- Sumerian, Assyriology, Akkadian, Mesopotamia History, Old Babylonian period, Ancient Near East, and 29 moreAncient economies (Archaeology), Sumerian & Akkadian literature, Cuneiform, Legal History: Ancient Near East, Old babylonian School, British Museum, Ur III administrative texts, Nippur, Telloh (ancient Girsu), Ur III period, Barley Loan Contracts, Model Court Cases, Mesopotamian School, Model Contracts, Messenger Texts, Iraq Museum, History, Archaeology, Languages and Linguistics, Ancient History, Near Eastern Archaeology, Near Eastern Studies, Ancient Near East (Archaeology), Ancient Near Eastern Languages, Ancient Near Eastern History, Akkadian Language, Sumerology, Mesopotamian history, and Economic Historyedit
The Central Archive of Ebla (24th century BC) preserved two series of annual documents which allow us to reconstruct on the one side the incomes of metals and garments to the Central Administration, and on the other side the expenditures... more
The Central Archive of Ebla (24th century BC) preserved two series of annual documents which allow us to reconstruct on the one side the incomes of metals and garments to the Central Administration, and on the other side the expenditures of metals, mostly in the shape of objects and pieces of jewelry, besides weapons and tools in copper and bronze, mostly decorated with precious metals. Silver was also given as money to be expended at the markets. This documentation covers about forty-six years: an unparalleled sequence in the entire body of cuneiform literature. The series concerning the incomes have been published in ARET XIV.
This is the first of the three volumes devoted to the expenditures of metals. It includes twenty-one annual documents concerning the eighteen years that Ibrium served as minister, which coincides with the first half of Išᶜar-damu’s reign. Four further tablets are added to complete the documentation of this period.
The other two volumes will concern the eleven years of the reign of Irkab-damu (Išᶜar-damu’s father), and the last seventeen years of the city, when the minister was Ibbi-zikir, Ibrium’s son.
This is the first of the three volumes devoted to the expenditures of metals. It includes twenty-one annual documents concerning the eighteen years that Ibrium served as minister, which coincides with the first half of Išᶜar-damu’s reign. Four further tablets are added to complete the documentation of this period.
The other two volumes will concern the eleven years of the reign of Irkab-damu (Išᶜar-damu’s father), and the last seventeen years of the city, when the minister was Ibbi-zikir, Ibrium’s son.
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In ancient Mesopotamia, men training to be scribes copied model letters in order to practice writing and familiarize themselves with epistolary forms and expressions. Similarly, model contracts were used to teach them how to draw up... more
In ancient Mesopotamia, men training to be scribes copied model letters in order to practice writing and familiarize themselves with epistolary forms and expressions. Similarly, model contracts were used to teach them how to draw up agreements for the transactions typical of everyday economic life. This volume makes available a trove of previously unknown tablets and fragments, now housed in the Shøyen Collection, that were produced in the training of scribes in Old Babylonian schools.
Following on Old Babylonian Texts in the Schøyen Collection, Part One: Selected Letters, this volume publishes the contents of sixty-five tablets bearing Akkadian letters used to train scribes and twenty-six prisms and tablets carrying Sumerian legal texts copied in the same context. Each text is presented in transliterated form and in translation, with appropriate commentary and annotations and, at the end of the book, photographs of the cuneiform. The material is made easily navigable by a catalogue, bibliography, and indexes.
This collection of previously unknown documents expands the extant corpus of educational texts, making an essential contribution to the study of the ancient world.
Following on Old Babylonian Texts in the Schøyen Collection, Part One: Selected Letters, this volume publishes the contents of sixty-five tablets bearing Akkadian letters used to train scribes and twenty-six prisms and tablets carrying Sumerian legal texts copied in the same context. Each text is presented in transliterated form and in translation, with appropriate commentary and annotations and, at the end of the book, photographs of the cuneiform. The material is made easily navigable by a catalogue, bibliography, and indexes.
This collection of previously unknown documents expands the extant corpus of educational texts, making an essential contribution to the study of the ancient world.
