Magomed Dandamayev

The paper presents an analysis of the expression bīt mār banĩ (literally «house of a freeborn man») in Babylonian documents of the 6th century BC. Various opinions were given regarding this term. According to M.T. Roth, it was a special physical shelter for widowed and divorced women without living parents. This opinion was refuted by G. van Driel, who thought that there was no ground to consider this term as a name for a kind of asylum. The author of the paper joins this view, assuming that the term in question was used to designate a house of a freeborn citizen.