The emblems of the gods whom Melishikhu
invokes to avenge any infringement of his grant are sculptured upon one
side of the stone, for, as has already been remarked, it was believed
that by carving them upon the memorial-stone their help in guarding the
stone itself and its enactments was assured.
From the portion of the text inscribed upon the stone which has just
been translated it is seen that the owner of land in Babylonia in the
period of the Kassite kings, unless he was granted special exemption,
was liable to furnish forced labour for public works to the state or to
his district, to furnish grazing and pasture for the flocks and herds of
the king or governor, and to pay various taxes and tithes on his land,
his water for irrigation, and his crops. From the numerous documents
of the First Dynasty of Babylon that have been recovered and published
within the last few years we know that similar customs were prevalent at
that period, so that it is clear that the successive conquests to which
the country was subjected, and the establishment of different dynasties
of foreign kings at Babylon, did not to any appreciable extent affect
the life and customs of the inhabitants of the country or even the
general character of its government and administration. Some documents
of a commercial and legal nature, inscribed upon clay tablets during the
reigns of the Kassite kings of Babylon, have been found at Nippur,
but they have not yet been published, and the information we possess
concerning the life of the people in this period is obtained indirectly
from kudurrus or boundary-stones, such as those of Nazimaruttash and
Melishikhu which have been already described.
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