The committees were hierarchically organized and suprisingly stable. Only in a
single case did judges change their positions. Newcomers started at the most junior
position and acceded to higher positions when someone of superior rank died or left.
The career path proceeded from scribal training and administrative experience.
Besides the ‘judges of the king’ who had a traditional Babylonian education and
mastered the cuneiform writing system, there were also officials who wrote on
parchments or wax, in alphabetic Aramaic, and were responsible for the legal business
and transactions of the non-Babylonian population. We have to assume the ‘judges
of the king’ were appointed by the king in some form or other, presumably from a
circle of qualified candidates. The question as to how much freedom of choice the
kings had in their selection or whether a recall or suspension of judges for political
reasons took place, cannot, so far, be answered. The texts preserved so far show a
remarkable continuity of personnel, even across politically turbulent times and changes
of dynasties.
It should be underlined that almost all transmitted court documents from the Neo-
Babylonian period, apart from those of the temple judiciary, originate from purchases
that can be linked to the Egibi archive.^3 Apart from an involvement of the family
in the respective legal cases or their direct interest in their subjects (purchase of
orchards, fields, slaves), the fact that Nabû-ah
̆
h
̆e ̄-iddin could have kept copies of such
documents in his capacity as judge among his archive could explain why it contains
so many court documents, especially from his period in office. The majority of cases
concern property, such as the mode of partition on inheritance or the payment of
inherited debts. Also, questions of legal status arise, as when a slave maintains that
he is thus wrongly described, or when a freed female slave asserts that her child was
born after her manumission and could, as such, not be sold as a slave. The royal
judges were also responsible for punishing criminals, as in cases of grievous bodily
harm. Only a single case documents the presence and the judgment of the king as
supreme judge. Tellingly, it is a case of high treason.
CONCLUSIONThe example of this family shows just how many interesting details concerning the
lives of wealthy Babylonians can be gleaned from the private archives. The economic
success and social rise of some families, linking them to the highest circles, contrasts
with the financial ruin and human tragedy of others. Terse notes in formalized
documents have to be put together like stones in a mosaic to create a vivid image of
their protagonists. Even though two and half thousand years separate us from the
daily life of the Babylonians, we meet forms of behaviour and traits of character that
seem only too familiar.
NOTES1 Egibi is an abbreviation of Sumerian e.gi-ba-ti.la, a full form used occasionally in the archival
records. In a learned text on ancestral names, Babylonian scribes equated it to Babylonian Sîn-
taqı ̄sˇa-liblut., which can be translated as ‘O Sin [the moon god], you have given [the child],
may he now live and thrive’ (see W.G. Lambert, JCS 11 ( 1957 ): 1 – 14 ; 112 , comment on col.
iii line 53 ). This follows a well-attested Babylonian name pattern. F.E. Peiser already in 1897
pointed out that it had ‘nothing to do’ with Jacob(MVAeG 2 : 307 , quoted in Peiser 1890 – 98 :
— Cornelia Wunsch —