"perhaps due to contact with Babylonia"- yes, there's absolutely no way those hirsute battleaxe-waving barbarians could have figured out on their own that base-twelve is an eminently superior system once you get beyond counting fingers and toes!
I think it at least as probable that an ancient Teutonic base-12 system was pushed aside by the influence of Rome- especially since, once they became literate, the Roman numeral system required it. But echoes remain in the language: not just eleven and twelve, but words like dozen and gross as well.
(NB: there were 12 pennies in a shilling until 1971; and well into the 20th century, an English "hundredweight" was 112 pounds, which replaced the medieval 'old' cwt of 108 (9x12) lbs. Now, if somebody could just explain the fourteen-pound stone...

).