitic scribes no doubt developed their inheritance, but expansion took place on the old lines.
In commercial life, too, Sumerian customs remained to a great extent unaltered. Taxes, rent, and prices continued to be paid in kind, and though the talent, maneh, and shekel were in use as metal weights, and; silver was in partial circulation, no true currency was developed. In the sale of land, for example, evenduring the period of the Kassite kings, the purchase-price was settled in shekel-weights of silver, but very little metal actually changed hands. Various items were exchanged against the land, and these, in addition I to corn, the principal medium of exchange, included slaves, animals, weapons, garments, etc., the value of each item being reckoned on the same silver basis, until the agreed purchase-price was made up. The early Semitic Babylonian, despite his commercial activity, did not advance beyond the transition stage between pure barter and a regular currency.
One important advantage conferred by the Western Semite on the country of his adoption was an increase in the area of its commercial relations and a political expansion to the north and west. He systematized its laws, and placed its internal administration on a wider—and more uniform basis. But the greatest and most far-reaching change of the Hammurabi period was that the common speech of the whole of Babylonia became Semitic, as did the dominant racial element in the population. And it was thanks to this fact that all subsequent invasions of the country failed to alter the main features in her civilization. Such alien strains were absorbed in process of time, and, though they undoubtedly introduced fresh blends into the racial mixture, the Semitic element triumphed, and continued to receive reinforcements from the parent stock. The Sumerian race and language appear to have survived longest in the extreme south of the country, and we shall see that the rise of the Sea-Country kings may perhaps be regarded as their last effective effort in the political sphere.