Intercalary Months and Interest-bearing Loans in Babylonia. A Promissory Note from the Egibi Archive

Zoltán Csabai

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Department of Ancient History, University of Pécs, csabai.zoltan@pte.hu

Cite as: Csabai, Z. 2020: Intercalary Months and Interest-bearing Loans in Babylonia. A Promissory Note from the Egibi Archive. Hungarian Assyriological Review 1 , 61-73.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.52093/hara-202001-00005-000

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Abstract

In this paper a cuneiform economic document from the Egibi archive is investigated. The text is a promissory note from Babylon and was written in an intercalary month in the 6th century B.C. The study discusses how interest in the Babylonian interest-bearing loans worked and how the existence of intercalary months, a peculiarity of the Babylonian calendar, had an effect on this system.

Keywords: Egibi archive, Neo-Babylonian economic texts, interest-bearing loans, intercalary months

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Disclosure statement. No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
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Figures

Figure 1. BM 31230. © Zs. J. Földi