Presentation on the history of ancient Babylon. Babylon was a very rich city; crafts and... Examples from laws

Laws of Hammurabi

A black basalt pillar with the text “Laws” was found in 1901-1902. French archaeologists in Susa (the capital of ancient Elam).

Despotism -

a state in which the king's power was unlimited

Gods and temples of Mesopotamia

MARDUK, patron god of the city of Babylon, supreme deity of the Babylonian pantheon. Identified with the Sumerian Enlil.

Babylonian priest in front of an altar with the symbols of Marduk - a dragon and a spear. Seal impression.

Gods and temples of Mesopotamia

Ziggurat of Etemenanki in Babylon (the so-called Tower of Babel). Mid 7th century BC e. Reconstruction.

Gods and temples of Mesopotamia

Ziggurat in the city of Ur. Mesopotamia. Around 2200-2000 BC By the end of 3 thousand BC. e. The main temple of the cities in Mesopotamia becomes the ziggurat - a temple on several platforms. The ziggurat in Ur, excavated by the English archaeologist L. Woolley, reached 25 m in height. At the top of the ziggurat there was a small temple to the moon god Nanna, the patron saint of Ur.

Gods and temples of Mesopotamia

Reconstruction of the ziggurat in the city of Ur. Mesopotamia.

Description of the presentation by individual slides:

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Topic: “Ancient Babylon. Laws of Hammurabi." Municipal state institution “Secondary school No. 44 of the education department of the Akimat of the Merken region”

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The purpose of the lesson: - educational: to create conditions for assimilation of knowledge about the emergence and flourishing of a powerful state in the interfluve of the Tigris and Euphrates, Babylon; - developing: work on the development of oral speech, set goals for the lesson, apply your knowledge to solve problematic problems; express your point of view; - educational: create conditions for instilling in schoolchildren respect for creative work, using the example of the first set of laws of Hammurabi to cultivate respect for the laws of the state.

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Objectives: Subject: - organize the work of students to study the ancient code of laws of the Babylonian king Hammurabi; - by examining and comparing individual laws of King Hammurabi, illustrate to students the thesis about social inequality in society. - develop the ability to work in a group, negotiate, develop students’ thinking and speech, the ability to analyze individual articles of laws, and draw conclusions. Interdisciplinary (universal educational activities): - Cognitive: through independent research work with articles of law, through analysis and logical conclusions, answer questions and solve the problem of the “justice” of the laws of King Hammurabi. - Regulatory: act in accordance with the task, make adjustments to the actions of students (when working with a timeline, at the stage of primary consolidation, reflection, etc.) - Communicative: be able to work in a group, cooperate, negotiate, control their actions and learn to analyze group activities. Personal: - orient students towards the ability to organize their activities in the classroom, to understand the reasons for success in their studies - to form a respectful attitude towards other people’s opinions

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Test task: 1. The great rivers of Mesopotamia: A) Nile and Araks B) Tigris and Ganges C) Tigris and Euphrates D) Nile and Indus 2. The first inhabitants of Mesopotamia were called: A) Libyans and Egyptians B) Persians and Medes C) Jews and Assyrians D) Sumerians and Akkadians 3. The founder of the Sumero-Akkadian kingdom was: A) Sharukkin B) Patesi C) Nabanda D) Uruk 4. The Sumero-Akkadian state reached its highest prosperity under the rule of: A) Naramsin B) Gutea C) Elam D) Urartu 5. The Sumerians mainly built houses from: A) stone B) wood C) brick D) reed

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Ancient Babylon Babylon is the largest city of ancient Mesopotamia, the capital of the Babylonian kingdom in the 19th-6th centuries. BC, the most important trade and cultural center of Western Asia. Babylon comes from the Akkadian words “Bab-ilu” - “Gate of God”. Ancient Babylon arose on the site of the more ancient Sumerian city of Kadingir, whose name was later transferred to Babylon.

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POPULATION The oldest settlements discovered in Babylonia proper near modern Jemdet Nasr and the ancient city of Kish date back to the end of the 4th and beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. The population here was mainly engaged in fishing, cattle breeding and agriculture. Crafts developed. Stone tools were gradually replaced by copper and bronze.

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SLAVE HOLDING Slave owners viewed slaves as cattle, imposing on them the stigma of ownership. All lands were considered to belong to the king. A significant part of them was in the use of rural communities and was processed by free community workers.

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The ancient Babylonian state reached its peak during the reign of Hammurabi (1792-50 BC). The Code of Hammurabi lists bread, wool, oil and dates as trade items. In addition to small retail trade, there was also wholesale trade. The development of trade entailed further social stratification of rural communities and inevitably led to the development of slavery. The patriarchal family was of great importance, in which the most ancient types of domestic slavery developed: all its members had to obey the head of the family. Children were often sold into slavery.

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Conquests of Babylon The first mention of Babylon is contained in the inscription of the Akkadian king Sharkalisharri (23rd century BC) In the 22nd century. Babylon was conquered and plundered by Shulgi, the king of Ur, a Sumerian state that subjugated all of Mesopotamia. In the 19th century Coming from the Amorites (a Semitic people who came from the southwest), the first king of the first Babylonian dynasty, Sumuabum, conquered Babylon and made it the capital of the Babylonian kingdom. At the end of the 8th century. Babylon was conquered by the Assyrians and, as punishment for the rebellion, in 689 it was completely destroyed by the Assyrian king Sennacherib. After 9 years, the Assyrians began to restore Babylon.

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1.What is law? The rules by which people live in the state. 2.What do you think, were there laws in Ancient Babylon? King Hammurabi drew up the first laws in antiquity, and they were carved on a high stone slab, which has survived to this day and is now kept in the Louvre Museum. We record the versions on the board: 1) agreed; 2) general rules (laws of life): 3) so that there is order 3. Why do you think these rules - laws arose? What assumptions and versions of the problem will you have?

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Two rivers flow into Mesopotamia: E_ _ _ _ t and T _ _ r. The country lying between the Euphrates and the Tigris is called D_ _ _ _ _ _ e or M _ _ _ _ _ _ i. The king of the city of Uruk was a favorite hero of legends. His name was G _ _ _ _ _ _ sh. The letter that arose in ancient times in the Southern Mesopotamia is called k _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ь. The famous Babylonian king was X _ _ _ _ _ _ _ and. He reigned from __________ to ________ BC. Task No. 1

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Let's start by marking the dates of the reign of King Hammurabi on the time tape and finding out how many years he ruled in Babylon. We work in notebooks on p. 45 task No. 54, and 1 student is at the board. BC. AD _______1792__________1750_________________ RH___________________________2012__ Task No. 2 2) How many years did King Hammurabi reign? Answer: 1792-1750=42 years, King Hammurabi ruled in Babylon. 1) How many years ago did the reign of King Hammurabi begin? Answer: 1792+2012=3804 years ago, King Hammurabi began to reign. 3) Which year precedes 1792 and which comes after it? Answer: 1793 BC - preceded by; 1791 BC - next after 1792

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Research work in groups with documents: “From the laws of King Hammurabi”): 1st gr. – document 1: “(clause 1) If a person has swornly accused someone of murder, but has not proven it, then the accuser must be punished... (clause 3) If a person has spoken in court for perjury, then this person must be punished ... (p. 5) If a judge examined the case, made a decision, and then changed it, then this judge should be expelled from the judge’s chair and punished with a large fine.” Questions for document 1: Come up with a title for the first paragraph of the law. Why do you think King Hammurabi begins his laws with him? What were the requirements for the judge? What qualities should a judge have?

