Even in the ancient world, people bought derelict properties to renovate or tear down.
A man named Mushezib-Marduk bought a ruined house in the Eanna district of Uruk in 669 BCE. It's in the same neighbourhood where writing was first developed almost three millennia earlier.
A man named Mushezib-Marduk bought a ruined house in the Eanna district of Uruk in 669 BCE. It's in the same neighbourhood where writing was first developed almost three millennia earlier.
Comments
First, the description of the house's address, which is all about the houses and streets around it, like "Upper side, in the north, bordering a dead-end street and the house of Huddaya".
The seller of the derelict house in this ancient record, Iddin-Marduk, has made fingernail impressions on the sides, top, and bottom of the tablet as a sort of signature.
They might have left clusters of nail marks, specific patterns, or a single mark. How incredible to have such a personal touch from so long ago 🥹
Grant Frame, The archive of Mušēzib-Marduk, son of Kiribtu and descendant of Sîn-nāṣir
Cornelia Wunsch, "Fingernail Marks on Neo-Babylonian Tablets" https://www.academia.edu/41053423/_2021c_Fingernail_Marks_on_Neo_Babylonian_Tablets_Their_placement_Shape_and_Captions_as_Means_to_Classify_and_Date_Tablets
Tablet: https://cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts/423944
Tablet: https://cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts/335126
More sources listed now at the end of the thread, and the CDLI page has some additional biblio