Download or read book Life at the Bottom of Babylonian Society written by Jonathan S. Tanny and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2011-07-12 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Life at the Bottom of Babylonian Society is a study of the population dynamics, family structure, and legal status of publicly-controlled servile workers in Kassite Babylonia. It compares some of the demographic aspects proper to this group with other intensively studied past populations, such as Roman Egypt, Medieval Tuscany, and American slave plantations. It suggests that families, especially those headed by single mothers, acted as a counter measure against population reduction (flight and death) and as a means for the state to control this labor force. The work marks a step forward in the use of quantitative measures in conjunction with cuneiform sources to achieve a better understanding of the social and economic forces that affected ancient Near Eastern populations.
Download or read book Life at the Bottom of Babylonian Society written by Jonathan Stuart Tenney and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 558 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The public servile labor force at Nippur can be identified by standard Middle Babylonian markers of sex-age class and physical condition as well as by other distinctive designations (e. g., qinnu, am ilutu) in a corpus of more than five hundred tablets and fragments dating between 1359 and 1224 B.C. This collection of administrative texts, legal documents, and letters partially illuminates for us several key features of this group, including aspects of its demographic composition, its family and household organization, its occupations, and the administrative structure concerned with maintaining, tracking, and controlling the laborers.
Download or read book On Human Bondage written by John Bodel and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2016-12-22 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On Human Bondage—a critical reexamination of Orlando Patterson’s groundbreaking Slavery and Social Death—assesses how his theories have stood the test of time and applies them to new case studies. Discusses the novel ideas of social death and natal alienation, as Patterson first presented them 35 years ago and as they are understood today Brings together exciting new work by a group of esteemed historians of slavery, as well as a final chapter by Patterson himself that responds to and expands upon the other contributions Provides insights into slave societies around the world and across time, from classical Greece and Rome to modern Brazil and the Caribbean, and from Han China and pre-colonial South Asia to early modern Europe and the New World Delves into a wide range of topics, including the reformation of social identity after slavery, the new historicist approach to slavery, rituals of enslavement and servitude, questions of honor and dishonor, and symbolic imagery of slavery
Download or read book Middle Babylonian Texts in the Cornell Collections Part II written by Elena Devecchi and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2020-12-11 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume completes the publication of Middle Babylonian texts from the Rosen Collection that date to the Kassite period, a project that was initiated by Wilfred H. van Soldt with CUSAS 30 in 2015. In this book, Elena Devecchi provides full transliterations, translations, and extended commentaries of 338 previously unpublished cuneiform tablets from Kassite Babylonia (ca. 1475–1155 BCE). Most of the texts are dated to the reigns of Nazi-Maruttaš and Kadašman-Turgu, but the collection also includes one tablet dating to the reign of Burna-Buriaš II and a few documents from the reigns of Kadašman-Enlil II, Kudur-Enlil, and Šagarakti-Šuriaš, as well as some that are not dated. The tablets published here are largely administrative records dealing with the income, storage, and redistribution of agricultural products and byproducts, animal husbandry, and textile production, while legal documents and letters comprise a smaller portion of the collection. Evidence suggests that these documents originated from an administrative center that interacted closely with the provincial capital Nippur and must have been located in its vicinity. They thus expand significantly our previous knowledge of the Nippur region under Kassite rule, hitherto almost exclusively based on sources that came from Nippur itself, and provide substantial new data for the study of central aspects of society, economy, and administration that traditionally lie at the core of research about Kassite Babylonia.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of the State in the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean written by Peter Fibiger Bang and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2013-01-31 with total page 568 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tracing the evolution of the state from its beginnings to the early Middle Ages, this comprehensive handbook focuses on key institutions and dynamics while providing accessible accounts of states and empires in the ancient Near East and Mediterranean.
Download or read book Prisons in Ancient Mesopotamia written by J. Nicholas Reid and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Prisons in Ancient Mesopotamia explores the earliest historical evidence related to imprisonment in the history of the world. While many historical investigations into prisons have revolved around the important question of punishment, this work moves beyond that more narrow approach to consider the multifunctional practices of detaining the body in ancient Iraq. It is the contention of this book that imprisonment arose out of the desire to control and detain the body in relation to labor. The practice of detainment for coercion became adaptable to a variety of circumstances and goals, which shaped the contexts and practices of imprisonment. With time, religious ideology was attached to imprisonment. In one literary text, a prisoner was refined like silver and given new birth in the prison. The misery of imprisonment gave rise to lament through which a criminal could be ritually purified and restored to a right relationship with their personal god. Beyond this literary perspective, this work reconstructs how imprisonment and religious ideology intersected with the judicial process and explores the evidence related to the reasons behind imprisonment, the treatment of prisoners, and the evidence related to the lengths of their stays.
