[7] A large proportion of archaeological evidence on the family is from a house in Nippur, found within the remains of a twenty by ten foot room of the building.
Known as the Murashu archive, these consist of clay tablets, 879 in total (numbering 879 during 2005 Provan, Long, Longman; 835 during 2001 Greenfield, Paul, Stone, Pinnick; 800 during 1999 Mieroop; and 650 during 1995 in Schramm) written in the languages Aramaic and Akkadian.
This evidence from the Murashu documents thus corresponds to that from other sources: after the Exile the ordinary form of the divine name used as an initial theophorous element was yahu.
[22][23] HV Hilprecht considers the group ("firm") to be bankers and brokers, who were engaged in money-lending and trading operations in southern and central Babylonia for a period of 50 years from the end of the 5th century (Dandamaev, Lukonin, Kohl).
The archives ("legal" documentation) include matters concerning the less wealthy of Nippur living in the outer areas of the city, although also the interests of both royalty (the renting of fields - Dandamaev, Lukonin, Kohl) and those associated with these, participating as officials within their estate.
Family members sometimes travelled to the Achaemenid capital at Susa (in Elam, about 200 kilometres distant) where they remained for months involved in financial and legal businesses.
[6][50][51][52][53][54][55] Their activities skirted the edge of the law, as when they obtained the exclusive right to use land which they were not allowed to buy, but also helped people pay their taxes and provide service as conscripts, and it appears that their business was eventually shut down or restructured by the king's officials, causing someone to put away the texts which now form the Murashu archives.