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The City Of Babylon : An Overview

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The city of Babylon has fascinated archaeologist for centuries. Its prosperous past and biblical ties have continuously drawn in curiosity and produced discovery. Cuneiforms, prevalent but important artifacts, found in Babylon have inadvertently offered large amounts of key information. A great portion of these archives focus on private commerce and banking in early achaemenid Babylon. However, cuneiforms from the late Achaemenid period are uncommon. Located within the later financial archives are descriptions of the House of Murashu of Nippur. This house 's documents connect the commercial, financial, and agricultural background in achaemenid Babylon. Commercial traits, buying and selling between people, mentioned in archives have led …show more content…

It was measured in traditional units of weight: the mina (about 500 grams), the shekel (1 mina = 60 shekels), and the talent (1 talent = 60 shekels) (Sasson 1478). Interest was common practice through out Babylon in this time. However, certain cases where exempt. The most common was in the case of a wealthy women looking to make profit on capital. As she would not have control over the management of real estate or slaves, she would turn to silver from her dowry. With this, she would then invest in financial ventures. As well, the uses of security objects replace interest in some cases. Usually this object is a slave, but could also be a relative of the debtor 's or a house. In this case, the promissory note would state the security object would replace the payment of interest. The object would then be returned once the loan was paid in full (Sasson 1477). As shown, the commercial relations described in the texts of the House of Murashu of Nippur have helped archaeologist better understand the economic structure of Achaemenid Babylon. Financial situations give much insight into the social structures of achaemenid Babylon. For example, it is knows that male Babylonians ruled socially as the cuneiforms describe a patronymic economy. As well, large numbers of leading Babylonians participated in financial and commercial trade. However, the lands belonged to the King. To

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