This article surveys the Babylonian evidence from inter-city migration of priests and their families. The phenomenon is already attested during the Old Babylonian period and there are some indications that it continued under Kassite rule. However, most of the evidence comes from temple archives of the first millennium and is heavily concentrated during the long sixth century (ca. 626–484 BC). Although many studies have identified specific cases of priestly migrations, the phenomenon has not yet been assessed in its entirety. The article concludes that such migrations were far more common than previously thought. They were motivated primarily by political reasons such as imposing the cult of official deities in local sanctuaries, or the need to maintain a memory landscape of venerable cult centers.

本文调查了神父及其家人在城市间迁移的巴比伦证据。这种现象已经在巴比伦旧时期得到证实，并且有迹象表明在卡斯特（Kassite）统治下这种现象仍在继续。但是，大多数证据来自第一千年的庙宇档案，并且在第六世纪的漫长时期（大约公元前626 - 484年）大量集中。尽管许多研究已经确定了牧师迁徙的具体案例，但尚未对该现象进行整体评估。文章得出的结论是，这种迁移比以前认为的要普遍得多。他们的动机主要是出于政治原因，例如将礼拜神灵强加于当地庇护所，或需要维持古老礼拜中心的记忆格局。