House of Egibi
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The House of Egibi was a family from within ancient Babylonia who were, amongst other things, involved in mercantile activities.
The family’s financial activities are known to archaeologists via an archive of about 1,700 clay tablets spanning five generations of the family, dating to a period from around 600 to 482 BCE. The tablets give us a glimpse of the exchange of goods within southern Mesopotamia and abroad. Many documents found in the archive show shipments of barley, dates, and other bulk items. Enterprises of this nature were financed by the house of Egibi, among other later houses from within Babylon.[1]
The word Egibi is a transliteration of the Sumerian e.gi-ba-ti.la, a full form used occasionally in archival records. In a text on ancestral names, Babylonian scribes equated it to Sin-taqisha-liblut, which is translated as 'O Sin (the moon god), you have given (the child), may he now live and thrive'. The family's name occurs in Babylonian records at a time beginning sometime during the eighth century BCE. By the sixth century BCE more than 200 individuals are known to history who claimed to be descendants of Egibi.[2][3]
The founder of the house was thought in earlier scholarship to be an individual known called Jacob, therefore of Jewish origin (Rainey; A. H. Sayce;[4] Delitzsch[5][6] ), thought at one time being active at the earliest during the late 7th century. F. El Peiser (1897) thought the family had nothing to do with Jacob and under later reconsideration the issue with regards to Jacob is thought inconclusively proven by Wallis Budge. The family are thought instead active during the 9th century BCE (Boardman, Edward, Hammond 1991), and being proved instead Sumero-Babylonian origin not Jewish.[7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]
Members of the family
The head of the house during 528 BCE was Itti-Marduk-balatu, active in Opis during that time (Darius I began in reign during 520 BCE[15]). The inheritance of the house was divided amongst sons of the family during 508. Itti-mardu-balāțu (son to Nabū-Aẖẖē-iddin[16]) passed his inheritance to three sons. The eldest Marduk-nāṣir-apli received half, Nergel-ušēzib and Nab-(a)ḫḫē-bulliț the remainder divided between them. Marduk-nāșir-apli was presumably the head during the period 521 to 487 BCE. In the chronology of Moore and Lewis the house Egibi is contemporary with Iranu.[17][18][19][14][20][21][22][23]