Temple, Economy, and Religion in First Millennium Babylonia

Abstract

The study of economy and religion in Babylonia during the first millennium BC is primarily that of two well-documented temples, the Eanna temple of the city of Uruk and the Ebabbar of Sippar. The administrative archives of those temples -consisting of tens of thousands of cuneiform texts -allow us to understand parts of the temple economy in great detail, while at the same time this abundance of material frustrates traditional approaches to Babylonian religion. This essay aims in general to emphasize that Babylonian temples were large-scale, multifaceted religious institutions. Capitalizing on recent advancements in our technical understanding of the temple economy, it integrates these advancements into issues of broader religious, historical, intellectual, and economic significance. In particular, it stresses three points: first, the temples' amalgamated ruling structure fostered institutional permanence and should therefore be understood as a challenge to the 'temple-as-household' metaphor; second, large-scale centralization of wealth in the temples was necessary for advancements in Babylonian learned culture (especially in astronomy and mathematics); and, finally, the centralization of manpower in the temples gave them particular advantages in the politics of the first millennium BC. In the end, I argue that all of these are in fact manifestations of Babylonian religion in themselves. Michael Kozuh