Set up a governor in a large administrative region, appoint an official named "Shakanaku" in a larger city, and appoint an official named "Labia Num" in a small city for governance. Some cities (such as Szipal) have gained certain autonomy. City businessmen are elected from wealthy merchant families for a term of 1 year, and are responsible for taxation, canal digging, wall building, management of public warehouses and docks, etc.
Hammurabi's domestic policy is basically a continuation of Isis's city-state policy. In the process of unification, the basic policy of Hammurabi's foreign policy is to make far-reaching friends and attack near, and the flexible alliance serves the overall goal of unifying the two river basins. Ancient Babylonian society was divided into three levels:
Avilu, a free man with full power, the upper class is the ruling class, and the lower class is mostly yeomen and soldiers who pay taxes, perform military service and corvee.
Mushchinu, a free man attached to the royal land, had other dependent classes like Mushchinu in Babylonian times.
3. Waldo (male slave) and Amtu (female slave) are slaves. The land occupied by the royal family during Hammurabi's period can be divided into three categories:
1, "Support (maintain) the palace"; Land granted on terms of service; Land granted on the condition of paying taxes (tribute). Soldiers, officials, Tamuka (commercial agent, usurer) and so on obtained land on the condition of service. Soldiers Ledu and Bayiru got royal land for military service. His land can be inherited by his adult son, but it is still conditional on military service; Whoever refuses or hires someone to perform military service on his behalf shall be sentenced to death.
2. "Neigongren"; A person who owns most of the royal land on the condition of paying taxes (tribute) is exploited and controlled by the royal family, and his land cannot be bought, sold, mortgaged or passed on to the heiress.
3. In addition to royal land, ancient Babylonian society also had temple land, urban land and private land. Documents such as code of hammurabi and archaeological contract documents prove that private land accounts for a considerable amount, and land tenancy and employment relations have become popular. The land rent is generally 1/2 or 1/3 of the harvest. The land rent for orchards and vegetable gardens is two-thirds of the harvest.
The value of land changes with the supply of irrigation water, and the rent of some gardens supplying irrigation water is as high as 3/4 of the harvest. The usury industry is very active, and both temples and hotels operate usury industry. The active usury industry promoted the development of debt slaves. Debt slaves are called kisato. In the aspect of family and marriage, it also preserves the patriarchal remnants of patriarchy and husband power. Parents can sell their wives or children as slaves, or make them debt slaves. Children must pay for other people's children killed by their parents. The development of debt slavery led to the debtor's resistance. After Hammurabi, the struggle against debt slavery broke out, which led to the king's release order. This is also one of the important reasons for the demise of ancient Babylon. The priest is the attendant of the temple, and is responsible for presiding over sacrificial activities, festival ceremonies, chanting prayers, divination and so on. They were one of the most special classes in ancient Mesopotamia.
Most of the gods in Mesopotamia were enshrined in temples. Therefore, there are countless temples in Mesopotamia. According to statistics, archaeologists at Sumerian site alone have unearthed 3,500 temples!
Mesopotamia paid attention to the blessing and enjoyment of the world, built temples to worship the gods and maintained good relations with them, so as to bless the good weather, the country and the people. Therefore, in a country, temples are often the best buildings after palaces. All ethnic groups are willing to spend a lot of money to build temples. The Babel described by Herodotus in his works is the most representative temple.
Since there are countless temples, the number of priests who serve as temple attendants is naturally amazing. They are not only numerous, but also powerful.
In Mesopotamia, the kingship of the country was restricted by three kinds: law, nobility and priest. Among them, the priest is the most powerful. The king is the spokesman of God, his power is given by God, and the representative of God is the priest. In the eyes of ordinary people, a monarch can't be justified if he doesn't get a scepter from a priest. When the priest authorizes the king on behalf of God, there is usually a solemn ceremony. Under this theocracy, priests have great privileges.
In addition, priests are an important economic force of the country. They control and manage the wealth in the temple. Due to the position of religion in national life, temples in Mesopotamia have accumulated countless wealth. The king usually allocates part of the land as temple property and designates an area for paying rent and taxes. If a foreign war is won, the first place to send prisoners of war and trophies is the temple. Coupled with all kinds of offerings offered by the people, the temple is not only full of food, vegetables and fruits, but also a lot of gold and silver treasures. As managers of wealth, priests rented land, operated banks and participated in commercial activities, which increased the property of temples. Therefore, priests get wealth from God and power from wealth, and become the privileged class of society.
