In addition to barley, the staple crop for bread and beer-a mostly mild brew rich in protein and calories-Babylonians would have harvested dates from towering date palm orchards and vegetables from smaller garden plots. They didn’t own the land, but a portion of the harvest was their salary and their family’s sustenance. Soldiers were also allotted parcels of land in return for military service. The difficult work of digging canals, plowing fields and raising sheep was done by hired and conscripted labor. Much of Babylon’s agricultural land was owned by either the king or a temple complex, but some individuals also owned and managed private land. In Hammurabi’s day, the wealth of the city was measured by its production of barley and wool, the latter of which was woven into textiles for trade. Other Babylonian slaves were captives from warfare whose families couldn’t pay their ransom. If a commoner fell deeply into debt, he could be enslaved to his creditors until the debt was repaid. Although some Babylonian slaves were purchased and others were born into slavery, in many cases slavery was a temporary state in Babylon. But among the people, there was movement between the landowning class, known as awilum or “gentlemen,” and the mushkenum or “commoners,” who were free, but probably didn’t own land. The king and his royal line were on top, of course, followed by the chief priests and priestesses of the many temples dedicated to Babylonian gods. It was rare for a Babylonian man to take a second wife and was usually only permissible in cases where the first wife was unable to bear a child.Ĭlass wasn’t rigid in Babylonian society. They could represent themselves in court, own property and pass it down to their children, and hold positions as priestesses and officials. It was passed down over the generations and family burial plots were often under the courtyard.Īncient Babylonian society was patriarchal, says Podany, but Babylonian women actually had more rights than in later civilizations like ancient Greece. For that reason, Babylonians rarely sold the family home, Podany says. Outside windows were uncommon, but the central courtyard provided plenty of light and air.įamily was of the highest importance to Babylonians and extended families often lived next to one another. Behind the doors, though, were open-air courtyards ringed with rooms and living spaces. If you walked down a street in Hammurabi’s Babylon, all you would see on both sides were tall mud-brick walls with doors. Centuries later, it swelled to more than 100,000 and was the largest city in Mesopotamia. ![]() Historians have no solid grasp of the population of Babylon in Hammurabi's time, but it might well have been more than 25,000. ![]() “What they represent are precedents from cases that went to court, and a lot had to do with quotidian things like agriculture, divorce, inheritance and the treatment of slaves.” Family, Class and Society in Ancient BabylonĬolored etching of Ancient Mesopotamia's city of Babylon with tower and walls, 1790 “Surprisingly, Hammurabi’s laws don’t tell us a lot about Babylonian law, because they weren’t actually enacted,” adds Podany. There are letters-some just the size of a postage stamp-that offer an intimate glimpse into family relationships and royal responsibilities.Īnd even Hammurabi’s famous “code,” the first written law on record, provides a “wonderful window into daily life,” says Amanda Podany, a history professor at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, and author of Weavers, Scribes and Kings: A New History of the Ancient Near East. There are countless contracts, for example, that record the adoption of a child, the hiring of a workman or the purchase of a field. What’s remarkable about this period of Babylonian history is that archeologists have recovered tens of thousands of cuneiform tablets that paint a detailed picture of life in the ancient kingdom located in what is now Iraq. The ancient Mesopotamian kingdom of Babylon flourished under the reign of Hammurabi, who ruled from 1792 to 1750 B.C.
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