Download or read book What s Left of Marxism written by Benjamin Zachariah and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2020-09-21 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Have Marxian ideas been relevant or influential in the writing and interpretation of history? What are the Marxist legacies that are now re-emerging in present-day histories? This volume is an attempt at relearning what the “discipline” of history once knew – whether one considered oneself a Marxist, a non-Marxist or an anti-Marxist.
Download or read book Children in the Ancient Near Eastern Household written by Kristine Garroway and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2014-10-14 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Children were an important part of the ancient Near Eastern household. This idea seems straightforward, but it can be understood in many ways. On a basic level, children are necessary for the perpetuation of a household. On a deeper level, the definitions of child and member of the household are far from categorical. This book begins to explore the multiple definitions of child and the way the child fits within a household. It examines what membership in the household looks like for children and what factors contribute to it. A study addressing what a child is and how a child’s gender and social status affect her place in the household is vital to a proper understanding of the ancient Near Eastern household. Despite their importance, children have long been marginalized in discussions of ancient societies. Only recently has this trend begun to change within biblical and ancient Near Eastern scholarship. A recent wave of studies, especially in relation to the Hebrew Bible, has started to address children in their own right. In light of the current state of scholarship on children, the purpose of this book is threefold. First, Garroway continues to fill out the picture of the child in the ancient Near East by compiling child-centric texts and archaeological realia. In analyzing these materials, she surveys the relationship between children and ancient Near Eastern society by examining the extent to which structuring forces in a community, such as social status and gender, contribute to the process of a child’s becoming a member of his household and society. Finally, this information provides a base for future research, for example, a cross-cultural study of children in the ancient Near East in Classical Antiquity.
Download or read book The Role of Women in Work and Society in the Ancient Near East written by Brigitte Lion and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2016-09-12 with total page 586 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Economic history is well documented in Assyriology, thanks to the preservation of dozens of thousands of clay tablets recording administrative operations, contracts and acts dealing with family law. Despite these voluminous sources, the topic of work and the contribution of women have rarely been addressed. This book examines occupations involving women over the course of three millennia of Near Eastern history. It presents the various aspects of women as economic agents inside and outside of the family structure. Inside the family, women were the main actors in the production of goods necessary for everyday life. In some instances, their activities exceeded the simple needs of the household and were integrated within the production of large organizations or commercial channels. The contributions presented in this volume are representative enough to address issues in various domains: social, economic, religious, etc., from varied points of view: archaeological, historical, sociological, anthropological, and with a gender perspective. This book will be a useful tool for historians, anthropologists, archaeologists and graduate students interested in the economy of the ancient Near East and in women and gender studies.
Download or read book Bridging the Gap Disciplines Times and Spaces in Dialogue Volume 1 written by Christian W. Hess and published by Archaeopress Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2021-12-31 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Proceedings of the Broadening Horizons 6 conference (2019): Volume 1 presents 17 papers from Session 1: Entanglement. Material Culture and Written Sources in Dialogue; Session 2: Integrating Sciences in Historical and Archaeological Research; and Session 5: Which Continuity? Evaluating Stability, Transformation, and Change in Transitional Periods.
Download or read book Ten Cities that Led the World written by Paul Strathern and published by Hodder & Stoughton. This book was released on 2022-02-10 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'A book of ideas [...] Strathern ably guides us through these moments of glory.' -- The Times *** Great cities are complex, chaotic and colossal. These are cities that dominate the world stage and define eras; where ideas flourish, revolutions are born and history is made. Through ten unique cities, from the founding of ancient capitals to buzzing modern megacities, Paul Strathern explores how urban centres lead civilisation forward, enjoying a moment of glory before passing on the baton. We journey back to discover Babylonian mathematics, Athenian theatre and intellectual debate, and Roman construction that has lasted millennia. We see Constantinople evolve into Istanbul, revolutionary sparks fly in Enlightenment Paris, and the railways, canals and ships that built Imperial London. In Moscow men build spaceships while others starve, New York's skyscrapers rise up to a soundtrack of jazz, Mumbai becomes home to immense wealth and poverty, and Beijing's economic transformation leads the way. Each city has its own distinct personality, and Ten Cities that Led the World brings their rich and diverse histories to life, reminding us of the foundations we have built on and how our futures will be shaped.
Download or read book Din micas sociales y roles entre mujeres written by Beatriz Noria-Serrano and published by Archaeopress Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2023-07-13 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Papers in this volume aim to reevaluate the importance of women as active and powerful social agents in the definition of ancient cultures, their contribution to the economic and social development of the community and to the position, reputation, and prestige of their families.
