The Babylonian World - Historia Antigua

— The Babylonian economy in the first millennium BC —
are well attested. Information on the royal establishment has to be culled from sources
of other origin. As for the private sector of the economy, only propertied city dwellers
tend to be directly documented by their own archives. The texts remain silent regarding
the lower strata of urban society, especially the rural population without institutional
affiliations.
THE ECONOMY OF BABYLONIA IN THE FIRST
MILLENNIUM BC: BASIC CHARACTERISTICS
The first millennium does not differ from earlier periods of Mesopotamian history
with regard to the fundamental features of economic life. The environmental conditions
determined, to a large extent, the economic activities. Four principal ecological
zones can be distinguished: the central alluvial plain, criss-crossed by rivers and irrigation
canals, swampy river deltas and generally deeper lying areas with little or no
drainage; the reed forests in which hunters, fishermen and bird catchers operated; the
steppe bordering on the alluvium – the realm of the shepherds; and the cities. The
corresponding principal ways in which these zones were exploited, namely, agriculture,
hunting and fishing, sheep breeding and artisanal and other city-based non-agricultural
activities, will now be reviewed in turn, as will be their social setting. 2
AGRICULTURE IN THE CENTRAL ALLUVIUM:
LAND USE AND LAND OWNERSHIP
As in all other periods, Babylonia in the first millennium BC was a predominantly
agrarian society dependent on irrigation agriculture. The most distinctive trait of
arable farming consisted in the usage of the seeder plough, an ingenious implement
allowing high returns on seed. Cereal farming (producing barley, mostly) was, therefore,
an extensive form of cultivation, economising on scarce resources – water, seed and
labour – while making comparatively lavish use of land. On the other hand, date
gardening, the second distinctive agrarian regime abundantly attested in this period,
implied a far more intensive use of land (and water). Typically, date groves were used
also for vegetable gardening, fruit trees and even grain farming. Returns – in
comparison to the land used – were naturally far higher than in the case of simple
arable farming, as were labour requirements, of course. 3
The fact that, from the seventh century onwards, the importance of date gardening
greatly increased in comparison to earlier periods is one of the clearest indications of
demographic and, generally, economic growth; a widespread shift to a much more
intensive form of cultivation must mean that there was pressure towards economising
on land and that sufficient labour was available. This trend, however, was not universal.
It can be clearly recognised in archives from northern Babylonian cities such as Sippar,
Borsippa and Babylon. There, propertied city dwellers much preferred to invest in
date groves; fields were turned into gardens everywhere. Institutional land holders –
temples and the king – continued to occupy themselves with simple arable farming
on a large scale, but even they moved into date gardening whenever possible. In
central Babylonia on the other hand, for instance in Nippur, this trend was far weaker.
There, private land holders continued to be involved in arable farming and institutional
land was predominantly used for cereals. In the south, especially in the Uruk area,
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