Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T08:51:18.048Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A waste of space? Unbuilt land in the Babylonian cities of the first millennium BC1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

Heather D. Baker
Heather D. Baker*
Affiliation:
Institut für Orientalistik, University of Vienna, Austria
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article uses both textual and archaeological evidence to examine the role of unbuilt land in the Babylonian city. Detailed study of such land is vital not only for understanding urban living conditions but also for any attempt to estimate urban population based on density of occupation of residential areas. By classifying and investigating unbuilt land according to its physical properties, modes of use and conditions of ownership, it is possible to reassess its role in the lives of the city-dwellers.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 71 , 2009 , pp. 89 - 98
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1

This article draws on a more detailed study of the urban landscape of Babylonia in the first millennium BC which is to be published shortly by the author (Baker forthcoming). The work has been carried out under the auspices of the START Project on “The Economic History of Babylonia in the First Millennium BC” funded by the Fonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung (Austria) at the University of Vienna. This is an English version of an article published in the Dutch journal Phoenix 54/3 (2008).

References

Baker, H. D. 2004 The Archive of the Nappāḫu Family. AfO Beiheft 30. Vienna.Google Scholar
Baker, H. D. 2005 “The property portfolio of a family of builders from Hellenistic Uruk,” in Baker, H. D. and Jursa, M. (eds.), Approaching the Babylonian Economy. Proceedings of the START Project Symposium Held in Vienna, 1–3 July 2004. AOAT 330. Münster: 7–43.Google Scholar
Baker, H. D. 2005 Forthcoming. The Urban Landscape in First Millennium BC Babylonia.Google Scholar
Falkenstein, A. 1941 Topographie von Uruk I: Uruk zur Seleukidenzeit. Ausgrabungen der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft in Uruk-Warka 3. Leipzig.Google Scholar
George, A. R. 1992 Babylonian Topographical Texts. Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 40. Leuven.Google Scholar
George, A. R. 2003 The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic. Introduction, Critical Edition and Cuneiform Texts. 2 vols. Oxford.Google Scholar
Jursa, M. 1999 Das Archive des Bēl-rēmanni. PIHANS 86. Istanbul.Google Scholar
Kose, A. 1998 Uruk, Architektur IV. Von der Seleukiden- bis zur Sasanidenzeit. Ausgrabungen in Uruk-Warka, Endberichte 17. Mainz am Rhein.Google Scholar
Postgate, J. N. 1994 “How Many Sumerians per Hectare? — Probing the Anatomy of an Early City,” Cambridge Archaeological Journal 4/1, 47–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reuther, O. 1926 Die Innenstadt von Babylon (Merkes). 2 vols. Wissenschaftliche Veröffentlichungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft 47. Leipzig.Google Scholar
van der Spek, R. J. 2001 “The Theatre of Babylon in Cuneiform,” in van Soldt, W. H. (ed.), Veenhof Anniversary Volume. Studies Presented to Klaas R. Veenhof on the Occasion of His Sixty-Fifth Birthday. Istanbul: 445–56.Google Scholar
Stone, E. C. and Zimansky, P. 2004 The Anatomy of a Mesopotamian City: Survey and Soundings at Mashkan Shapir. Winona Lake, Indiana.Google Scholar