Download or read book A Day in a Working Life 3 volumes written by Gary Westfahl and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2015-04-21 with total page 2543 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ideal for high school and college students studying history through the everyday lives of men and women, this book offers intriguing information about the jobs that people have held, from ancient times to the 21st century. This unique book provides detailed studies of more than 300 occupations as they were practiced in 21 historical time periods, ranging from prehistory to the present day. Each profession is examined in a compelling essay that is specifically written to inform readers about career choices in different times and cultures, and is accompanied by a bibliography of additional sources of information, sidebars that relate historical issues to present-day concerns, as well as related historical documents. Readers of this work will learn what each profession entailed or entails on a daily basis, how one gained entry to the vocation, training methods, and typical compensation levels for the job. The book provides sufficient specific detail to convey a comprehensive understanding of the experiences, benefits, and downsides of a given profession. Selected accompanying documents further bring history to life by offering honest testimonies from people who actually worked in these occupations or interacted with those in that field.
Download or read book Greek Slave Systems in their Eastern Mediterranean Context c 800 146 BC written by David M. Lewis and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-07-12 with total page 383 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The orthodox view of ancient Mediterranean slavery holds that Greece and Rome were the only 'genuine slave societies' of the ancient world, that is, societies in which slave labour contributed significantly to the economy and underpinned the wealth of elites. Other societies, labelled 'societies with slaves', have been thought to have made little use of slave labour and therefore have been largely ignored in recent scholarship. This volume presents a radically different view of the ancient world of the Eastern Mediterranean, portraying it as a patchwork of regional slave systems. Although slavery was indeed particularly highly developed in Greece and Rome, it was also entrenched in Carthage and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean, and played a not insignificant role in the affairs of elites in Assyria, Babylonia, and Persia. In Greece, diversity was the rule: from the early archaic period onwards, differing historical trajectories in various regions shaped the institution of slavery in manifold ways, producing very different slave systems in regions such as Sparta, Crete, and Attica. However, in the wider Eastern Mediterranean world, we find a similar level of diversity: slavery was exploited to differing degrees across all of these regions, and was the outcome of a complex interplay between cultural, economic, political, geographic, and demographic variables. In seeking to contextualize slaving practices across the Greek world through detailed soundings of the slaving practices of the Israelites, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, and Carthaginians, this volume not only provides new insights into these ancient cultures, but also allows for a nuanced exploration of the economic underpinnings of Greek elite culture that sets its reliance on slavery within a broader context and sheds light on the complex circumstances from which it emerged.
Download or read book Debt and Indebtedness at Emar written by Maurizio Viano and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2023-06-19 with total page 561 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is the first comprehensive study of debts and credit system at Emar. It focuses on the socio-economic aspects of credit access and indebtedness as well as on the motivations behind debts and debt settlement in the city of Emar. The credit system is analyzed through several factors: the purpose of debts, i.e., productive or consumptive; the procedures for granting loans; the strategies put in place to meet an obligation and to cope with economic difficulties; the consequences of non-fulfillment, which may lead to servitude or slavery; the different types of slavery; slave prices; the mechanisms of enslavement; and termination of slavery. Moneylending practices and the formation of servile conditions at Emar are studied in the context of the Syrian economy aiming to understand whether the Emar evidence conforms with a socio political and economic crisis that is generally acknowledged to have struck Syria, Anatolia and Northern Mesopotamia at the end of the Late Bronze Age. This work is of sure relevance for scholars interested in socio-economic history, not only of the pertinent historical-geographical area.
Download or read book Against the Grain written by James C. Scott and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2017-08-22 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An account of all the new and surprising evidence now available for the beginnings of the earliest civilizations that contradict the standard narrative Why did humans abandon hunting and gathering for sedentary communities dependent on livestock and cereal grains, and governed by precursors of today’s states? Most people believe that plant and animal domestication allowed humans, finally, to settle down and form agricultural villages, towns, and states, which made possible civilization, law, public order, and a presumably secure way of living. But archaeological and historical evidence challenges this narrative. The first agrarian states, says James C. Scott, were born of accumulations of domestications: first fire, then plants, livestock, subjects of the state, captives, and finally women in the patriarchal family—all of which can be viewed as a way of gaining control over reproduction. Scott explores why we avoided sedentism and plow agriculture, the advantages of mobile subsistence, the unforeseeable disease epidemics arising from crowding plants, animals, and grain, and why all early states are based on millets and cereal grains and unfree labor. He also discusses the “barbarians” who long evaded state control, as a way of understanding continuing tension between states and nonsubject peoples.
Download or read book The Imperialisation of Assyria written by Bleda S. Düring and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-01-30 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How can we understand the remarkable success of the Assyrian Empire? This book provides an agent-centred explanation using archaeological data.