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Research work in groups with documents: “From the laws of King Hammurabi”): 2nd gr. – document 2: “(p. 218) If a doctor performed a serious operation on a person with a bronze knife and killed him, then the doctor needs to cut off his hands... (p. 237) If a person hired a boatman and a boat and loaded it with goods, and this boatman sank the ship and destroyed everything that was in it, then the boatman must compensate for everything... (p. 239) If a builder built a house, and it collapsed and killed the owner, then this builder must be executed.” Questions for document 2: Draw a conclusion about the level of development of medicine in ancient Babylon. What information about the occupations of the inhabitants of ancient Babylon did you get from document 2? Were severe punishments used in the Babylonian kingdom?

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Research work in groups with documents: “From the laws of King Hammurabi”): 3rd gr. – document 3: “(clause 8) If a person stole either an ox, or a sheep, or a slave, then he must pay a fine. If he has nothing to pay, then he must be executed... (p. 117) If a person sold his wife, son, daughter into slavery for debts, then they must be in slavery for three years, and on the fourth they will be set free... (p. 282) If a slave said to his master, “You are not my master,” then the master must prove that it is his slave, and then he can cut off the slave’s ear.” Questions for document 3: Who could be called a slave in ancient Babylon? What were the ways to get into slavery? What was the situation of slaves in ancient Babylon? The teachers do this work quite well and answer the questions to which they found answers in the documents.

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Indestructible slavery Slavery has reached significant development. The cost of a slave was low and equal to the rent for an ox (168 grams of silver). Slaves were sold, exchanged, given as gifts, and passed on by inheritance. The laws protected the interests of slave owners in every possible way, they strictly punished obstinate slaves, established punishments for runaway slaves, and threatened severe punishments for their harborers.

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Babylon reached its greatest peak during the period of the New Babylonian Kingdom (626-538 BC). Nebuchadnezzar II (604-561 BC) decorated Babylon with luxurious buildings and powerful defensive structures. In 538, Babylon was taken by the troops of the Persian king Cyrus, in 331 it was captured by Alexander the Great, in 312 Babylon was captured by one of the generals of Alexander the Great, Seleucus, who resettled most of its inhabitants to the nearby city of Seleucia, which he founded. By 2nd century AD in place of Babylon only ruins remained.

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Ancient Babylon

Babylon is the largest city of ancient Mesopotamia, the capital of the Babylonian kingdom in the 19th-6th centuries. BC, the most important trade and cultural center of Western Asia. Babylon comes from the Akkadian words “Bab-ilu” - “Gate of God”. Ancient Babylon arose on the site of the more ancient Sumerian city of Kadingir, whose name was later transferred to Babylon.

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Conquests of Babylon

The first mention of Babylon is contained in the inscription of the Akkadian king Sharkalisharri (23rd century BC) In the 22nd century. Babylon was conquered and plundered by Shulgi, the king of Ur, a Sumerian state that subjugated all of Mesopotamia.

In the 19th century Coming from the Amorites (a Semitic people who came from the southwest), the first king of the first Babylonian dynasty, Sumuabum, conquered Babylon and made it the capital of the Babylonian kingdom.

At the end of the 8th century. Babylon was conquered by the Assyrians and, as punishment for the rebellion, in 689 it was completely destroyed by the Assyrian king Sennacherib. After 9 years, the Assyrians began to restore Babylon.

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Ancient Babylonia

Babylonia is a primitive slave-owning (early slave-owning) state of the Ancient East, located along the middle and lower reaches of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers.

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POPULATION

The oldest settlements discovered in Babylonia proper near modern Jemdet Nasr and the ancient city of Kish date back to the end of the 4th and beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. The population here was mainly engaged in fishing, cattle breeding and agriculture. Crafts developed. Stone tools were gradually replaced by copper and bronze.

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SLAVERY

Slave owners viewed slaves as cattle, imposing a stigma of ownership on them. All lands were considered to belong to the king. A significant part of them was in the use of rural communities and was processed by free community workers.

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Enduring Slavery

Slavery has reached significant development. The cost of a slave was low and equal to the rent for an ox (168 grams of silver). Slaves were sold, exchanged, given as gifts, and passed on by inheritance. The laws protected the interests of slave owners in every possible way, they strictly punished obstinate slaves, established punishments for runaway slaves, and threatened severe punishments for their harborers.

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Conquests

Nabopolassar and his son and successor Nebuchadnezzar II (604 - 561 BC) pursued an active foreign policy. Nebuchadnezzar II made campaigns in Syria, Phenicia and Palestine

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The last flourishing of Babylon under Nabopolassar and Nebuchadnezzar II found its outward expression in the great construction activity of these kings. Particularly large and luxurious structures were erected by Nebuchadnezzar, who rebuilt Babylon, which became the largest city in Western Asia.

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Wonderful architecture of Babylon

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Hanging Gardens to…

You have more merchants than stars in the sky.

Book of the Prophet Nahum, 3: 16

Babylonia was famous not only for its abundance of earthly fruits. Industry and trade created no less fame for it. The pulse of the economic life of Western Asia beat in Babylon. Babylonian goods served as a kind of standard of quality and fashion for the entire ancient world. Babylonia owed this partly to its geographical location and natural conditions, but mainly to the industriousness and skill of its population. Created by river sediments, Babylonia never had deposits of stone and metals, i.e., such types of raw materials that played a decisive role in the early stages of civilization. There were no timber forests in Babylonia that could provide it with timber. Stone, metals and wood were obtained from neighboring countries through trade or predatory campaigns. The country's subsoil is fabulously rich in oil. The Babylonians knew this: it is no coincidence that our word for “oil” is Babylonian (naptu). They used crude oil to fuel lamps, and asphalt and bitumen as mortar for bricklaying and for coating various products that needed to be waterproofed. Other properties of oil remained unknown to the ancients. Clay and reed played a much larger role in the Babylonian economy, as well as wool, leather, flax, palm fiber and other types of agricultural raw materials, which abounded in the country. These riches, combined with the very early development of foreign trade, were the basis on which the industrial and commercial glory of Babylonia grew, reaching its zenith in the era of pandemonium.

By this time, stone had lost its former importance as one of the main materials for the production of tools. It was replaced by metal. But stone continued to be used to make idols of deities and royal statues, steles with especially important official inscriptions, expensive decorative and religious vessels, cylinder seals and gems. It was also used for construction purposes. Alabaster, limestone, diorite, basalt were used, as well as precious and semi-precious rocks - emerald, onyx, ruby, jasper and especially lapis lazuli, delivered from the Pamir mountains.

Wood, like stone, was expensive and rare. Local wood species - wood from date palms, tamarisks, sycamores, willows, etc. - were used for small household crafts, but were of little use for making more valuable things. For the latter, imported wood of cedar, cypress, oak, beech, etc. was used. Babylonian furniture makers won well-deserved fame among neighboring peoples for their craftsmanship. They made light wicker utensils from willow twigs and reeds, and expensive polished furniture with inlays of gold, silver, ivory, precious stones and inlaid work done using the marquetry method ( The marquetry method is inlaid with multi-colored pieces of wood.). Akkadian boxes, caskets, caskets and chests, tables, chairs, footstools, chariots and other things of Babylonian work were highly valued in the Ancient East.

Reeds, twigs and palm fiber served as material for a wide variety of wicker products - mats, carpets, baskets, bags, vessels, etc. These things were widely used by the Babylonians in everyday life.

Leather processing was widely developed in Babylonia, which was facilitated by the abundance of livestock in the country. Leather was used to make shoes, weapons (quivers, shields, armor, helmets), horse harness (bridles, belts, reins, collars, harnesses, reins, whips), bellows for storing liquids, and much more. A specifically Assyro-Babylonian product were leather waterskins, inflated with air, on which they were used to swim across rivers. Such a wineskin was part of the soldier's ammunition.

In Babylonia, brewing, oil and wine making, bread baking, confectionery, preparation of flour, cereals, cosmetics, perfumes, etc. were widespread. All these goods were very popular among neighboring peoples.

