Author(s):
Neumann, Hans (Berlin)
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Schiemann, Gottfried (Tübingen)
[German version] I. Mesopotamia, Egypt Leasehold in the sense of the limited taking over of the use of land used for agricultural or gardening purposes against payment of a rent, was attested in Mesopotamia from the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. Both institutional households ( Palace; Temple) as well as private individuals could function as lessors. The rent was set either at an absolute value in kind or silver, or as a part of the harvest. The one third leasehold, which meant that the lessor received 1/3 of the harvest and the leaseholder received 2/3, was typical above all for the early Babylonian period (20th-16th cent. BC) as a private field leasehold, and was attested already in the early Akkadian period (24th-22th cent. BC) [1] and Ur III period (21st cent. BC). In addition, the one half and one fourth leasehold are attested as early Babylonian. The leaseholder received 1/3 of the harvest in the leasehold of date palm plantations, while 2/3 went to the lessor (Codex Ḫammurapi § 64 (TUAT 1, 52); Cuneiform, legal texts in), probably because the leaseholder had less work than would be the case with a field. Normally fields were leased for one year; when a field was first made arable, for three years (attested from Ur III period). With newly planted date palms the leasehold went for four years; in the fifth year the harvest was divided (here with equal shares) between the lessor and leaseholder (Codex Ḫammu…