From the Mari Archives

From the Mari Archives

Author: Jack M. Sasson

Publisher: Penn State Press

Published: 2015-06-11

Total Pages: 475

ISBN-13: 157506376X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

For over 40 years, Jack M. Sasson has been studying and commenting on the cuneiform archives from Mari on the Euphrates River, especially those from the age of Hammurabi of Babylon. Among Mari’s wealth of documents, some of the most interesting are letters from and to kings, their advisers and functionaries, their wives and daughters, their scribes and messengers, and a variety of military personnel. The letters are revealing and often poignant. Sasson selects more than 700 letters as well as several excerpts from administrative documents, translating them and providing them with illuminating comments. In distilling a lifetime of study and interpretation, Sasson hopes to welcome readers into a fuller appreciation of a remarkable period in Mesopotamian civilization. Sasson’s presentation is organized around major institutions in an ancient culture: (1) Kingship, treating accumulation of wealth, control of vassals, dynastic marriages, treaty-obligations, as well as illustrating the hazards and vexation of ruling a large territory; (2) Administration, from palaces that teem with bureaucrats, musicians, and cooks, to the management of provinces and vassal kingdoms; (3) Warfare, military establishment and martial practices; (4) Society, including organs of justice (and shortcuts to it), crime, punishment, and civil transactions; (5) Religion, including notices on diverse pantheons, rituals, priesthood, cultic paraphernalia, vows, ordeals, and channels to the gods (divination, dreams, and prophecy); and (6) Culture, including ethnic distinctions, class structure, and moments in the life cycle (birth, childhood, family life, health matters, death, and commemoration). Sasson’s presentation of the material brings to life a world entombed for four millennia, concretizes the realities of ancient life, and gives it a human perspective that is at once instructive and entertaining. The book is accompanied by extensive concordances and indexes (including to biblical passages) that will be useful to those who wish to study the letters more intensively.


Old Babylonian Period (2003-1595 BC)

Old Babylonian Period (2003-1595 BC)

Author: Douglas Frayne

Publisher: University of Toronto Press

Published: 1990-01-01

Total Pages: 904

ISBN-13: 9780802058737

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A short introduction for each inscription gives its general contents, place of origin, and relative dating. Also included are a detailed catalogue of exemplars, a brief commentary, bibliography, and text in transliteration facing an English translation.


Yale Oriental Series

Yale Oriental Series

Author: Jacob J. Finkelstein

Publisher:

Published: 1915

Total Pages: 98

ISBN-13: 9780300013924

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

v. 13: Late old Babylonian documents and letters, by Jacob. J. Finkelstein.


Economy and Society in Northern Babylonia in the Early Old Babylonian Period (ca. 2000-1800 BC)

Economy and Society in Northern Babylonia in the Early Old Babylonian Period (ca. 2000-1800 BC)

Author: Anne Goddeeris

Publisher: Peeters Publishers

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 466

ISBN-13: 9789042911239

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Early Old Babylonian economy and society are analyzed in this volume. The first part presents all the relevant cuneiform documents published before 2002, about 1200 in number. As far as possible, the texts are situated in their original archival context. A short summary of the content of each of them is given and, if necessary, there is an accompanying discussion of specific problems. Each reconstructed archive is followed by a description of the activities recorded in it and by a study of its protagonists. A family tree is often added to clarify the history of the archive. In the second part of the volume, the data presented in the archival study are integrated in a comprehensive analysis of the early Old Babylonian economy. Aspects of economy, such as land and labor management, trade, crafts and credit are evaluated and situated in their specific historical context.


Women at the Dawn of History

Women at the Dawn of History

Author: Agnete W. Lassen

Publisher: Yale Babylonian Collection

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781734342000

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In the patriarchal world of ancient Mesopotamia, women were often represented in their relation to men - as mothers, daughters, or wives - giving the impression that a woman's place was in the home. But, as we explore in this volume, they were also authors and scholars, astute business-women, sources of expressions of eroticism, priestesses with access to major gods and goddesses, and regents who exercised power on behalf of kingdoms, states, and empires.


Writing, Law, and Kingship in Old Babylonian Mesopotamia

Writing, Law, and Kingship in Old Babylonian Mesopotamia

Author: Dominique Charpin

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2010-11-15

Total Pages: 197

ISBN-13: 0226101592

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Ancient Mesopotamia, the fertile crescent between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in what is now western Iraq and eastern Syria, is considered to be the cradle of civilization—home of the Babylonian and Assyrian empires, as well as the great Code of Hammurabi. The Code was only part of a rich juridical culture from 2200–1600 BCE that saw the invention of writing and the development of its relationship to law, among other remarkable firsts. Though ancient history offers inexhaustible riches, Dominique Charpin focuses here on the legal systems of Old Babylonian Mesopotamia and offers considerable insight into how writing and the law evolved together to forge the principles of authority, precedent, and documentation that dominate us to this day. As legal codes throughout the region evolved through advances in cuneiform writing, kings and governments were able to stabilize their control over distant realms and impose a common language—which gave rise to complex social systems overseen by magistrates, judges, and scribes that eventually became the vast empires of history books. Sure to attract any reader with an interest in the ancient Near East, as well as rhetoric, legal history, and classical studies, this book is an innovative account of the intertwined histories of law and language.


The Material and Ideological Base of the Old Babylonian State

The Material and Ideological Base of the Old Babylonian State

Author: Lukáš Pecha

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2018-10-15

Total Pages: 380

ISBN-13: 1498559883

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book describes and analyzes the economic and administrative structure as well as the ideological background of the Old Babylonian state during the rule of the first dynasty. The author focuses on the role of the state in the economy, administration, politics, and ideology.