In the history of mankind, one of the most ancient types of professional craft was pottery. The invention of the potter's wheel, as is known, serves as a characteristic sign of the beginning of civilization. In Babylonia, clay of various varieties was available in abundance. And no people in the world used it so skillfully and for such diverse purposes as the Sumerians and Babylonians. In many cases, their clay replaced the missing stone, wood and metals. Clay products accompanied the Babylonian from birth to death. The people themselves, according to Babylonian beliefs, were created from clay. The skill of Sumerian-Babylonian potters remained unsurpassed throughout the ancient history of the Middle East. His examples were followed and imitated by all neighboring peoples.

Household pottery in the 6th century. before i. e. continued to be made at home. But it has long ceased to satisfy the increased demands of the population, which often resorted to the services and products of professional potters. The pottery was partly dried in the sun, partly fired in pottery kilns. During the times of pandemonium, products covered with colored glaze came into fashion - turquoise, blue, yellow, white, green, brown, red of all kinds. Glass was invented by the Sumerians in ancient times. Babylonian craftsmen used glass mass to produce glaze. They also made bottles and other products from glass. They were especially famous for their crafts made from a blue glassy alloy that imitated lapis lazuli, which was highly valued in the Ancient East. The Egyptians called this alloy, delivered from Babylon, artificial hesbet.

In addition to dishes, Babylonian potters made clay barrels-pithos, boxes, pipes, braziers, coffins, spindles, spindle whorls, lamps, various figurines for religious and household purposes, sickles, etc. Clay tablets, cones, cylinders, prisms served as writing material . Even envelopes for letters on clay tablets were made from clay. Finally, all buildings were erected from clay and clay bricks, from the huts of the poor to the royal palaces.

Babylon gained particular fame from its textile production. Since ancient times, the main raw material for it has been wool - sheep and, to a lesser extent, goat. Along with Egypt, Southern Mesopotamia was the birthplace of flax. The Sumerian word gada ("flax") in the Babylonian transmission kitu, kitinnu was borrowed by all Semitic languages (cf. Hebrew "kuttonet", Arabic, "kattan"); it came into Greek ("tunic") and Latin ("tunic") as the name for a certain type of clothing, and in modern English it serves to designate cotton. However, linen clothes and fabrics only from the 7th century. BC e. became widespread in Babylonia under the influence of Egyptian and Syrian fashion. It was at this time that the foundations of the Babylonian weaving industry were laid, the products of which from the workshops of the cities of Barsippa, Eridu and Naarda in the Hellenistic-Parthian era (III century BC - III century AD) acquired world fame. So, for example, in the middle of the 1st century. BC e. Roman rich people paid thousands of sesterces for a Babylonian dinner bedspread (triclinaria babylonica), and 100 years later Emperor Nero bought the same blanket for 4 million sesterces.

Wool and flax were provided by the country's agriculture. Their main producers were temples, which had extensive pastures and lands. Private individuals received wool and flax either from temples in the form of “feeding” and “maintenance,” or bought it on the market, since they were not able to keep sheep and sow flax on their small estates. Sheep farming in the 7th-6th centuries. in Babylonia reached unprecedented proportions. During this era, iron shears for shearing sheep were invented and came into general use.

Wool came to artisans in raw form. First it was cleaned and washed. The flax was accordingly beaten and combed. After this, the wool and flax were spun. The Ancient East, including Babylonia, did not know the spinning wheel. They spun using a hand spindle with a whorl. This was usually done by women. Wool was dyed before spinning, and flax was dyed after spinning. For this purpose, local dyes of organic (madder, indigo, etc.) and mineral (ocher, etc.) origin were used. From Phenicia, Babylonian craftsmen received such a valuable dye as red and violet purple, extracted from Mediterranean shells. Alum came from Egypt, which was used to fix paints.

The Babylonians have no information about the design of weaving mills. But Babylonian fabrics were not inferior in quality to Egyptian ones, which were produced on horizontal and vertical mills. The Babylonian camps obviously had the same appearance. Like other ancient peoples, Babylonian weavers immediately wove finished products - clothes, bedspreads, carpets, tablecloths, etc. But in the 7th-6th centuries. The cutting of clothes became so complicated that the profession of a tailor appeared. The woven products were embroidered, subjected to final finishing by fullers and laundresses, who trampled them with their feet in pits or vats with a washing solution of oil with the addition of potash, soda, alum and urine, beat them out with rollers, rinsed, dried and bleached in the sun, and created lint with thistle brushes. .

Metal - iron, copper, bronze, tin, lead, antimony, silver, gold, electrification - by the time described was firmly established in the life of the Babylonians. Iron was used to make basic tools and weapons, displacing not only stone, but also copper and bronze. It was the cheapest and most common metal. Other metals were used to make more expensive and rare items. Babylonia did not have its own metal. It was entirely imported from abroad and therefore was relatively expensive. In the VI century. iron was delivered from Ionia, Cilicia and Lebanon, copper and bronze - from Ionia and Cyprus ( TCL XII 84; Nbn 571.). The metal was brought either in ingots or in the form of finished products as goods or war booty and tribute.

Babylonian blacksmiths did not have to smelt metal from ore, but they constantly dealt with its remelting, production and purification of alloys, very accurately determined the composition of gold and silver alloys, and were able to purify these metals from impurities. Babylonian craftsmen processed metal by forging, casting, rolling, chasing, and engraving. Babylonian jewelry and artistic objects made of gold, silver, copper and bronze, as well as fabrics and clothing with gold and silver thread and gimp, enjoyed well-deserved fame.

Craft work, unlike agricultural work, was not respected. The negative attitude towards crafts and artisans inherent in the ancient world as a whole was of a traditional nature, associated with the class structure of Babylonian society and ideas about civic honor, as will be discussed below. It was intensified by the fact that the ranks of artisans were constantly replenished with prisoners and slaves. Thus, Nebuchadnezzar II, having taken Ascalon in 604 and Jerusalem in 597, included a full complement of artisans. The Babylonians, and before them the Assyrians, acted in exactly the same way in all cases with the conquered peoples. Captured artisans were partly distributed to temples, partly left among the royal slaves, and partly sold into slavery to the Babylonians.

Slaves-artisans were valued much higher than slaves who did not have a specialty, because they brought greater profits to their masters. As a rule, slave artisans were released on quitrent, and they independently engaged in their craft, paying tribute to their masters and a certain share of income. Wealthy slave owners often sent young, bright slaves to learn a trade. Here are some examples from the life of the Egibi family.

On October 24, 537, Nupta, the daughter of Iddin-Marduk, a descendant of Nur-Sin, sent the slave Atkal-an-Marduk to study weaving for five years. The owner of the slave was Nupta's husband, already known to us Itti-Marduk-balatu, the head of the Egibi family, who was away in Media at that time. Master Bel-ethir, the son of Apla, a descendant of Bel-ether, undertook to teach the slave how to weave. The contract stipulated: if the slave is not trained, the master will pay Nupta a tribute for him at the rate of 1 ka (0.8 l) of barley for each day he spent in apprenticeship; Nupta, for her part, undertook to support her slave, giving him 1 ka of bread per day and clothing. For violation of the contract, a penalty of 1/3 mina (168.32 g) of silver was provided.

Atkal-ana-Marduk successfully completed his studies (October 28, 532, according to the contract) and remained to work for the master as a hired slave. On August 29, 531, Master Bel-etir paid Itti-Marduk-balat as tribute 5 shekels (42 g) of silver in addition to the 4 shekels (33.7 g) paid earlier. In total, for 10 months of working for a weaver, the slave brought his master 9 shekels (75.7 g) of silver net income, which was about 1 shekel per month, or 18% per annum of the average value of a slave (50 shekels of silver), and approximately corresponded to the average rate loan interest (20% per annum) in this era ( Sur 64, 315.).

