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Abstract The story of the " archives of Lagaba " is that of a long rediscovery of texts (nearly 500 in all) scattered among collections of tablets mostly built up in the 1930s. It began with the identification in the 1950s by W. F. Leemans and R. Frankena …

Abstract In my chapter " Verba volant scripta non manent " published in the Amurru 3 volume featuring the contributions to the 46th   Rencontre Assyriologique, already sixteen years ago, I had mentioned the presence of a number of texts with …

Abstract Boats, due to Mesopotamia's geographical setting, were ubiquitous in Babylonia. They, their boatmen, boat owners and shipping related matters turn up in many archives of the Old Babylonian period, be they institutional or private. They are found …

Abstract We are well-aware of the standardized shapes and sizes of different types of cuneiform tablets. Old Babylonian school tablets are classified in five very distinctly shaped types. For most of records of the administrative archives of large …

Abstract In the trade and economy of the Old Babylonian period wealthy families played an important role. The property of these families was under the control of the pater familias . When the father died the property was inherited by his sons and his …

Abstract The importance of temples in the socio-political reality of ancient Mesopotamia is clearly attested in cuneiform documentation dating back to the earliest times. A unique function of the Mesopotamian temples, attested in the cuneiform …

Abstract In three campaigns between 1998 and 2000, J.-C. Margueron excavated poorly preserved architectural units at " Chantier K " near Mari's Grand Palais Royal, which he named the " Maison aux tablettes " because of the 2,000 tablets and fragments …

Abstract Early in 1931, while excavating the archaeological site of Ur in southern Iraq, English archaeologist Leonard Woolley and his team found several hundred discarded tablets inside a house located to the southeast of the temple zone. These were …

Abstract Although there are many scholarly cuneiform tablets mentioning animals, unlike other ancient cultures, Mesopotamia did not produce any treatises on zoology. As a result, the identification of animal species is often tricky, while access to …

Abstract Although interest in the study of emotions in Assyriology is recent, the subject is attracting more and more Assyriologists. Anthropology, sociology, linguistic studies and studies of other historical periods have shown that the expression of …

Abstract Just a little under forty years after the first Old Babylonian archival documents were published, the project of a comprehensive dictionary of Akkadian was initiated by James Henri Breasted in Chicago. Over the course of ninety years (1921-2011), …

Abstract The site of Chagar Bazar, tell located in North-East Syria, in the center of the Habur triangle, in the Upper Jezira region, is well known from the excavations carried out by Sir Max Mallowan between 1935 and 1937. It was on this occasion that …

Abstract In 1978, H. Weiss and Yale University began excavating Tell Leilan, a large walled oval site located in northeastern Syria, in the Habur plain, some 25 km south of Qamichli, identified with ancient Šehna/Šubat-Enlil. Excavations uncovered remains …

Abstract Meat supply and consumption are generally documented in texts dealing with " live meat " : herd management, contributions or expenditure of animals. The archives administrative archives found in Mari's palace provide a rare, small corpus of texts …

Abstract Auditing ( nipiṣ nikkassī ) was the main procedure for controlling the activities of any Paleo-Babylonian manager : a balance sheet was drawn up between, on the one hand, the goods he received ( namḫartum ) and, on the other, his expenses (ṣītum …

Abstract A great part of the Old Babylonian archival texts kept nowadays in museum collections come from illicit excavations, and therefore lack archaeological and archival context. By studying these texts, and specifically the persons playing an active …

Abstract Excavations of the ancient city of Terqa have yielded a modest quantity of texts, compared with its neighbor Mari, but they are spread over a slightly wider chronological arc, from the Shakkanakku period to the beginning of the Late Bronze Age, …

Abstract It is well known that, in the Old Babylonian Period, a cuneiform tablet inscribed with a juridical text was often encased in a clay envelope and the tablet's text was reproduced on the envelope's surface. This practice was intended to prevent …

Abstract When Samsi-Addu succeeded in creating a vast empire in Upper Mesopotamia, he accompanied his military conquests with cultural measures. The construction of temples in several cities was perhaps the most visible of these. Administration was also …