The most vivid picture of Old Babylonian life (circa 1894 – circa 1595 B.C.E.) comes not from the city of Babylon itself, but from Sir Leonard Woolley's excavation at Ur of private two-story courtyard houses. The names of homeowners can be determined from cuneiform tablets found in their ruins. No. 1 Broad Street (Woolley fancifully named streets from his Oxford schooldays) contained hundreds of exercise tablets written by the students of Igmil-Sin. No. 1 Old Street belonged to Ea-nasir, a major figure in the copper trade. No. 14 Paternoster Row was a restaurant with a wide window opening onto the street; a brick counter immediately inside presumably displayed the cooked dishes of the day. The kitchen contained a bread oven and a solid brick range for cooking meat over charcoal braziers.

Source: Joan Oatcs, Babylon (London: Thames & Hudson, 1979; revised, 1986).