The same Itti-Marduk-balatu sent his slaves for training: on July 24, 533, the slave Ina-kate-Nabu-bultu - the craft of a cook for 16 months to the master Riheti, the slave of Basia; January 1, 530, the slave Guzu-ana-Bel-atsbat - the craft of a stone carver for 4 years to the master Hashdaya, the slave of Prince Cambyses; in September 526, the slave Amel-Shukane - fuller's craft for 2 years 3 months to the master Iddia, son of Ki-Sin. Marduk-natsir-apli, the eldest son and heir of Itti-Marduk-balatu, on March 12, 495, gave his slave Itti-Urash-paniya as an apprentice to the cook Guzan, the son of Ham-mak, a descendant of the Measurer. And his wife Amti-Baba, daughter of Kalba, a descendant of Nabaia, on February 21, 504, gave her tanner slave Ultu-pani-Bel-lushulum for hire to the master Nabu-bullitanni, a slave of Ea-natsir, a descendant of the priest of the god Ea, who obliged improve the skills of the apprentice slave, give the mistress 10 leather goods annually for him and allow the apprentice to carry out the mistress’s orders ( Sur 248, 325; Camb 245; Dar 457; T. G. Pinches. Tablets referring to the Apprenticeship of Slaves at Babylon. - "The Babylonian and Oriental Record", vol. I. London, 1886/1887.).

Other slave owners did the same. Nabu-shum-iddin, son of Ardia, and his wife Ina-Esagili-belit, daughter of Shamash-ilua, on August 24, 531, sent their slave Nidinta to study with the master laundryman Liblut, son of Ushshaya, so that upon completion of his studies handed over the slave to the god Shamash, i.e. to the temple of Ebabbarre in Sippar ( Cyr 313.). Nabu-eresh, the son of Tabnea, a descendant of Akhubani, had a slave washerwoman Shalmu-dininni. On July 3, 547, he was forced to give it as collateral to Nabu-ahkhe-iddin, the son of Shula, a descendant of Egibi, for a loan of 1/2 mina (250 g) of silver ( Nbn 340.). The lender preferred to use the income from the slave laundress instead of interest on the loan - it was more profitable.

As a rule, the master did not charge the master for training the slave and often fed and clothed the latter at his own expense. He covered his expenses using apprentice labor. Such conditions suited both slave owners and craftsmen. True, only a wealthy slave owner, who had the opportunity to wait several years until the slave began to bring him income, could train a slave who first had to be bought or raised. Small slave owners usually did not have this opportunity.

Some slave artisans grew rich and, over time, were bought out and became free. Among the Babylonian citizens, sometimes very wealthy and respectable, in the 7th-6th centuries. there were many people bearing the names of Kuznetsovs, Goncharovs, Zolotarevs, Plotnikovs, Korzinshchikovs. Prachkins, Tkachevs, etc. - a sure sign that their ancestors were artisans, possibly slaves and freedmen. But their descendants, although they bore such characteristic surnames, never engaged in crafts.

The high production level of Babylonian crafts was achieved with a relatively low development of the social division of labor between crafts and agriculture. Crafts in Babylonia were not completely separated from households. What it was like from a socio-economic point of view can be judged by the state of clothing production in Babylonia. Why clothes? Firstly, because clothing, especially among civilized peoples, along with food and shelter, is one of the basic necessities without which a person cannot exist. Secondly, in all pre-capitalist societies, clothing production was the main type of industrial activity, and the level of its development was decisive for other types of industry.

The Babylonians in the 6th century. clothing production continued to be a household industry. Each family, which was not deprived of the opportunity to live on its own farm, provided itself with clothing. Women were engaged in making it with the help of slaves, if there were any in the family. Here are a few real life cases.

On December 13, 563, in the village of Nurea, the farm laborer Shamash-iddin, the son of Tabia, hired himself to work for Be, the son of Sin-lik-unninni, a descendant of Iddin-Papsukal, for 2 minas (1 kg) of wool and a certain amount of barley. On September 18, 553, in Sippar, in the presence of the authorities, Naid-Marduk, the son of Shamash-balatsu-ikbi, assigned his divorced wife Ramua and his son Ardi-Bunene maintenance in the following amount: 4 ka (3.4 l) of bread and 3 ka ( 2.5 l) strong drink (type of beer) per day, 15 min (7.5 kg) of wool, 1 pan (30.3 l) sesame, 1 pan salt and 4 days (20.2 l) mustard per year. On June 9, 530, in the same Sippar, the woman Khibta set free her slave Bazuza, who undertook to give her maintenance: wool, strong drink, sheep, mustard, etc. ( VAS V 15; Nbn 113; Cyr 339.).

As we can see, the natural maintenance of a farm laborer, a divorced wife, and a mistress who freed a slave included wool. In temples, a very large number of people who received allowances in kind also included wool and, less often, flax ( Nbp 2; Nbk 14, 295, 375; Nbn 41, 225, 452, 460, 775, 898, 927, 978, 1023, 1099; Cyr 100, 157, 162; Camb 140, 181, 183, 227, 234, 271, 289, 367; Dar 58, 162, 442; YOS III 140; YOS VI 1, 87; YOS VII 76, 133; TCL XII 102, 104; VAS IV 37; VAS VI 5, 8, etc.). All these people had personal households. They needed wool and flax to make clothes at home. Temple slaves who did not have their own households received ready-made clothes from the temple warehouses ( Nbk 415, 445; Nbn 104, 125, 290, 662, 824, 896, 1090; Cyr 19; Camb 21, 302; YOS VI 218; YOS VII 42, 78, 183, etc.), which was made by temple artisans-slaves, i.e., in fact, also at home.

In the VI century. the majority of the population of Babylonia continued to wear homemade clothes and did without the products of professional artisans. But at the same time, there were a large number of people who were no longer satisfied with home clothes. These were representatives of the propertied classes, who sought to dress fashionably and elegantly in expensive and beautiful clothes made by experienced professional craftsmen.

So, on December 4, 569, the wealthy businessman and slave owner Nabu-akhhe-iddin, the son of Shula, a descendant of Egibi, ordered the master slave Silim-Bel a headdress worth 3 shekels (25.5 g) of silver; the master undertook to complete the order in six months ( Nbk 307.). Another Babylonian businessman, Shellybi, the son of Iddin-Nabu, a descendant of the Blacksmith, on January 10, 498, ordered the weaver Aple, the son of Pir, a descendant of Amel-Ea, a new lower garment worth 1 shekel (8.4 g) of silver, which the master undertook to make by May 28, 498 ( VAS VI 141.) Among the temple staff, many people belonging to more privileged categories preferred to receive money as their allowance instead of wool and ready-made clothes to buy clothes according to their taste ( Nbn 824, 963, 1088; Camb 175, 199, 202, etc.).

Proletarianized layers of the population, deprived of their own households and living on day labor and various odd jobs, also needed purchased clothing. They could not make clothes at home and had to purchase them. In the same situation were the visiting people, of whom there were many in Babylon and other cities of the country.

Finally, there was another consumer of clothing made by professional craftsmen - temples. Each of them had a large number of idols of deities, surrounded by a large staff of priests and servants, and many rooms. The idols and priests had to be dressed, the temple premises had to be cleaned. Clothing and decoration often changed in accordance with the requirements of the ritual, strictly scheduled by month, week, day and time of day. For this purpose, various kinds of robes, tablecloths, bedspreads, curtains, carpets, drapes, etc., the most expensive and of the highest quality, were required. In the old days, temples covered these needs with their own resources and through military booty and tribute, part of which was allocated to them by the kings. Now it has become much more profitable and cheaper to use the services of free professional artisans. Temple documents contain many artisans of various professions who worked for the temples.

Thus, the temple of Ebabbarru in Sippar for at least 80 years (from 608 to 531) was served by a weaving workshop that first belonged to Nabu-bel-shumata, the son of Dummuk, and then to his son Nabu-natsir-apli. Nabu-bel-shumate died around 545. Under his successor, Nabu-natsir-apli, the workshop flourished. It employed at least 11 people, including slaves and free employees. The main role among them was played by Bakua, the owner’s slave, a highly skilled weaver. Most often, through him, the workshop took orders from the temple, handed over the finished products and received payment for the work.

