IshmeAdad was taking a personal interest in the proceedings. It was his first Akitu ceremony as King of Borsippa. The irony of the situation didn't escape Bel-Ibni. Nabu of Borsippa was the son of Marduk and his consort Sarpanitum. IshmeAdad was the son of Zig Apilsin, King of Babylon and the goddess Cornellia Cornelius. As a result, Borsippa prospered as a city state of Babylon.

His presence here was unnerving for the older man. So much so that not only did he offer a lamb from Temple's inventory as a sacrifice but he'd actually bought one on his own. Of course, making sure a temple scribe not only drew up a small clay receipt for his personal sacrifice but also entering a note of the source of the lamb on a much larger tablet destined for the temple's annual records.

So much work - so little time, the priest sighed as he followed the young King from the enclosure surrounding the ziggurat to the great temple-complex of Ezida. This contained not only the principal shrine of Nabu, he who engraves the destiny of each person, as the gods have decided, on the tablets of sacred record. They walk into the main chapel overlaid with precious metals. On a pedestal inside the chapel stands the golden images of Nabu and his consort Tashmetum. Divine attendants stand on either side of the supreme pair. There were hairdressers for Tashmetum, a butler, baker, a door-keeper and dogs. Statues of winged kurub's guarded the entrance.

Bel-Ibni waited patiently as IshmeAdad walked around the divine pair. Soon they will be traveling down the Euphrates so Nabu, royal prince of the gods, can serve in his role as the avenger of his father during the Akitu. They were already heavily decorated with gold and precious stone and dressed in rich rainments. The king smiled his pleasure when Bel-Ibni showed him the new dresses they'll be wearing on the 7th day after Nabu frees his father.

When the king finally left, the heat and height of the sun announced that midday was near. Today there would be no rest during the heat of the day but at least most of the work would be inside the thick walls of the temple. Bel-Ibni passed the courtyard. The court was winding down. They had heard a case about the ownership of a plot of land. In the corner, a man sat whimpering in pain while a friend bathed a great red welt on his head. He'd been found guilty of forging a tablet about a property deal and his punishment was to have the tablet heated in a brazier and branded into his forehead.

Bel-Ibni shuddered. He failed and his punishment would be far worse, so much so that death would be a blessing. He could only hope that if it came to that, his family would remember and provide him with food. An eternity of nothing but dust to eat....he shuddered again. A short, squat man, he had grown too fond of the pleasures of the table.

There was so much to organize. Scribes followed, trying to keep up with the orders. Gods do not travel lightly.

The background images are from Samarcande's Kilim Bazaar.

The clipart is from Phillip Martin's Mesopotamian Clip Art .