A day in the life of an ancient Babylonian business mogul - Soraya Field Fiorio

1,161,173 views ・ 2021-01-07

TED-Ed


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As dawn breaks in the Babylonian city of Sippar,
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Beltani receives an urgent visit from her brother.
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It’s 1762 B.C.E., during the reign of King Hammurabi.
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Beltani is a naditu— a priestess and businesswoman,
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promised to the temple at birth.
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At puberty, she changed her name
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and gained her elevated naditu status in a ceremony where a priest
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examined the entrails of a sacrificed animal for omens.
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The naditu are an esteemed group drawn from Babylonia’s most affluent families.
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Though the rules are different for naditu in each city,
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in Sippar they are celibate and never marry.
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They live inside the gagum, a walled area inside the temple complex,
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but are free to come and go, and receive visitors.
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Beltani owns barley fields and a tavern.
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Her brother manages these businesses while she fulfils her duties as a priestess.
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This morning, he makes a troubling accusation:
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her tavern keeper has been diluting wine with water.
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If true, this means she’s been undermining the business Beltani relies on
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to sustain her in old age.
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But the consequences would be even higher for the tavern keeper:
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the punishment of diluting wine is death by drowning.
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The temple court is meeting this afternoon.
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Beltani has just a few short hours
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to find out whether there’s any truth to these allegations.
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But she can’t go to the tavern to investigate.
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Taverns are off limits for priestesses, even priestesses who own them.
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She could be burned to death for entering.
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So she sends for the tavern keeper to meet her at the temple of Shamash,
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the patron god of Sippar.
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The temple is a stepped pyramid called a ziggurat,
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in the heart of the city and visible from twenty miles away.
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It symbolically connects heaven and earth
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and is viewed as the literal home of the god Shamash,
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who gave humanity the code of laws
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and is the judge of the Babylonian pantheon.
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Beltani leaves an offering of bread and sesame oil in a private room.
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She never enters the inner chamber of the temple where the god lives,
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a place so holy only high priestesses and kings visit.
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Outside, worshippers play music and leave gifts,
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which are later collected and used to feed temple workers, including the naditu.
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The tavern keeper is waiting with grim news.
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She says Beltani’s brother has been altering the weights
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used to measure payments to cheat customers.
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When the tavern keeper confronted him,
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he falsely accused her of watering down the wine.
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If true, Beltani’s brother is the dishonest one—
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and altering weights is another crime punishable by death.
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Beltani is running out of time to get to the bottom of this.
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Though she can’t go to the tavern,
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she can check on the barley fields her brother manages
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to see if he’s been honest there.
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In the granary, she sees much more grain than he reported to her.
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He’s been cheating her out of her share.
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Like all naditu in Sippar,
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Beltani inherited the same portion of her father’s property as her brother.
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These were rare circumstances for women in a time and place
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where property passed through men.
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Still, their families didn’t always honor their rights.
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Although naditu traditionally went into business with male relatives,
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the law stated they can choose someone else
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if their brothers or uncles weren’t up to the task.
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With the evidence she needs, she hurries to court.
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A judge presides over the temple court along with two naditu—
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the overseer of the gagum and a scribe.
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Beltani asks to remove her brother as her business manager,
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citing the granary as evidence that he is mismanaging her properties.
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The judge grants her request.
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The scribe records the new contract in cuneiform into a wet clay tablet,
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and the matter is settled.
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She's protected her income and spared her brother’s life
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by withholding the true extent of his crimes.
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Perhaps it is time to adopt a younger priestess:
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someone to take care of her in old age and inherit her property,
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who might do a better job of helping with her business.
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