Priests mostly come from noble families, and their careers are hereditary, and their titles are passed down from generation to generation. They are also often a minority of people whose cultural knowledge is monopolized by the state. In schools run in temples, priests are both school administrators and teachers. Education instills religious ideas in students, so it is also a monopoly class.
Pastors are also divided into different grades. Senior priests are responsible for presiding over major sacrificial activities, while ordinary priests are responsible according to their grades. For example, Karoo and Nanu are responsible for singing hymns, Nisaku is responsible for hosting libation, Namuk is responsible for cleaning, and Banu is responsible for exorcism. In addition, there are priests who specialize in divination and interpretation of omens. They are responsible for praying for good luck to God, reading dreams and astrology. When the schools in Babylon came into being is still inconclusive. In 1930s, archaeologists excavated a school site about 2 100 BC in Mali, south of the Euphrates River. According to archaeological excavations, it is considered as the oldest known school. "It includes a passage and two houses. This big house is 44 feet long and 25 feet wide. The area of a small room is one third of that of a large room. There are four rows of stone benches in the big room, each row can seat 1, 2, 4 people, with a total capacity of 45 people; There are three rows of stone benches in the small room, which can accommodate 23 people in total; Much like a school classroom. There are no windows in the walls of the two rooms, and light enters from the roof. There is no podium or desk in the room, but there are many students' homework tablets. At the bottom of the wall, there is a shallow sink filled with earth, as if to make a clay tablet for writing. There is an oval pottery basin nearby, which may be used to store clean water, make a clay board out of clay, or place writing utensils. There are many shiny shells on the ground, which seem to be teaching AIDS for computing. The house is near the palace, not the temple; The clay tablets just excavated elsewhere are also stored near the palace, not adjacent to the temple; Some people infer that this is an old school. "
Schools in the two river basins aim at cultivating scribes. A scribe is divided into a senior scribe and a junior scribe. The former acts as an official, while the latter is engaged in various occupations, such as notary, handprint clerk, land survey registrar, military intelligence recorder, copywriter, calculator, secretary, etc.
In the ancient two river basins, a large number of clay tablets were excavated by archaeology. The earliest date shown on these clay tablets is about 3000 BC. They are written in Sumerian hieroglyphics. In the following 1000 years, hieroglyphics developed into cuneiform characters, which were widely popular in the Middle East and used by Babylonians, Assyrians, Hittites and Persians. Most of these archaeological discoveries are religious articles or documents related to real life, such as contracts, records, reports of civilian personnel, laws, regulations and announcements. There are also some materials about mathematics. Although the mathematical level of the two river basins was much higher than that of ancient Egypt at that time, these mathematical problems, like ancient Egypt, involved some practical problems. In later mathematical records (that is, Persian and Seleucid times), there are some astronomical charts and calculation steps about calendars and astrology. Obviously, the purpose of these two valley schools is to provide advanced teaching for different types of future officials.
A Sumerian article about 2000 BC describes school life at that time. This article was copied many times later, so it can be inferred that its description is representative. Judging from the adequacy of repeated use in this article, it can be judged that it was written by an adequate student, but the full text was written in Sumerian, because Sumerian was an academic language at that time and its status was equivalent to Latin in Europe later. Students come to school in the morning and bring their own lunch. The headmaster is the "father of the school", with a Sumerian teacher and an arithmetic teacher. The form of class is to copy the existing blackboard books. The subjects studied are Sumerian, arithmetic and bookkeeping. The school implements strict discipline, which is carried out by a handyman, a teacher and a playground supervisor. Students are often flogged several times a day for different mistakes, including being late in the morning, talking in class, standing up or leaving campus without permission, etc. It is not until evening that exhausted students can walk home and report their day to their father (usually an official). Go to bed early after dinner to ensure that you are full of energy the next morning. Sometimes, teachers are invited home, usually because the father wants his son to be the most outstanding writer and knowledgeable person, and he wants him to be better than other students and even people of noble birth.
In 2000 BC, the house of wisdom was a place for advanced teaching in the two river basins. The students are all graduated scribes, and the research here is also of high level. However, the schools in the two river basins are different from those in ancient Greece, and their so-called profound knowledge also focuses on application value rather than theoretical exploration. Taking mathematics as an example, theoretical speculation has not been fully developed, and a large number of Babylonian mathematical papers involve specific issues.
Babylon created the earliest civilization of mankind, and its education was earlier than that of other countries. "Even earlier than Egypt, or at least almost at the same time as Egypt, there are schools. This is the cradle of human's initial school education and the starting point of human's formal education. " Of course, its higher education is still relatively vague.