    70

    Books, Barbarian Tides: Time Frame 1500-600 BC, Time Life Books, Alexandria,

    Virginia, 1987, p. 31.)

    6. Every Babylonian commercial transaction of any consequence was written down.

    In addition, Babylonians were prodigious letter writers.  Most, however, could not

    read and write for themselves.  To handle their correspondence and business

    needs, they turned to the local scribe.  By the way, the one people who were

    running neck and neck with the Babylonians  in the race for literacy were the

    Egyptians.  For a marvelous account of the origins of Sumerian (and hence

    Babylonian) script, see Denise Schmandt-Besserat, "Oneness, Twoness,

    Threeness: How Ancient Accountants Invented Numbers," The Sciences,

    July/August, 1987, pp. 44-48.  See also:  H.W.F. Saggs, Everyday Life in Babylonia

    & Assyria, Dorset Press, New York, 1965, pp. 80-81; Samuel Noah Kramer, The

    Sumerians: Their History, Culture and Character, The University of Chicago Press,

    Chicago, 1963, p. 23; The Age of God-Kings, pp. 16-21, 37-44; The Encyclopedia

    Americana, Grolier, Inc., Danbury, Connecticut, Vol. 8, p. 325.  For a brief descrip-

    tion of how the Babylonians simplified the Sumerian cuneiform, see Albertine Gaur,

    A History of Writing, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1984, pp. 17, 66.  And for

    a sense of the parallel development of hieratic script in Egypt, see Morris Bierbrier,

    The Tomb Builders of the Pharaohs, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1982, p.

    78.

    7. Julian Jaynes, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral

    Mind, p. 208.

    8. For a map of the Babylonian Empire at the time of Nebuchadnezzar, see H.G.

    Wells, The Outline of History, p. 184.

    9. Jeremiah 52: 24-29.

    10. For example, Daniel-- of  lion's-den fame-- made out very well as a consultant

    to king Nebuchadnezzar, interpreting dreams and giving input on public policy.

    Eventually, the king "made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon."  Other

    Jews--among them Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego--also ascended to

    high-level administrative posts. (Daniel 1-2.)

    11. The Hebrews knew whereof they spoke.  Assyria had smashed the ten tribes of

    the northern Jewish kingdom of Israel in 722 B.C. and deported the survivors.

    These were the famous lost ten tribes. (J.M. Roberts, The Pelican History of the

    World, p. 126.)  That left only the two tribes of the southern Hebrew state, Judah.

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