Life and Death in Ancient Babylon

Old Babylonian life in the 18th century BCE centered on a chaotic, canal-intersected urban landscape where residents lived in modest, windowless mud-brick houses organized around courtyards. Cuneiform records reveal a society that relied on a subsistence diet of seasonal produce, insects, and beer, which served as a safer alternative to contaminated water. Households functioned as extended units rather than nuclear families, with marriage laws providing specific protections for women, though childbirth remained a perilous, often fatal event. Babylonians held a pessimistic view of the afterlife, burying their dead beneath the floors of their homes to maintain a connection with ancestors. Despite the city's self-perception as the heart of civilization, daily existence involved significant challenges, including rampant disease, pervasive filth, and a constant fear of demons lurking in dark spaces.