The course introduces students with advanced knowledge of Akkadian to Neo-Babylonian archival texts. We read, among other things, deeds of sale of real estate and slaves, loan agreements, rental and lease agreements, etc. You will gain an overview of legal and social issues that were relevant in Babylonian society in the second half of the first millennium BC by reading secondary literature. The aim is to read and analyse Late Babylonian legal and administrative documents, to translate them, to place them in their context and to explain their legal and social background. At the beginning students get to know the form and familiarise with the Late Babylonian script and dialect. The level is gradually increased so that by the end of the course students are able to compile a scholarly edition of a previously unknown Neo-Babylonian text with a known (learnt) form.

The introduction to Neo-Babylonian and Late Babylonian archival texts will be continued in the summer semester 2025 with a reading course on Neo-Babylonian and Late Babylonian social history, which builds on this course.

Kurs im HIS-LSF