1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910826661403321

Autore

Charpin Dominique

Titolo

Writing, law, and kingship in Old Babylonian Mesopotamia / / Dominique Charpin ; translated by Jane Marie Todd

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Chicago ; ; London, : University of Chicago Press, 2010

ISBN

1-282-90181-8

9786612901812

0-226-10159-2

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (197 p.)

Altri autori (Persone)

ToddJane Marie <1957->

Disciplina

935

Soggetti

Diplomatics, Cuneiform - Iraq - History

Law, Assyro-Babylonian - Language

Civilization, Assyro-Babylonian

Cuneiform writing - History

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- CONTENTS -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- ABBREVIATIONS -- Introduction: The Historian's Task and Sources -- CHAPTER 1. Reading and Writing in Mesopotamia: The Business of Specialists? -- CHAPTER 2. Outline for a Diplomatics of Mesopotamian Documents -- CHAPTER 3. Old Babylonian Law: Gesture, Speech, and Writing -- CHAPTER 4. The Transfer of Property Deeds and the Constitution of Family Archives -- CHAPTER 5. The Status of the Code of Hammurabi -- CHAPTER 6. The "Restoration" Edicts of the Babylonian Kings and Their Application -- CHAPTER 7. Hammurabi and International Law -- CHAPTER 8. Controlling Cross- Border Traffic -- Conclusion: A Civilization with Two Faces -- 177Notes -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

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.