JEWISH BANKERS IN BABYLON.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVII, Issue 24, 4 October 1889, Page 29

JEWISH BANKERS IN BABYLON.

Auecent cablegram says : " The Rev. Father J. N. Stras9maier, B.J. who^e name is well known in Lancashire, and whose almost herculean labours in the work of cuneiform paleography navt* gained him a world-wide reputation am?ng Assynologists, haa nearly completed a work of great importance. Amoag tbe treasure i of the British Museum are some forty thousand inscribed tablets from Babylon and other cities of Chaldea, which related to commercial, fiscal and other affairs transacted in the cities of the empire. These cover a period from the timeof the fall of Nineveh ani thewecessionof Nabnpalaasar, in B.C. 625,, until the time of the conquest of Babylon by Alexander the Great.

" Dr. Strassmaier has just published lithograph fzc similes of 1,134 inscriptions dated in the reign of Nabonidus, the last of the naiive kings of Babylon, and covering ihe period from B.C. 555 to B.C. 358, when Cyrus capture'! the city. The document contains records of almost every class cf business transaction — records of sales of merchandise aud slaves, promissory notes, mortgages, wills, marriage and dower deeds, as well as lithe books and temple accounts. Some idea of the power of the scribe caste is to be gained when we find the names of over 800 of these brethrei ol tbe stylus appear in the deeds, and it is possible to distinguish the handwriting of many of them One very important point is established by these documents, namely, that the iavasioti of Cyrus, welcomed as it was by the priests and ptople, and only opposed by the court and army, caused little disturbance to the affiirs of trade. Babylon was captured on the 16ihof the month T^romur, B.C. 358, and we have here a loan of silver dated on the 7th of the month, while the first transaction afier the capture occurs on the 2lst of the month, only five days after ihe fall (Several great inscriptions indepd almost half, relate to the t ransactions of the great banking firm of Egibi and bis sons, whom many Assyriologista are inclined to regard as Jews, their names being also spelt Ikibi cr Jacobi."