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La lingua dei Sumeri is the first grammar of Sumerian written in Italian. It is designed as a companion both for the classroom and for self-tuition. The grammatical reconstruction is mostly based on documents from the Second Dynasty of... more
La lingua dei Sumeri is the first grammar of Sumerian written in Italian. It is designed as a companion both for the classroom and for self-tuition. The grammatical reconstruction is mostly based on documents from the Second Dynasty of Lagash and the Third Dynasty of Ur (ca. 2140 – 2000 BCE) and is preceded by a thorough description of the historical context, cuneiform script, and phonology.
The description of morphology and syntax is followed by an extensive chrestomathy of 31 texts, giving the reader copies, transliterations, translations, and commentary of historical and royal inscriptions, legal texts, and administrative documents. The grammar is enriched by a syllabary and a sign list offering the readings and the Neo-Sumerian sign forms of the 243 signs attested in the chrestomathy and 30 noteworthy variants. An excursus on how Babylonians learnt Sumerian and a glossary conclude the volume.
The description of morphology and syntax is followed by an extensive chrestomathy of 31 texts, giving the reader copies, transliterations, translations, and commentary of historical and royal inscriptions, legal texts, and administrative documents. The grammar is enriched by a syllabary and a sign list offering the readings and the Neo-Sumerian sign forms of the 243 signs attested in the chrestomathy and 30 noteworthy variants. An excursus on how Babylonians learnt Sumerian and a glossary conclude the volume.
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During the Old Babylonian period (ca. 2002–1595 B.C.), the city of Nippur was a primary center for transmission of Sumerian culture, and its scribal schools (called edubba in Sumerian, lit. “the house of the tablets”) had a great... more
During the Old Babylonian period (ca. 2002–1595 B.C.), the city of Nippur was a primary center for transmission of Sumerian culture, and its scribal schools (called edubba in Sumerian, lit. “the house of the tablets”) had a great reputation throughout the ancient Mesopotamia. The function of the edubba was two-fold: to train the scribes in the skills of their profession, equipping them to record day-to-day affairs, and to preserve and pass on their cultural heritage. In the last phase of early education pupils were trained comprehensively in the formal rethoric of administration and law through compilations of the so-called “model contracts”, together with “model court cases”, legal phrasebooks and collections of legal principles.
While they were not functional documents, but simply didactic tools (being stripped of incidental details, such as the list of witnesses and the date), model contracts follow the common patterns of Sumerian contract types and represent a comprehensive assortment of all possible transactions that the ancient Mesopotamian administration might have been required to draw up in the everyday economic life: barley and silver loans; deeds of real estate, field or slave sale; marriage contracts; adoptions, and so on.
The book contains the publication of the Sumerian model contracts from Old Babylonian Nippur kept in the Hilprecht Collection, Jena. The edition provides transliterations, translations, commentaries of the entire corpus and of some duplicates kept in other cuneiform collections; the indexes comprise personal names, deities, toponyms and a glossary. Finally, the plates at the end of the volume offer handcopies and photographs of all the HS tablets.
While they were not functional documents, but simply didactic tools (being stripped of incidental details, such as the list of witnesses and the date), model contracts follow the common patterns of Sumerian contract types and represent a comprehensive assortment of all possible transactions that the ancient Mesopotamian administration might have been required to draw up in the everyday economic life: barley and silver loans; deeds of real estate, field or slave sale; marriage contracts; adoptions, and so on.
The book contains the publication of the Sumerian model contracts from Old Babylonian Nippur kept in the Hilprecht Collection, Jena. The edition provides transliterations, translations, commentaries of the entire corpus and of some duplicates kept in other cuneiform collections; the indexes comprise personal names, deities, toponyms and a glossary. Finally, the plates at the end of the volume offer handcopies and photographs of all the HS tablets.
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This article presents twenty fragmentary multicolumn tablets containing Sumerian model contracts from Old Babylonian Nippur, which are currently kept at the Arkeoloji Müzeleri in Istanbul, Turkey. Initial work on these was initiated by... more
This article presents twenty fragmentary multicolumn tablets containing Sumerian model contracts from Old Babylonian Nippur, which are currently kept at the Arkeoloji Müzeleri in Istanbul, Turkey. Initial work on these was initiated by the late William. Hallo in 1971 but he was unable to complete the project so it was taken over and completed by Gabriella Spada. Their content is limited to loan contracts of silver or barley, sometimes with the presence of antichretic pledges (slaves, fields, gardens, and lumps of silver).
