Writing, law, and kingship in Old Babylonian Mesopotamia

Description

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 to 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 consid.;The historian's task and sources -- Reading and writing in Mesopotamia: the business of specialists? -- Outline for a diplomatics of Mesopotamian documents -- Old Babylonian law: gesture, speech, and writing -- The transfer of property deeds and the constitution of family archives -- The status of the Code of Hammurabi -- The "restoration" edicts of the Babylonian kings and their application -- Hammurabi and international law -- Controlling cross-border traffic -- A civilization with two faces.