It must be remembered that forests in our sense of the term were unknown in southern Babylonia, hence the reed which grew to enormous size largely supplanted wood in the economic life of the Sumerians and Babylonians. The reed was used for making baskets, household furniture, firewood, hedges and even for the writing stylus. The land lying north of this cross canal is called the “Marsh land of the city Hamru.” In the economic life of ancient Babylonia the marshes formed an essential factor and were indispensable in each district, since they supplied reeds. Still further to the north is a second cross waterway a-tap ša-te-e or “stream that gives to drink.” The field between these waterways bears no inscription. North of this field passes between the Nâr-bilti and the Nar-Hamri the waterway a-tap -kur-ru-ti (?). The Cassite kings nominally held court at Babylon as the capital of Babylonia, but their favorite residence appears to have been at Nippur. Their field bears the inscription “Field between the canals, the contents (?) are eight gul (a measure of area in the Cassite and Assyrian inscriptions) field of the palace.” Therefore the map maker really wished to give an accurate drawing of the field belonging to the royal estates and we may assume that he did his work at the king’s injunction and that the tablet has come to us from the royal archives of Nippur. ![]() Geographically and probably essentially the point of chief interest in the mind of the map drawer is the field which occupies the cone-like space at the end of the parabola, which is also the center of the map. Unfortunately the southeast section is broken, but the inscription on the canal which enters from this region begins nam-gar, or irrigation, which shows that it also supplied water to the estate of some land owner whose property lay in this region. This estate lay outside the limits of the map. (According to references in Assyrian inscriptions hamru designates a place where the cult of the fire god was established.) The canal entering from the southwest is called the “Irrigation of Bêlšunu” (nam-gar Bêlšunu), because it supplied the estate of Bêlšunu with water. Therefore the northwest branch of the canal bears the name Nar-Hamri. In the northwest corner on the left branch of the canal is the town âluHamri, also mentioned in the accounts of the temples at Nippur. The town Kar-Nusku is mentioned in temple accounts of the city of Nippur as supplying sheep and grain for the support of the temple priests. This name, and others about to be discussed, show that these canals were arteries of trade as well as streams to supply the fields with water. The northeast wing of the canal on which this town lay is called Nar-bilti or “Canal of the burden,” a name which refers to the agricultural products brought to and fro upon the canal. In the extreme northeast corner is a town Bit-Kar iliuNusku, indicated by a small circle and an inscription. At the center of the district marked by the end of the parabola enter from the southeast and southwest corners two canals which unite with the main canal. The skeleton of the plan is made by the canal which enters from the northeast corner of the district, flows south-southwest and turns in a rough parabolic curve to retreat at the same angle toward the north-northwest. An Ancient Babylonian Map on a Clay Tablet, made about 1,500 years Before Christ. Assuming that the orientation of the map is the ordinary one employed in other Babylonian maps, the reader will be able to trace the several features of the country and their details. ![]() ![]() The rural life of ancient times in this historic land has here a visual commentary, and we see how the peasants lived together in villages, having village commons for their flocks and a municipal marsh to furnish a most necessary article of domestic life, the cane reed. It shows part of an agricultural area near the city of Nippur and was made in the Cassite Period about 1,500 years B.C. Among the collections in the Babylonian Section of the Museum is a clay tablet upon which an ancient engineer drew a map showing canals, villages and fields.
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