Explorations in Bible lands during the 19th century - H. V. Hilprecht

DURING 19 CENTURY: ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA 409
ruins, p. 305). The great care with which they had been
made, the exceptionally pure and soft clay chosen, and the
large number of fine seal impressions exhibited by many of
them attracted my attention at once. Upon closer examination
they proved to belong to the business archives of a great
Babylonian firm, Murashu Sons, bankers and brokers at
Nippur, who lived in the time of Artaxerxes I. (464-424
b. c.) and Darius II. (423-405 b. a), in whose reigns the
documents are dated. According to a system better known
Clay Tablet with Seal Impressions from the Archives of Murashu Sons
from the later Roman Empire, this banking-house acted also
as an agent for the Persian kings, from whom it had rented
the taxes levied upon their Babylonian subjects at Nippur
and neighboring districts. The contents of these 730 tablets
accordingly had an unusual interest. The active life
and motion which pulsated in the streets of the famous " city
of Bel," in the fore-courts of its temple, and in the fields on
the palm and corn-laden banks of " the great canal " at the
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