Usually the temple ordered a certain number of products to the workshop and provided it with materials - either raw (wool, flax, dyes, alum) or semi-finished products (dyed wool and linen yarn). The production of the workshop in all cases consisted of finished products. All types of textile work were carried out in the workshop: here they washed wool, ruffled and carded flax, dyed, spun, weaved, hammered, washed and embroidered. The workshop produced all known types of textile goods, woolen and linen, colored and white: upper and lower tunics, cloaks, belts, hats, bedspreads, capes, carpets, curtains and other products. She donated her products to the temple by piece and by weight. Each order, each issue of materials and delivery of products were documented with invoices. They indicated the products not of the workshop as a whole, but of each worker individually, because the customer temple attached great importance to the quality of the products, which depended on the individual skill of the creators. But this kind of accounting was possible only because in the workshop there was no detailed division of labor between workers and the work of each of them was not depersonalized. Each workshop worker, be it the owner Nabu-natsir-apli himself or his slave Bakua, independently performed all basic labor operations.

For their work, the weavers of the workshop received payment in money or products (barley, dates, etc.), which was also awarded to each of them individually, according to the quantity and quality of the things they produced. But either the owner of the workshop or his slave Bakua received this payment, so the actual earnings of free workers, not to mention slaves, were determined not by the temple, but by the owner of the workshop. Sometimes the temple, as payment for work, gave wool, which was used in the workshop to make goods intended not for the temple, but for other consumers. The workshop worked not only for the temple, but also for the market ( VAS VI 15, 16, 17, 23, 24, 26, 28, 41, 71; Nbk 87, 305; Ner 29, 65; Nbn 159, 174. 217, 242, 284, 285, 302, 349, 361, 465, 492, 494, 532, 544, 546, 547, 705, 723, 726, 751, 783, 788, 789, 826 , 879, 880, 885. 888, 908, 948, 952, 979, 1015; Cyr 104. 186, 191, 202, 259, 296, 352; Camb 133; CT IV 608.).

The work of other craft workshops was of a similar nature - weaving, blacksmithing, jewelry, leatherworking, pottery, etc. In Babylonia in the 6th century. BC e. craft has not yet completely separated from the household. The majority of the population led a subsistence economy, which tends toward autarky. Each household tried to provide itself with everything it needed. The household produced food, clothing, shoes, pottery, furniture and other utensils. They resorted to the help of the market only when they could not satisfy their needs on their own. In handicraft production, work to order from the customer’s material continued to play a very important role - the primary form of separation of craft from agriculture, characteristic precisely for the era of the dominance of natural forms of farming.

This was the prevailing trend in farming. But these traditional foundations were constantly being undermined. The connection between the household and the market intensified. Many needs, for example for metal, stone, and wooden things, could not be satisfied at all within the household. And other needs grew so much that home production could no longer cope with them. Finally, the number of people deprived of the opportunity to run an independent household grew. All this contributed to the growth of crafts, the development of production for the market from the material of the workshop, and not from the customer, i.e., commodity production in the full sense of the word. This was a qualitatively new stage in the development of the craft and its separation into an independent sphere of production activity. The foundations of home production were gradually shaken. There was a separation of crafts from agriculture.

In Babylonia in the 6th century. BC e. this process has gone quite far. The profession of blacksmiths, carpenters, potters, weavers, basket makers, tanners, gold and silversmiths, stone carvers, builders and others, known since ancient times, began to fragment in the described time. So, along with weavers in general, there appeared wool weavers, linen weavers, weavers of colored fabrics, gold weavers, dyers, tailors, fullers, and launderers; Among the blacksmiths, ironsmiths and coppersmiths stood out. The same thing happened in other branches of craft. However, differentiation within the crafts was just beginning. No definite boundaries have yet emerged between the emerging divisions of a single production. In Babylonian craft there was no clear division of labor outside the workshop. This is its qualitative difference from medieval feudal craft. Thus, in the German city of Frankfurt am Main in the XIV-XV centuries. There were 35 different professions in the metalworking industry, 17 in the woodworking industry, 17 in the textile industry, and 19 professions in the construction industry, each of which had its own workshop organization. ( K. Bucher. Die Bevolkerung von Erankfurt am Main im XIV-XV Jahrhundert, Bd. I. Tubingen, 1886, S. 141-147.).

Another qualitative feature of Babylonian craft was the absence of a clearly defined division of labor within the workshop. The workshop was a simple cooperation, and each of its workers performed the same operations as his comrade. This feature makes Babylonian craft similar to feudal craft and qualitatively distinguishes it from capitalist manufacture, based precisely on the detailed division of labor within the workshop. In terms of the level of its development and the degree of division of labor that existed in it, Babylonian craft was of the same nature as ancient Greek and Roman craft. It was neither feudal nor capitalist, but an ancient craft.

The development of crafts is inextricably linked with the development of trade and commodity-money relations. Unlike the farmer, the artisan always produces goods intended for sale and not for personal consumption. The development of trade in Babylonia was also greatly facilitated by the property stratification of society and the growth of the non-agricultural population. The country's lack of raw materials such as stone, wood and metals, on the one hand, and its wealth in agricultural and industrial products, on the other, led to the very early development of foreign trade. By the 7th-6th centuries. BC e. Babylon has long been recognized as the trading center of the entire Ancient East. Here one could buy and sell any product known to the ancient world.

The trading place was the city gate. Near them, along the adjacent streets, alleys and dead ends, there were shops, craft workshops, and taverns. From dawn to dusk, while the gates were open, a noisy and colorful oriental bazaar hummed like a beehive. Here townspeople and villagers, peddlers, hawkers, shopkeepers, artisans, and clerks of wholesale merchants sold and bought, bargained, swore, cursed, quarreled, made peace, cheated each other. The Babylonian bazaars were crowded with people of different tribes and languages.

For foreigners who first found themselves in this bustle, the Babylonian markets made a stunning impression. It is not for nothing that a legend was born among the captive Jews who grew up in provincial Jerusalem that the gods deliberately forced the arrogant and proud of their wealth Babylonians to speak different languages so that they would not understand each other. However, in the latter, the creators of the legend were definitely mistaken: the regulars of the Babylonian bazaars understood each other perfectly, life taught them to speak at least two languages - Aramaic and Babylonian. Bargaining was usually done in Aramaic, contracts were written either in Babylonian on clay tablets in cuneiform, or in Aramaic with paint on pieces of parchment, leather, papyrus, tablets and clay ostracon shards.

In connection with the needs of trade, the need arose for the corresponding development of communications and transport. In Babylonia, cut by canals, dams served as land roads. The main royal roads to all ends of the country passed along them. Carts drawn by donkeys, mules, oxen, and pack caravans of donkeys and camels moved along them. But water transport has played a particularly important role in the country since ancient times, because rivers and canals are the most convenient and cheapest means of communication. The Babylonians had various types of ships, from wooden ships and boats that sailed with oars and sails, to fishing canoes made of reeds. The most common typically Babylonian type of cargo ship was the gufa. Herodotus described it as follows:

“Babylonian ships sailing along the river to Babylon are round in shape and made entirely of leather. Having cut willows from the land of the Armenians who live above the Assyrians and making the sides of the ship from it, they then cover them with skins and make a semblance of a bottom, not spreading the walls of the stern and not narrowing the bow, but giving the vessel the shape of a round shield. After this, the entire vessel is filled with straw, loaded and sent down the river. The cargo consists mainly of barrels of palm wine. The vessel is guided by two rudders standing in. height of men. One of them pulls the steering wheel towards himself, and the other pushes away from him. These ships are made both very large and smaller; the largest of them lift five thousand talents (131 tons) of cargo. Each ship holds one donkey, and in there are several larger ones. When the sailors arrive in Babylon and sell the cargo, they also sell the skeleton of the ship and all the straw, and load the skins on donkeys and take them to the Armenians, because these ships cannot sail up the river because of the speed of the current. Arriving back to the Armenians with donkeys, the Babylonians again made ships for themselves in the same way. Such are their courts" ( Herodotus, I, 194.).

