Successful completion of many outside jobs, family ties, or a fortuitous marriage could, for a few lucky or ambitious woodworkers, lead to ownership of their own enterprise, and maybe even a contract with a palace or temple, although these would be closely guarded by certain clans. By the first millennium BCE, certain Babylonian families had acquired the surname of their trade, including the Carpenters. Important craftsmen achieved some level of independence marked by social status and power, as much as could ever be achieved in a despotic theocracy. Archaeology revealing craft concentration in Babylonian neighbourhoods and the rule of “chiefs” or “overseers” suggests the establishment of guilds at an early time. The power of such guilds would have been limited by the fact that the timber the carpenter needed was always difficult to get without the cooperation of the state. Guilds were, in fact, probably organized under an administrator from the central authorities. The master carpenter was a freeman and could own his own land, cattle, and slaves. Not all men, of course, would aspire to become a master builder. Many would find happiness in specialties such as furniture-making, carving, or building the water engines used to irrigate the canals that crossed the sun-baked land between the rivers. All these specializations were allowed by the growth of the Mesopotamian city-states. Common city-folk, such as carpenters, would contribute a portion of the year, regulated by the lunar astrology of the temple priests, to be paid in communal labour for the king or his councillors. Canals, walls, tombs, palaces, and temples were built and maintained by this levy of workers. Much of the menial labour was certainly done by slaves but the citizen craftspeople contributed their specific skills to the crown and were paid for their cooperation in land and daily rations of bread and beer.
Mysteries of the Carpenter 