Abstract
In this paper, I reconstruct the networks of Babylonian urban dwellers during the reign of Darius I (522–486 BCE) based on 803 tablets from 10 private archives in Babylon. The main aim is to examine the structure and connectivity of the network that connected different urban families and groups of individuals outside the families. I focus on the positions individuals occupied within the network that yielded them the power to connect smaller parts of the network. The first approach used to identify and analyze these positions is the betweenness centrality measure. The second approach is the analytic concept of brokerage, the role of mediating between two or more individuals or communities that would otherwise have no connection to each other. I identify differences in the ways that the intermediate position of brokers affected the formation of the network. These brokerage roles resulted from families’ strategies to increase their household wealth by constructing and optimizing marriage, prebendary, and business relations.
About the author
Jinyan Wang is a PhD candidate (ABD) at the University of Toronto in the department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations (NMC). Her dissertation examines the emergence of the Neo-Babylonian dynasty in the seventh and sixth centuries BCE, and the transformation of the society along with it.
Acknowledgments
I am grateful to the organizers of the first international conference of Digital Ancient Near Eastern Studies (DANES) for inviting me to participate in the conference. I would especially like to thank Shai Gordin for his invaluable suggestions for how to improve my article, as well as the two anonymous reviewers for their comments.
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Research ethics: Not applicable.
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Author contributions: The authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this manuscript and approved its submission.
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Competing interests: The authors state no conflict of interest.
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Research funding: None declared.
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Data availability: The data is available at https://github.com/Network-Babylon/figures_of_networks.
Abbreviations
- Bertin
-
Unpublished cuneiform copies from George Bertin kept in the British Museum
- BM
-
Museum siglum of the British Museum, London
- CAD
-
The Assyrian Dictionary of the University of Chicago
- Dar
-
Strassmaier, J. N. Inschriften von Darius, König von Babylon (521–485 v.Chr.) (Babylonische Texte 10–12), Leipzig: Pfeiffer, 1897.
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