[35] Prof. Myres, in commenting on the industrial status found for these unmarried women, remarks that, with manufactures and commerce standing so high in the economy of Babylonia, it is not to be wondered at if the social structure of the country developed some of the same features as begin to perplex our modern world: cf. "Dawn of Civilization," p. 97.
[36] See "Letters of Hammurabi," III., pp. 20 ff.
[37] Op. cit., III., pp. 23 ff., 26 f.
[38] Cf. "Sumer and Akkad," pp. 167 f., 172 f.
[39] Cf. "Letters," III., p. 12 f.
[40] Cf. "Sumer and Akkad," p. 57 f.
[41] Ungnad ("Beitr. z. Assyr.," VI., Hft. 3, p. 7 f.) has collected a number of formulæ from documents, dated either on the first day of Nisan, or within the first six days of the year, which suggest that this was the practice; even the completion of the cutting of a canal might have been foreseen. Very rarely, a formula may have been framed from an important event of the preceding year, perhaps occurring towards its close; the defeat of Nîsin in Sin-muballit's seventeenth date-formula is an instance in point, since one document which bears the formula is dated on the sixth of Nisan. But there is little to be said for Poebel's theory (cf. "Babylonian Legal and Business Documents," pp. 109 ff.), which is based on the assumption that this was the usual practice. For editions of the First Dynasty date-formulæ, see "Letters and Inscriptions of Hammurabi," III., pp. 212 ff.; Poebel, "Legal and Business Documents," pp. 56 ff.; Johns, "Year-Names of the First Dynasty of Babylon" (1911); and Schorr, "Urkunden," pp. 582 ff.
[42] See "Letters of Hammurabi," III., pp. 157 ff.
[43] See Jastrow, "Religion," Bd. II., passim.
[44] See "Letters," III., pp. 49 ff. From a letter of Abi-eshu' (op. cit., p. 153 f.), we gather that the king held the merchants of Sippar ultimately responsible for their city's tribute.