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This paper examines some aspects of a group of Sumerian model contracts that record transactions involving slaves, namely antichretic pledges—i.e., the debtor pledged a slave to work for the creditor, instead of paying interest on his... more
This paper examines some aspects of a group of Sumerian model contracts that record transactions involving slaves, namely antichretic pledges—i.e., the debtor pledged a slave to work for the creditor, instead of paying interest on his loan—and the hiring of slaves as workers. In the Appendix, two of these model contracts are published for the first time; in addition, the reconstructed version of a third model contract is proposed, based on five sources.
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This article presents the edition of an unpublished tablet, belonging to the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, which records an Old Babylonian temple loan. The peculiarity of this contract is the presence of an accessory clause that... more
This article presents the edition of an unpublished tablet, belonging to the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, which records an Old Babylonian
temple loan. The peculiarity of this contract is the presence of an accessory clause that specifies the way in which the debtor will have to repay his debt to the creditor, the Sun god Šamaš.
temple loan. The peculiarity of this contract is the presence of an accessory clause that specifies the way in which the debtor will have to repay his debt to the creditor, the Sun god Šamaš.
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This article publishes for the first time an Old Babylonian tablet belonging to the Collection of the British Museum. It records a silver loan with a slave given as an antichretic pledge, i.e. the debtor pledged his slave to work for the... more
This article publishes for the first time an Old Babylonian tablet belonging to the Collection of the British Museum. It records a silver loan with a slave given as an antichretic pledge, i.e. the debtor pledged his slave to work for the creditor, instead of paying interest on his loan.
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This article intends to examine some aspects of a group of Old Babylonian temple loans, i.e., loan contracts that are worded as if it was the divinity himself granting the loan to a debtor. They contain a particular interest clause, the... more
This article intends to examine some aspects of a group of Old Babylonian temple loans, i.e., loan contracts that are worded as if it was the divinity himself granting the loan to a debtor. They contain a particular interest clause, the so-called maš2 mākālum formula. In the Appendix, nine of these temple loans are published for the first time.
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This article presents four fragmentary prisms and one tablet of the Rosen Collection recording Sumerian model contracts. Topics include exchange, rental, and sale of real estate, loans, adoption, marriage, and the rescue of a foundling.... more
This article presents four fragmentary prisms and one tablet of the Rosen Collection recording Sumerian model contracts. Topics include exchange, rental, and sale of real estate, loans, adoption, marriage, and the rescue of a
foundling. Two model court cases and three provisions of the “Laws about Rented Oxen” are also recorded in the presented documents.
foundling. Two model court cases and three provisions of the “Laws about Rented Oxen” are also recorded in the presented documents.
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This article, starting from the analysis of the expression "if a lion kills/eats him" (i.e., a slave received on pledge), which appears in a limited number of surety contracts in the archive of the famous Balaĝunamḫe of Larsa (1829-1792... more
This article, starting from the analysis of the expression "if a lion kills/eats him" (i.e., a slave received on pledge), which appears in a limited number of surety contracts in the archive of the famous Balaĝunamḫe of Larsa (1829-1792 BC), gives a brief overview of the threat that lions posed not only to livestock but also to human beings in secondmillennium Mesopotamia. Letters and administrative documents inform us of attacks on animals and, more rarely, even people. By contrast, collections of laws and legal principles seem to deal exclusively with problems arising from lions attacking domestic animals, without any mention of attacks on humans. In the light of this brief investigation, the author concludes that the expression "if a lion kills/eats him" must be considered a unicum, since it is not found in any other real-life or school contract. She assumes that the scribe decided to add this formula to the liability clause of Balaĝunamḫe's surety contracts in order to cover as many scenarios as possible, including the chance of being eaten by a lion, clearly representing an event of force majeure.
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After a general overview on boats and water transport in southern Mesopotamia and along the Middle Euphrates, this article presents a comparative analysis on the Mesopotamian laws concerning navigation, with a focus on the Code of... more
After a general overview on boats and water transport in southern Mesopotamia and along the Middle Euphrates, this article presents a comparative analysis on the Mesopotamian laws concerning navigation, with a focus on the Code of Hammurapi (composed c. 1750 BC). Ten provisions (§§234-240, 275-277) deal with several aspects of the navigation: the wage for the boatman in charge of boat caulking, the hires of boats and crew, responsibility for the sinking of a boat and in the event of a collision between two boats. Finally, the rental prices indicated in some Old Babylonian boat rental contracts are compared with those prescribed in the Code.
