Silli-Ištar

Silli-Ištar was an 18th century BC businessman involved in real-estate business who worked together with his brother Awil-ili. He is known from the documents from Tell Sifr (ancient Kutalla) situated near Larsa, in modern Iraq. Documents are dated from the reigns of Hammurabi (r. 1792-1750 BC) and Samsuiluna (1750-1712 BC). Two brothers, Silli-Ištar and Awil-ili, figure prominently. What is known of these two early real-estate businessman is that they were sons of Ili-sukkalli and Lamašum. Tel Sifr shows that they had two sisters, and that their mother had three more children, probably by another marriage. These two men dealt in houses on a large scale. No less than 27 deeds by which they bought houses or other buildings have been edited. Moreover they sometimes exchanged buildings and had houses built.