date palm plantations. While at the beginning only a thirtieth of the surface, a narrow
strip along the shore, had been planted with date palms, the proportion at sale was
nearly a sixth, of which one half had productive and one half young trees. Land
planted with date palms was worth five to ten times more than arable land. Despite
the favourable conditions Nabû-ah
̆
h
̆e ̄-iddin had not been able to raise the purchase
price all by himself at this time in his career. Immediately after the purchase he,
therefore, made half the property over to his business partner, with whom he shared
the lease income for the following years. Date cultivation alone could yield up to
30 , 000 litres of dates in a good year, as can be seen from the relevant obligation bills
laid on the lease holder. When one takes the ideal conversion rate of dates to silver
into account, which was applied, among others, for the conversion of debts in kind
into silver or as equivalent in lease contracts, then this represents the considerable
sum of 23 ⁄ 4 minas.
After Nabû-ah
̆
h
̆e ̄-iddin’s death the property was divided in half, equally between
his heirs and those of his business partner and henceforth cultivated separately. Nabû-
ah
̆
h
̆e ̄-iddin had specified in a written document that the yield of his share should go
to his wife during her lifetime. Only after her death could his three sons take possession
of the property. She survived her husband by nearly 20 years and during this time
she did, indeed, issue lease contracts for plots at the New Canal and received an
income.
Just after her death, her three sons made a contract as to how much each could
claim as his share. Itti-Marduk-bala ̄t.u as the eldest received half as his customary
preferential share, Iddin-Nabû and Nergal-e ̄t.ir, the two younger siblings, one quarter
each. This specification was necessary because Iddin-Nabû, the second eldest, was in
financial difficulties. He had, among other things, already tried to sell a female slave
belonging to his brother under his own name in a foreign city, and finally even his
creditors were obligated not to lend him any more money without the consent of his
brothers. In order to pay off at least part of his debts, he sold his share to his younger
brother.
The property was at that time not divided physically and parcelled up, it was
agreed that it should be administered communally and the income shared. But only
two years after the mother’s death, her eldest son Itti-Marduk-bala ̄t.u died, who had
heirs of his own. Now the moment had come to sort out the matter properly and to
initiate a formal partition of the land because otherwise it would have been too
complicated to establish ownership. The heirs of Itti-Marduk-bala ̄t.u received the one
half, their uncle Nergal-e ̄t.ir the other. At this occasion the land was surveyed before
witnesses and a schematic plan made (Figure 16. 1 ) which details the lateral lengths
and surface portions according to their agricultural usage, mentions the neighbours
and even records the number of date palm trees along the river bank. These data
were entered into the partition document which was issued on the same day by the
same scribe, and before the same witnesses. Both texts are damaged but complement
each other.
The obverse of the field plan shows a rectangle, divided lengthwise into two halves.
These are subdivided horizontally into four parts each, the border between the first
two is the New Canal. The lateral lengths of all plots are given, as well as their
surface area, the former measured in yards, the latter in Babylonian kur to 54 , 000
square yards. The complicated system of calculation ( 1 kur = 5 pa ̄n = 30 su ̄t = 360
— The Egibi family —