(M592) A term which was long somewhat of a puzzle, the _ki-gallu_, usually
written _Ê-KI-GÀL_, or _Ê-KI-DAN_, is shown definitely by the Code(628) to
be a plot of uncultivated land. This might be rented for cultivation and
was not necessarily poor land, for it was expected to yield ten _GUR_ per
_GAN_. But it might also lie in a city bounded on four sides by
houses,(629) or, as often, by three houses and the street. It was then, of
course, a building site. Its price was usually about two shekels per
_SAR_, but might be as high as eight shekels per _SAR_.(630)
(M593) Another common object of sale was a building called _Ê KISLAḤ_,
shown by the Code(631) to be really a “granary,” or barn, read _maškanu_.
These are usually in the city, and the prices paid for them varied from
one-third of a shekel(632) to fifteen shekels(633) per _SAR_. They might
be surrounded by houses on all four sides, or by a canal, road, and
street.(634)
(M594) These examples serve to show that _bîtu_ as often denoted a “plot”
of land as a “house.”(635) In Assyrian times we find the same usage. A
fairly common object of sale is what I take to be a “fuller’s field,” or a
“bleaching ground,” _bîtu ḳaḳḳiri pûṣê_. It was usually in the city, of
small size, given in cubits each way, or a trifle over a homer in area. It
was near a stream. It sold for a very high price. Once we find half of it
used as a garden. It seemed to have been fenced in. Unfortunately, no one
example is perfectly preserved; and the deeds are of no special interest
beyond the peculiar nature of the plot.(636)
(M595) The gardens in the time of the First Dynasty of Babylon are
generally said to be planted with dates, and sold for “full” price. Once
two shekels are given for a garden of fifteen _SAR_.
(M596) There are not many examples of these sales in Assyrian times, but
they give some welcome information. There is nothing peculiar about the
sale formula. The only interest is in the specifications. The garden is
usually said to be planted with the _iṣu tillit_, almost certainly “the
vine.” Hence, we may regard them as “vineyards.” The number of plants in
them is often given, being as high as two thousand four hundred.(637) Of
other plants grown in a Babylonian garden we can recognize with more or
less certainty in The Garden Tablet,(638) garlic, onion, leek, kinds of
lettuce, dill, cardamom, saffron, coriander, hyssop, mangold, turnip,
radish, cabbage, lucerne, assafœtida, colocynth.
Other gardens are said to be _kirû urḳîtu_, “vegetable gardens.” In later
times the date-plantations are continually in evidence. Beyond the
specification, “planted with dates,” and certain obscure references to the
condition of the crop at the time of sale, there is nothing to be noted.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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