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A waste of space? Unbuilt land in the Babylonian cities of the first millennium BC1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

Heather D. Baker
Heather D. Baker*
Affiliation:
Institut für Orientalistik, University of Vienna, Austria
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Abstract

This article uses both textual and archaeological evidence to examine the role of unbuilt land in the Babylonian city. Detailed study of such land is vital not only for understanding urban living conditions but also for any attempt to estimate urban population based on density of occupation of residential areas. By classifying and investigating unbuilt land according to its physical properties, modes of use and conditions of ownership, it is possible to reassess its role in the lives of the city-dwellers.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 71 , 2009 , pp. 89 - 98
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 2009

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Footnotes

1

This article draws on a more detailed study of the urban landscape of Babylonia in the first millennium BC which is to be published shortly by the author (Baker forthcoming). The work has been carried out under the auspices of the START Project on “The Economic History of Babylonia in the First Millennium BC” funded by the Fonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung (Austria) at the University of Vienna. This is an English version of an article published in the Dutch journal Phoenix 54/3 (2008).

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