The times., 1901-05-26
FARMING IN THE ORIENT.
How Records Were Kept 1000
Years Before Christ Was Born.
(From the London standard)

prom the London Standard-)
In the wonderful resurrection of the
IOug-btlrfed past which has resulted from
the explorations in Egypt and Chaldea,
especially in the latter, no phase OF nIt
seems likely to remain untouched. Irade
and commerce are represented Dy thou-
sands Of contract tablets extending back
to a periOd Of more than thirty centuries
before our era. Law may be studied from
the contemporary records OF all ages anu
the new collection now on eXhloitlon IN
the Babylonian room Of the British Mu-
scum deals with a most important ana
interesting section Of national life.
Ierodotus, StrabO. and other classical
,,-ritcre have testified to the immense fer
tiHtv Of the Mesopotamian Valley
where cereals yielded a hundredfold IN
crease. II was. We know, the Granary Oh
the Persian Empire, but II was Htlle I'M
agfned that there would be rescued from
rI5ins Of a CEaldean city the complete rec
ords and statistics Of Board OF Inland
Revenue and Agriculture, which organiZ-
81 the affairs Of the state at as rem &c an
age as 2fGJ +. G.
a few years ago the trustees Of the
British Museum obtained a collection OF
several thousand tablets. in wonderful
preservation. which related 10 the hscal
affairs Of Southern Chaldea. under the
rule of the second dynasty Of Ur, and the
perfectly organized system which they re
veal is indeed astonishing. The tablets
came from Sirpurra-the modern Tello, on
the Shat-ei- Hie-Which seems 10 nave
been the centre Of local government.
At the period to which those documents
belong Babylonia was covered by a vast
network Of main and irrigation canals,
bordered by rich and fertile fields. The
revenue TO support the state and the tenn
pies was collected in kind and necessitated
an organized bureau Of officials. This we
know to have existed from far earlier
times and the inscription of Manishltsu.
dating from at least 1900 T. c.. which was
found at Susa, and the contract tables OF
Sargon J. $500 +. C., now in the Imperial
Museum at COnstantinopic, mention both
surveyors" and tax collectors"
The first essential Of a system Of taxa
tf0n was an accurate survey and valuation
Of the land, and this we see had been
completed.
From the Inscription of Manishtsu. the
oldest known commercial record. we have
an Illustration of this value Of land by
corn value. field of 1884 feddan has q
corn value of rs quarters; the money
value IS obtained by estimating the corn
at one shekel a quarter and the price OF
the land is therefore, 5 talents 30 mana.
The most interesting feature OF the large
account tablets dealing with the corn rev
enue here exhibited is the wonderful ac-
curacy Of the bookkeeping. Some Of the
large tablets contain summattons Of bun
dreds Of thousands of quarters ana cal
culations of minute fractions, yet the cr-
rors are very few indeed.
The large account tablets are carefully
dated and attcsted with the name Of the
collectors. Thus we read: The account
and return of the Ur Lamassu, OF the
Temple OF NIngirsu, Oyersecr.
From the month Atru to the month Nissan,
for thirteen months Of the year, when
Kharsi and Khumurti were spoiled" A