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This article is the primary publication of ten Old Babylonian contracts housed at the Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University. Topics include loans, a tenancy agreement, adoption, and harrowing.
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This paper is the edition of an Old Babylonian prism collecting twenty-nine model contracts. It has been reconstructed by putting together fragments that are currently housed in Europe (Schøyen Collection, Oslo) and the USA (Emory... more
This paper is the edition of an Old Babylonian prism collecting twenty-nine model contracts. It has been reconstructed by putting together fragments that are currently housed in Europe (Schøyen Collection, Oslo) and the USA (Emory University, Atlanta).
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The reader will find here some corrections to my article which appeared in the last issue of RSO.
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The so-called “Laws about Rented Oxen”, which deal with issues of liability involving injury to or loss of the oxen, were formalized by the instructors of the Old Babylonian edubba and copied repeatedly by the students. Their first... more
The so-called “Laws about Rented Oxen”, which deal with issues of liability involving injury to or loss of the oxen, were formalized by the instructors of the Old Babylonian edubba and copied repeatedly by the students. Their first reconstruction was published in 1965 by M. Civil, based upon three student exercise tablets from Nippur; later M. Roth arranged the provisions into a single sequence, adding another three fragments containing ox laws.
New evidence of three oxen provisions in an unpublished fragmentary prism provides the opportunity to update and call attention to this law collection again. One provision in particular presents the Sumerian verb bu-us2 previously attested only once in a school letter.
New evidence of three oxen provisions in an unpublished fragmentary prism provides the opportunity to update and call attention to this law collection again. One provision in particular presents the Sumerian verb bu-us2 previously attested only once in a school letter.
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NABU 2018/3v Edition of an Old Babylonian loan contract.
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KEYWORDS: Ur III; administrative texts; textiles; Umma; cuneiform; Sumerian
Research Interests: Assyriology, Textiles, Accounting, Accounting History, History of Technology, and 16 moreHistory of Textiles, Administrative History, Textile Archaeology, Mesopotamia History, Traditional Crafts, Ancient Near East, Sumerian, Ancient Textiles, Craft production (Archaeology), Ancient Craftmanship (Archaeology), Material Culture, Cuneiform, Neo-Sumerian Studies, History and Administration of III Dynasty of Ur, History of Accountancy, and Storia Della Ragioneria
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I Incontro dei Giovani Ricercatori Italiani di Assiriologia. Obiettivi e prospettive di ricerca. Università di Verona, Dipartimento di Culture e Civiltà 1–2 Marzo 2018 "I modelli di contratto nel curriculum scribale di periodo... more
I Incontro dei Giovani Ricercatori Italiani di Assiriologia. Obiettivi e prospettive di ricerca.
Università di Verona, Dipartimento di Culture e Civiltà
1–2 Marzo 2018
"I modelli di contratto nel curriculum scribale di periodo paleo-babilonese":
Studiare il modo in cui gli scribi venivano educati permette di affrontare lo studio della cultura cuneiforme da un punto di vista molto concreto. Per fare questo è necessario focalizzarsi su una particolare fonte di documentazione, rappresentata dai testi scolastici, ed è il periodo paleo-babilonese l’epoca per la quale esiste la più grande abbondanza di questo materiale.
La formazione scribale nell’edubba paleo-babilonese seguiva un vero e proprio curriculum, un set strutturato di esercizi mirati a un preciso scopo educativo, che è stato ricostruito grazie alla documentazione proveniente da Nippur. Durante una prima fase “elementare” gli apprendisti scribi imparavano i rudimenti della scrittura e della lingua, tramite un percorso progressivo che da una fase puramente tecnica di apprendimento dei segni e delle parole, giungeva al primo contatto con le frasi sumeriche sotto forma di “modelli di contratto” e di proverbi.
Proprio i modelli di contratto sono l’oggetto di questo intervento, che, dopo un’introduzione al curriculum scribale paleo-babilonese e alle tipologie di tavolette scolastiche, offrirà una panoramica di questo tipo di documentazione, inserendolo all’interno del percorso curriculare e identificandone le peculiarità didattiche. Verranno presentate anche le questioni ancora dibattute (la difficoltà di distinguere con certezza i modelli dai veri contratti dell’amministrazione; la rete di influenze reciproche tra gli strumenti scolastici e i documenti concreti della pratica quotidiana).