In Gufs similar to those of Babylon, the inhabitants of Iraq to this day sail along the Tigris and Euphrates. Until now, they use another Babylonian type of vessel - the kelek, a raft on leather skins inflated with air.

Commodity-money relations in Babylonia reached a very high level for the ancient world. Money as a universal equivalent of value in the form of pieces and ingots of silver appeared here in the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. e. among the Sumerians. The Babylonians inherited this monetary system. In the 7th century BC e. In Lydia, a coin was invented, which soon began to be minted throughout the ancient world. The Persian king Darius I (522-486 BC) introduced a single monetary system throughout the Persian Empire from the shores of the Aegean Sea to the Indus. All ancient monetary systems borrowed weight ratios and often the names of the main monetary units from the Babylonians. However, one people stubbornly did not recognize the coin and just as stubbornly stuck to traditional weighted money. These were the Babylonians. They continued to accept silver by weight, without paying attention to coinage. They did this not only with Persian coins, but also 300 years later with Seleucid silver staters.

The reluctance of the Babylonians to recognize the coin is not explained by their inertia. They strictly adhered to monometallic monetary circulation. They used only silver as money, while neighboring peoples used silver, gold, electric, copper, lead, and even iron money. It was very difficult to understand the course of all these coins. The Babylonians considered it more convenient and practical to still accept silver by weight. In addition, they did not have their own silver and used foreign metal of very different degrees of purity. In circulation were “pure silver”, “white silver”, silver with sixth, fifth, eighth, twelfth parts of the ligature, etc. With such a variety of quality and, accordingly, the cost of silver, it was more convenient to accept it by weight. This is what the Babylonians did, whether it was silver with a mark (i.e. a coin) or without a mark.

Along with trade in goods, trade in money—usury—has long flourished in Babylonia. However, long gone are the days when the moneylender enslaved the debtor for a few measures of barley or dates and turned him into a slave. From 1790 BC e., after the publication of the famous Laws of King Hammurabi, debt slavery for Babylonian citizens was abolished. The moneylender of the times of pandemonium looked much more civilized and more delicate than his predecessors, which, however, did not prevent him from receiving such profits that they had never dreamed of.

Usury permeated every pore of Babylonian business life, leaving an indelible imprint on it and on the Babylonians themselves. This was also reflected in the form of Neo-Babylonian business documents. A simple universal “obligation” (u"iltum) was developed, which was based on a promissory note. This document was suitable for recording a wide variety of transactions: loans, credit, credit, orders from a craftsman or merchant, payment of rent, rent, various types of supplies , duties, fees, tolls, taxes, dowry, etc. Each payer, regardless of the nature of the payment, with such a formalization of the transaction became in the position of the recipient's debtor. The creditor and the debtor are the two main figures of Babylonian business relations, whatever their content.

The moneylender received income in the form of loan interest, the rate of which in the 6th century. ranged from 10 to 33 1/3% per annum - for monetary transactions the most common rate was 20% per annum. This was the Babylonian rate of profit, the level with which profitability in any field of economic activity was compared. If land, a house, a slave gave a profit below 20% of its value per year, then they were considered unprofitable.

The Babylonians had a clear idea of capital, developed by the Sumerians in the 3rd millennium BC. e. They called it "head" (in Sumerian - sag-du, in Babylonian - qaqqa-du). Our word "capital" comes from the Latin caput, which also means "head". Thus, the term "capital" is of Sumerian-Babylonian origin. The Sumerians and Babylonians called capital the amount loaned or placed in a business transaction and generating profit, because they were well aware of the main property of capital - to make a profit.

In case of doubt about the debtor's solvency, the loan was secured by collateral of land, house, slave or other type of property. There were two main types of collateral - mortgage and antichresis. With a mortgage, the collateral remained with the debtor, but if he could not repay the debt, the creditor received the right to the mortgaged property. With antichresis, the collateral was immediately placed at the disposal of the lender, and the income from it was counted as interest on the loan. A special type of pledge was a general, or general, mortgage - all the property of the debtor was declared pledge. It was used in cases where the debtor’s solvency was not in doubt, but there were fears that he would not pay the debt. In this case, the creditor could compensate himself at the expense of any property of the debtor. General mortgages were also resorted to when the debtor could not provide a certain collateral equivalent to the loan. Therefore, the bill indicated a real pledge and at the same time a general mortgage. The creditor had the right to take the collateral and cover the remainder of the debt from the debtor’s other property.

Collecting a debt from a debtor in Pandemonium-era Babylonia was not always an easy task. The creditor had no rights to the debtor's personality, and his rights to the latter's property were very limited. The creditor could only take the collateral, but this was also considered unethical: open usury was condemned. Therefore, moneylenders often resorted to disguising their actions. They gave loans under the guarantee of third parties or the debtors themselves, and in the event of a penalty, the pledged property was taken not by the creditors, but by the guarantors; after that, creditors no longer dealt with debtors, but with their guarantors. Often the moneylender sought to sell off the debtor's property and received the money obtained in this way, and not the property itself. But at the same time, the buyer of the bankrupt’s property in many cases was a figurehead from among the creditor’s clients, so that the collateral ultimately still ended up with the moneylender, albeit in a roundabout way.

With a certain dexterity and impudence, the debtor could evade paying his debts, and the moneylender did not always have the opportunity to force him to pay. Some moneylenders suffered losses due to inexperience and excessive gullibility. But the benefits outweighed the risk: at a rate of 20% per annum and regular payment of interest, the moneylender fully reimbursed his capital within five years. If the debtor began to suffocate under the burden of debt and interest, the “humane” moneylender was in no hurry to drown him, but, on the contrary, gave him new loans, including even interest-free ones, so that he would be able to continue paying interest. The debtor fell into the snare of the usurer for many years. Sometimes the matter dragged on from generation to generation. The moneylender of the times of pandemonium ceased to be a tiger trying to devour his victim. He turned into a patient spider, gradually sucking all the vital juices out of the debtor.

In almost all cases, the debtor could not refuse to pay the debt. He knew for sure that he would lose the loan if he dared to deceive the lender. For so many Babylonians, this meant immediate and complete ruin without a glimmer of hope of getting back on their feet, which was worse than any web of debt. This is what forced debtors to endure the oppression of moneylenders.

Every transaction, no matter how insignificant and no matter who it was with - a close neighbor, relative, brother, wife, husband, son, daughter, father - was recorded in writing. When it came to money, the voice of blood, friendship, love and affection fell silent among the Babylonians. Therefore, Babylonian society made a repulsive impression on many foreigners who came into close contact with it. It is no coincidence that in the Bible Babylon became synonymous with irrepressible self-interest and heartlessness.

Among the most prominent representatives of the Neo-Babylonian business world were the descendants of Egibi. The life of this family, which we have met more than once, is known for four generations from the end of the 7th to the beginning of the 5th century. BC e.

The surname Egibi was borne by a large number of people living in Babylon and Uruk. They have been found since the 12th century. BC e. Once upon a time, apparently, this was a Chaldean clan. By the end of the 7th century. it no longer existed, and people with the surname Egibi belonged to the most diverse strata of society. Thus, the Uruk Egibi were part of the ruling oligarchy of Uruk, and Shula, the son of Nabu-zer-ukin, a descendant of the Egibi, the creator of the Egibi family that interests us, was a modest resident of the village of Pakhirtu near Babylon. By the way, the surname Egibi was borne by many residents of this village who were not relatives of Shula.

