Writing, Law, and Kingship in Old Babylonian Mesopotamia by Dominique Charpin, Hardcover, 9780226101583 | Buy online at The Nile
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Writing, Law, and Kingship in Old Babylonian Mesopotamia

Author: Dominique Charpin and Jane Marie Todd  

Hardcover

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. This book focuses on the legal systems of Old Babylonian Mesopotamia.

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Summary

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. This book focuses on the legal systems of Old Babylonian Mesopotamia.

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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 2200–1600 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.

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Critic Reviews

“"The author has succeeded in presenting diverse studies on writing, law, and kingship as a coherent whole. The very reader-friendly, yet still precise, langua≥ well-organized structure; and succinct, clear manner of describing complex relationships make this informative book a pleasure to read."”

"Charpin is to be congratulated, for he has furthered considerably our understanding of an important period in Mesopotamian history." - Journal of the American Oriental Society"

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About the Author

Dominique Charpin is directeur d'etudes, section des Sciences historiques et philologiques, Ecole pratique des hautes etudes at the University of Paris. He is the author of Lire et Ecrire a Babylone, most recently, among several other books. Jane Marie Todd is the translator of numerous books for the University of Chicago Press.

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Product Details

Publisher
The University of Chicago Press | University of Chicago Press
Published
15th November 2010
Pages
200
ISBN
9780226101583

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