Università di Verona, Dipartimento di Culture e Civiltà
1–2 Marzo 2018
"I modelli di contratto nel curriculum scribale di periodo paleo-babilonese":
Studiare il modo in cui gli scribi venivano educati permette di affrontare lo studio della cultura cuneiforme da un punto di vista molto concreto. Per fare questo è necessario focalizzarsi su una particolare fonte di documentazione, rappresentata dai testi scolastici, ed è il periodo paleo-babilonese l’epoca per la quale esiste la più grande abbondanza di questo materiale.
La formazione scribale nell’edubba paleo-babilonese seguiva un vero e proprio curriculum, un set strutturato di esercizi mirati a un preciso scopo educativo, che è stato ricostruito grazie alla documentazione proveniente da Nippur. Durante una prima fase “elementare” gli apprendisti scribi imparavano i rudimenti della scrittura e della lingua, tramite un percorso progressivo che da una fase puramente tecnica di apprendimento dei segni e delle parole, giungeva al primo contatto con le frasi sumeriche sotto forma di “modelli di contratto” e di proverbi.
Proprio i modelli di contratto sono l’oggetto di questo intervento, che, dopo un’introduzione al curriculum scribale paleo-babilonese e alle tipologie di tavolette scolastiche, offrirà una panoramica di questo tipo di documentazione, inserendolo all’interno del percorso curriculare e identificandone le peculiarità didattiche. Verranno presentate anche le questioni ancora dibattute (la difficoltà di distinguere con certezza i modelli dai veri contratti dell’amministrazione; la rete di influenze reciproche tra gli strumenti scolastici e i documenti concreti della pratica quotidiana).
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In spite of the long years of studies, the interest in Mesopotamian scribal education, focusing on the Old Babylonian period, is still alive, mostly due to the large bulk of school records. Despite this abundance of documentation, the... more
In spite of the long years of studies, the interest in Mesopotamian scribal education, focusing on the Old Babylonian period, is still alive, mostly due to the large bulk of school records. Despite this abundance of documentation, the real nature of the OB eduba remains controversial and there are many points yet to be understood. It is however evident that its function was two-fold: to train the scribe in the skills of his profession, and to maintain and hand down the huge Mesopotamian cultural heritage.
It is a shared opinion that in the OB scribal schools there was the idea of a curriculum, a structured set of exercises aiming at a particular educational purpose, which has been recently reconstructed and discussed, based mainly on the Nippur evidence.
In the last phase of the first scribal education, pupils were comprehensively trained in the formal patterns of the administration and of the law through the compilations of model contracts, model court cases, Legal Phrasebooks and also series of laws.
Based on the new evidence given by the model contracts housed in three cuneiform collections (Hilprecht Sammlung - Jena University; Rosen Collection - Cornell University and Schøyen Collection), this paper will discuss some of the highlights of this documentation. In particular, it aims to focus on the features of the model contracts according to their provenience, and also on the existence of a network of contacts among the schools. It seems likely that school documents moved from one eduba to another within a regional network and that in some cases they were later combined to form collections.
The study of this new material will contribute to the description of the way in which, in ancient Mesopotamia, technical expertise was run and transmitted through the generations, thus updating our knowledge of Mesopotamian education.
It is a shared opinion that in the OB scribal schools there was the idea of a curriculum, a structured set of exercises aiming at a particular educational purpose, which has been recently reconstructed and discussed, based mainly on the Nippur evidence.
In the last phase of the first scribal education, pupils were comprehensively trained in the formal patterns of the administration and of the law through the compilations of model contracts, model court cases, Legal Phrasebooks and also series of laws.
Based on the new evidence given by the model contracts housed in three cuneiform collections (Hilprecht Sammlung - Jena University; Rosen Collection - Cornell University and Schøyen Collection), this paper will discuss some of the highlights of this documentation. In particular, it aims to focus on the features of the model contracts according to their provenience, and also on the existence of a network of contacts among the schools. It seems likely that school documents moved from one eduba to another within a regional network and that in some cases they were later combined to form collections.
The study of this new material will contribute to the description of the way in which, in ancient Mesopotamia, technical expertise was run and transmitted through the generations, thus updating our knowledge of Mesopotamian education.