Shula began his career as a village moneylender during the years when Assyria fell and the Babylonian armies rushed west. The era of Babylonian prosperity was beginning, and Shula was one of those who sought to take advantage of the bright prospects that were opening up. Having amassed a small fortune at the expense of his fellow villagers, around 590 he moved to Babylon, where he plunged headlong into usurious transactions. In 582, Shula died, leaving his children a fairly significant inheritance and his insatiable thirst for profit.

Nabu-akhhe-iddin, Shula's eldest son, immediately separated his younger brothers so that they would not tie him up in business, and followed in his father's footsteps. However, he soon became convinced that his father’s methods of doing business were not original and would hardly allow him to rise above the level of middle-class businessmen like himself. And Nabu-akhhe-iddin found other ways to wealth. In the early 70s, he moved to the city of Opis, where he found a patron in the person of the rich and influential nobleman Nergal-sharru-utsur, the son of Bel-shum-ishkun, whom we have already met.

A native of the Chaldeans, Nergal-sharru-utsur, in the general rank of “slave-mage,” commanded the Babylonian regiments during the storming of Jerusalem in 586. After that, he took the post of governor of the province of Bit-Sin-magir in the north of Babylonia and the post of royal commissioner in Sippar. Nergal-sharru-utsur married the daughter of King Nebuchadnezzar II and took second rank among the “princes of the country of Akkad.” He owned vast lands, many slaves, huge flocks of sheep and was in close relations with the ruling circles of Sippar and its temple of Ebabbarra, one of the largest in the country ( Nbk 31, 83, 266, 322, 369, 411, 413, 430, 431; VAS III 36; Jeremiah, 39: 3, 13; E. linger. Babylon. Berlin - Leipzig, 1931, S. 285, Constantinople Prism No. 7834, IV 22; Josephus Flavius. Against Apion, I, 20; Josephus Flavius. Jewish Antiquities, 10: 231.). Nabu-akhhe-iddin first gained the trust of the nobleman’s slaves and clerks, providing them with services in business, and then Nergal-sharru-utsur himself noticed him and made him his confidant. In this capacity, Nabu-akhhe-iddin returned to Babylon in the late 60s. Here, on behalf of the patron, he carried out one operation, which strongly resembled a major scam.

During the time of King Nebuchadnezzar, there lived in Babylon a rich young man named Nabu-aplu-iddin, the son of Balatu, a descendant of the Tavern. He loved life with all its delights and squandered money beyond counting. Despite the fortune left by his father, he had to make debts, mortgage and remortgage his property. Nabu-apl-iddin had a rare gift of charm, which even experienced Babylonian moneybags could not resist: they believed his bills and lent money. This went on for over 15 years. But everything comes to an end sooner or later. Having finally become entangled in debt, Nabu-apl-iddin, who had already become a mature husband, came up with an original way to get rid of creditors - a method that 24 centuries later in A. N. Ostrovsky's comedy "Our People - Let's Be Numbered" Sysoy Psoich suggested to the merchant Bolshov. The role of Sysoy Psoich was played by Nabu-ahkhe-iddin, and the role of Podkhalyuzin was played by Nergal-sharru-utsur.

At the end of 561 Nabu-apl-iddin declared himself bankrupt. His property went up for auction and was purchased by Nabu-ahhe-iddin in the name of Nergal-sharru-utsur. Nabu-ahkhe-iddin, on behalf of the patron, took upon himself the settlements with the creditors of Nabu-apl-iddin. He paid those of them who held the bankrupt's property as collateral in full, and the rest, who had only bills of exchange in their hands, offered a choice of either half the amount indicated in the bill or nothing at all. The robbery in broad daylight continued for several years. During this time, in August 560, Nergal-sharru-utsur seized the royal throne in Babylon, and the cries of his deceived creditors, his new subjects, did not darken his mood at all.

As a result, the new king Nergal-sharru-utsur became the owner of several beautiful mansions in the capital, which previously belonged to the bankrupt; his attorney Nabu-ahhe-iddin became famous in the business circles of Babylon and opened the respectable Egibi Bank, and the unfortunate bankrupt Nabu-apl-iddin... However, why the unfortunate one? The reader expects in vain to see him in a debt pit, by the sweat of his brow, working off the sins of his unlucky life. After all, he lived in Babylon during the time of pandemonium! Nabu-apl-iddin not only did not go bankrupt, but, on the contrary, acquired new houses and slaves, continued to lead the same way of life and maintain friendship with his benefactor Nabu-ahhe-iddin ( Nbk 185, 189, 196, 199/108, 200, 327/179; Ev. M 9, 14, 16, 19, 22, Ner 9; Liv 10; Moldenko 11, 12, Nbn 238/239; V. A. Beljawski. Der politische Kampf in Babylon in den Jahren 562-556 v. Chr. - "In memoriam Eckhard Unger. Beitrage zu Geschichte, Kultur und Religion des Alten Orients." Baden-Baden, 1971.). This is what the Babylonian version of the comedy “Our People Are Numbered” looked like.

So, at the turn of the 60-50s, a new star of the first magnitude rose in the Babylonian business firmament - Nabu-ahhe-iddin, the son of Shula, a descendant of Egibi. The famous Egibi house dates back to this time. Nabu-akhhe-iddin was rapidly growing rich. He bought estates, houses, slaves, and conducted large monetary transactions. The political storms that shook Babylon during these years only benefited it. The businessman's instincts did not fail him here either. Even during the reign of Nergal-sharru-utsur (560-556), Nabu-ahkhe-iddin established business relations with Nabu-tsabit-kate, the butler of Prince Bel-sharru-utsur (Balshazzar) ( Ner 7, 39, 55, 58; Nbn 270, 581, 688; V. A. Beljawski, ibidem.).

True, at that time Belshazzar was not yet famous and did not even dream of power, and when, after the coup of 556, he achieved it and in 553 became co-ruler of King Nabonidus, he did not forget the services provided by Nabu-ahhe-iddin. The latter established himself in his role as the Tsar's banker and received the post of Tsar's judge. During these same years, Nabu-akhhe-iddin entered into an alliance with a money tycoon like himself, Iddin-Marduk, the son of Ikisha, a descendant of Nur-Sin, who has already been discussed.

Kudurru, the grandfather of Iddin-Marduk, also bore the surname Egibi and came from the same village of Pakhirtu as Shula, the father of Nabu-ahhe-iddin, with whom he was personally acquainted. Having started his activity as a village crook, like Shula, Kudurru in 599-598. moved to Babylon. He died around 593. His son Ikisha was a failure and died a beggar. Even the fact that he changed the Chaldean surname Egibi to the purely Babylonian Nur-Sin ( Nbn 68, 69.). Iddin-Marduk was the youngest son of Ikisha, and therefore he had to make his way in life on his own.

He found his fortune in the guise of the maiden Ina-Esagili-ramat, daughter of Zeria, a descendant of Nabaia, who became his wife around 572. Ina-Esagili-ramat had a decent dowry. She had money, slaves, and most importantly, she had the qualities of a businessman. With her help, Iddin-Marduk quickly made a fortune through usurious transactions and speculation in garlic, dates, barley, sesame, wool, and cattle. In the 50s he opened a bank. It was then that his daughter Nupta married Itti-Marduk-balata, the eldest son of Nabu-ahhe-iddin. Thus two large fortunes were united. Later, after the death of Iddin-Marduk in 525, his only heirs were his grandchildren - Marduk-nasir-apli, Nabu-ahhe-bullit and Nergal-ushezib, children of Itti-Marduk-balatu and Nupta, the fourth generation of the Egibi family.

Nabu-akhhe-iddin, son of Shula, a descendant of Egibi, died in the autumn of 543, transferring the leadership of the family to Itti-Marduk-balat (Iddina), under whom the house of Egibi reached the zenith of its prosperity. The basis of his wealth was land ownership - he owned at least 48 estates. In addition, Egibi had about 59 city houses in Babylon, Barsippa, Kish and other cities, about 300 slaves, large monetary capital, which was used in usurious and banking transactions. Finally, Itti-Marduk-balatu, being a soothsayer ( Camb. 384.), was associated with temples. We will have to talk more than once below about the further fate of the Egibi family and a number of facts from its biography.

