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A day in the life of an ancient Babylonian business mogul - Soraya Field Fiorio
A day in the life of an ancient Babylonian business mogul - Soraya Field Fiorio
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Phụ đề (75)
0:07
As dawn breaks in the Babylonian city of Sippar,
0:11
Beltani receives an urgent visit from her brother.
0:14
It’s 1762 B.C.E., during the reign of King Hammurabi.
0:19
Beltani is a naditu — a priestess and businesswoman,
0:23
promised to the temple at birth.
0:26
At puberty, she changed her name
0:28
and gained her elevated naditu status in a ceremony
0:32
where a priest examined the entrails of a sacrificed animal for omens.
0:37
The naditu are an esteemed group drawn from Babylonia’s most affluent families.
0:42
Though the rules are different for naditu in each city,
0:45
in Sippar they are celibate and never marry.
0:48
They live inside the gagum, a walled area inside the temple complex,
0:53
but are free to come and go, and receive visitors.
0:56
Beltani owns barley fields and a tavern.
1:00
Her brother manages these businesses
1:02
while she fulfils her duties as a priestess.
1:05
This morning, he makes a troubling accusation:
1:08
her tavern keeper has been diluting wine with water.
1:12
If true, this means she’s been undermining the business Beltani relies on
1:17
to sustain her in old age.
1:19
But the consequences would be even higher for the tavern keeper:
1:23
the punishment of diluting wine is death by drowning.
1:28
The temple court is meeting this afternoon.
1:30
Beltani has just a few short hours
1:33
to find out whether there’s any truth to these allegations.
1:36
But she can’t go to the tavern to investigate.
1:38
Taverns are off limits for priestesses, even priestesses who own them.
1:43
She could be burned to death for entering.
1:46
So she sends for the tavern keeper to meet her at the temple of Shamash,
1:50
the patron god of Sippar.
1:53
The temple is a stepped pyramid called a ziggurat,
1:56
in the heart of the city and visible from twenty miles away.
2:00
It symbolically connects heaven and earth
2:03
and is viewed as the literal home of the god Shamash,
2:07
who gave humanity the code of laws
2:09
and is the judge of the Babylonian pantheon.
2:12
Beltani leaves an offering of bread and sesame oil in a private room.
2:17
She never enters the inner chamber of the temple where the god lives,
2:20
a place so holy only high priestesses and kings visit.
2:26
Outside, worshippers play music and leave gifts,
2:29
which are later collected and used to feed temple workers, including the naditu.
2:34
The tavern keeper is waiting with grim news.
2:38
She says Beltani’s brother has been altering the weights
2:41
used to measure payments to cheat customers.
2:44
When the tavern keeper confronted him,
2:46
he falsely accused her of watering down the wine.
2:49
If true, Beltani’s brother is the dishonest one —
2:52
and altering weights is another crime punishable by death.
2:56
Beltani is running out of time to get to the bottom of this.
3:00
Though she can’t go to the tavern,
3:01
she can check on the barley fields her brother manages
3:04
to see if he’s been honest there.
3:06
In the granary, she sees much more grain than he reported to her.
3:11
He’s been cheating her out of her share.
3:14
Like all naditu in Sippar,
3:16
Beltani inherited the same portion of her father’s property as her brother.
3:20
These were rare circumstances for women in a time and place
3:24
where property passed through men.
3:26
Still, their families didn’t always honor their rights.
3:30
Although naditu traditionally went into business with male relatives,
3:34
the law stated they can choose someone else
3:38
if their brothers or uncles weren’t up to the task.
3:41
With the evidence she needs, she hurries to court.
3:44
A judge presides over the temple court along with two naditu —
3:47
the overseer of the gagum and a scribe.
3:50
Beltani asks to remove her brother as her business manager,
3:54
citing the granary as evidence that he is mismanaging her properties.
3:58
The judge grants her request.
4:00
The scribe records the new contract in cuneiform into a wet clay tablet,
4:05
and the matter is settled.
4:07
She's protected her income and spared her brother’s life
4:10
by withholding the true extent of his crimes.
4:14
Perhaps it is time to adopt a younger priestess:
4:17
someone to take care of her in old age and inherit her property,
4:21
who might do a better job of helping with her business.