Iddin-Marduk, unlike the Egibi family, preferred wealth in money. Land, houses, and slaves played a modest role in his property. When his daughter Nupta got married, he gave her a dowry of 24 minas (12 kg) of silver and an estate specially purchased for her, and instead of the slaves intended for her, he gave money to his son-in-law: he did not have extra estates and slaves, but had cash. Iddin-Marduk's main income came from usury, speculation and banking.

The example of Iddin-Marduk testifies, first of all, to the high development of monetary circulation in Babylon and to the fact that monetary wealth in the eyes of society successfully competed with the wealth contained in land, houses and slaves. And this, in turn, indicates the stability of the business environment. Only under such a condition could monetary wealth be considered guaranteed against depreciation as a result of sharp fluctuations in the exchange rate of silver and against confiscations.

While talking about the Egibi family and Iddin-Marduk, I did not make a reservation when mentioning banks. Pandemonium-era Babylon was the birthplace of banks, as was Sumer of the 3rd millennium BC. e. - the birthplace of accounting. Banks were born as a result of the development of lending, usury and trading capital, as well as money circulation. They were brought to life by the need for credit, without which business life in Babylon of the 6th century. before i. e. has become impossible. Usurious loans could not satisfy businessmen who needed cash. Then a commenda appeared - in Babylonian harranu ("road"), that is, a loan issued for a trading trip.

Babylonian business practice developed two forms of commenda. Under one of them, a businessman took capital in money or goods from another businessman and put it into circulation, for which he gave the owner of the capital a certain share of the profit, usually half or a third. In another form, the commenda was created by combining the shares of two or several businessmen, each of whom either did not have sufficient capital to conduct business alone, or did not want to conduct the operation alone. In this case, the profit was divided according to the size of the shares. But even with equal shares, there was usually no equality between the partners: one of them, as a rule, was richer and stronger than his partners, who could not do without his help and therefore took upon themselves the practical conduct of operations, paying the patron his share of the profits.

Kommenda already represented the embryo of banking operations. At least medieval Italian banks grew up on commenda-type transactions. This was the case in Babylon. The next step was the transition to accepting and issuing deposits, providing loans, non-cash payments between depositors, and paying checks issued by depositors. These were purely banking, not usurious transactions. The banks of Egibi, Iddin-Marduk and many others were constantly engaged in them. In the business life of Babylon in the 6th century. BC e. such operations became commonplace.

Thanks to the deposits, the banker had the opportunity to manage the depositors’ money at his own discretion and put it into circulation. They brought him an average of 20% per annum (this was the average loan interest rate), and the bank interest that depositors received was lower than the loan interest by about 7%, which was the banker’s direct income ( 20 Nbn 44.). In addition, the banker received the opportunity to control the property of depositors and acquired power over them, and this, in turn, brought him various benefits and income.

One should not, however, overestimate the level of money circulation in Babylon. Here, as in crafts, Babylonian society did not go beyond the boundaries of antiquity. This can be seen especially clearly in the example of Babylonian banks. Banking in Babylon remained inextricably linked with usury, trade, entrepreneurship, agriculture, home ownership, slavery and other types of business activity. Neither Egibi, nor Iddin-Marduk, nor their colleagues were professional bankers and did not suspect that they were bankers: the Babylonians did not even have an appropriate term to designate this profession. For them, banking operations served as one of many types of income generation, and, moreover, not the most important.

In Babylon, banking had not yet become an independent profession. This is the fundamental difference between Babylonian banks not only from modern ones, but also from medieval ones, for example, Italian and South German ones. For Egibi and Iddin-Marduk, banking was an appendage to other occupations, while for the medieval Bardi, Peruzzi, Medici, Fuggers or Welsers, on the contrary, it was the main profession, and other occupations were additions to it.

The Babylonian economy as a whole - agriculture, crafts, trade, money circulation - was at the level of development of the ancient world. But countries outside the Ancient East, including Greece and Rome, reached this level only a few centuries later. Only Egypt and, to some extent, some cities of Phenicia and Syria were on a par with Babylon in the whole world.

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Babylon is the largest city of ancient Mesopotamia, the capital of the Kingdom of Babylon in the 19th-6th centuries. BC, the most important trade and cultural center of Western Asia. Babylon comes from the Akkadian words “Bab-ilu” - “Gate of God”.
Ancient Babylon arose on the site of the more ancient Sumerian city of Kadingir, the name of which was later transferred to Babylon.

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Conquests of Babylon
- The first mention of Babylon is contained in the inscription of the Akkadian king Sharkalisharri (23rd century BC)
- In the 22nd century Babylon was conquered and plundered by Shulgi, the king of Ur, a Sumerian state that subjugated all of Mesopotamia.
- In the 19th century, the first king of the first Babylonian dynasty, Sumuabum, who came from the Amorites (a Semitic people who came from the southwest), conquered Babylon and made it the capital of the Babylonian kingdom.
- At the end of the 8th century. Babylon was conquered by the Assyrians and, as punishment for the rebellion, in 689 it was completely destroyed by the Assyrian king Sennacherib. After 9 years, the Assyrians began to restore Babylon.
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Babylon reached its greatest peak during the period of the New Babylonian Kingdom (626-538 BC). Nebuchadnezzar II (604-561 BC) decorated Babylon with luxurious buildings and powerful defensive structures. In 538, Babylon was taken by the troops of the Persian king Cyrus, in 331 it was captured by Alexander the Great, in 312 Babylon was captured by one of the generals of Alexander the Great, Seleucus, who resettled most of its inhabitants to the nearby city of Seleucia, which he founded. By 2nd century AD In place of Babylon, only ruins remained.

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Ancient Babylonia

Babylonia is a primitive slave-owning (early slave-owning) state of the Ancient East, located along the middle and lower reaches of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers.

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Population

The oldest settlements discovered in Babylonia proper near modern Jemdet Nasr and the ancient city of Kish date back to the end of the 4th and beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. The population here was mainly engaged in fishing, cattle breeding and agriculture. Crafts developed. Stone tools were gradually replaced by copper and bronze.

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Slaveholding

Slave owners viewed slaves as cattle, imposing a stigma of ownership on them. All lands were considered to belong to the king. A significant part of them was in the use of rural communities and was processed by free community workers.

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- The ancient Babylonian state reached its peak during the reign of Hammurabi (1792-50 BC).
- The Code of Hammurabi lists bread, wool, oil and dates as trade items.
- In addition to small retail trade, there was also wholesale trade.
- The development of trade entailed further social stratification of rural communities and inevitably led to the development of slavery.
- The patriarchal family was of great importance, in which the most ancient types of domestic slavery developed: all its members had to obey the head of the family. Children were often sold into slavery.
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Enduring Slavery

Slavery has reached significant development. The cost of a slave was low and equal to the rent for an ox (168 grams of silver). Slaves were sold, exchanged, given as gifts, and passed on by inheritance. The laws protected the interests of slave owners in every possible way, they strictly punished obstinate slaves, established punishments for runaway slaves, and threatened severe punishments for their harborers.

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Conquests

Nabopolassar and his son and successor Nebuchadnezzar II (604 - 561 BC) pursued an active foreign policy. Nebuchadnezzar II made campaigns in Syria, Phenicia and Palestine

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The last flourishing of Babylon under Nabopolassar and Nebuchadnezzar II found its outward expression in the great construction activity of these kings. Particularly large and luxurious structures were erected by Nebuchadnezzar, who rebuilt Babylon, which became the largest city in Western Asia.

Presentation on the history of ancient Babylon. Babylon was a very rich city; crafts and... Examples from laws

Conquests of Babylon

Ancient Babylonia

Population

Slaveholding

Enduring Slavery

Conquests