Suchergebnisse

Abstract[A review article of MARC VAN DE MIEROOP, Society and Enterprise in Old Babylonian Ur, Berliner Beiträge zum Vorderen Orient Bd. 12, Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin 1992, xviii + 328 pp., DM 78.—]

Even though scholars have known of Neo-Babylonian legal texts almost since Assyriology's very beginnings, no comprehensive study of court procedure has been undertaken. This book presents a comprehensive classification of the text-types that made up the 'tablet trail' of records of the adjudication of legal disputes in the Neo-Babylonian.

The article criticizes the theory of the assyriologist M. van de Mieroop about the existence of Babylonian philosophy, set forth in his monograph and detailed theses. Each thesis of this theory is quoted and analyzed in detail. The differ­ences between the philosophical statement and the philosophical worldview from the religious and scientific statements of the peoples of ancient Mesopotamia are determined. It has been established that a philosophical statement can only be the author's and is necessarily criticized by other authors. In philosophical rea­soning about the universe, the principle of non-possessiveness of the universal is obligatory. The universe is understood by philosophers as the unity of all things. At the same time, the universe is conceived as consisting of primary elements. In philosophical thinking there is a hierarchy of categories, the idea of the begin­ning, the limit and the infinite. Unlike the philosophers, the authors of the Sume­rian and Akkadian texts were nameless and did not quote or criticize each other. In their reasoning, the universal is always associated with the belonging of many things to one subject, and the world order is understood exclusively as power. The universe appears in the Sumero-Akkadian texts as a multitude of possessed things. Cuneiform texts up to the 5th century B.C. do not know the concept of primary elements. They lack logical definitions and chains of logical reason­ing, the hierarchy of categories, the idea of the beginning, the limit and the infi­nite. Thus, the constructions of the priests and scientists of ancient Mesopotamia, from our point of view, cannot be called philosophical texts.

An examination of all the extant, provenanced depictions of composite beings, Mischwesen, in Neo-Babylonian iconography sheds important new light on the worldview of the last great Mesopotamian civilization. The types of hybrids that are portrayed include such disparate forms as the apkallu and the genius in human form, as well as creatures based on bulls, lions, canines, winged quadrupeds, fish, birds, scorpions, and snakes. Each composite being is analyzed in terms of its physical components, its context within scenes, its historical development, and its interpretation in NB texts. Within the hierarchical cosmic community, some lower deities and sub-divine beings appear in composite form. These play a key role in the cosmos by interacting with gods, with each other, with humans, and with natural animals. Their behavior parallels dynamics found in natural life, such as in competition, conflict, predation, protection, and in the service of others who are more powerful. In hybrids the capabilities of natural animals and humans are heightened by the selective addition of features derived from other species. There is no consistent correlation, however, between the strength of a natural creature and the relative power of the superhuman being that it symbolizes, or between its physical complexity and its placement in the cosmic hierarchy. In fact, the transcendence of high gods is often emphasized by their simple representation through attribute animals in natural form.Portrayals of composite beings often express the need for protection from malevolent powers by beneficent beings, some of whom can be accessed only through human mediators, such as ritual functionaries. Special relationships between supernatural beings and elite humans, especially the king, make such humans indispensable and therefore support their roles in the existing social order. It appears that the choice of a particular being portrayed on a given object could be influenced by factors such as its owner's profession, religious and/or political affiliations, and especially by the apotropaic function(s) of specific composite beings.

Abstract
To date, servility and servile systems in Babylonia have been explored with the traditional lexical approach of Assyriology. If one examines servility as an aggregate phenomenon, these subjects can be investigated on a much larger scale with quantitative approaches. Using servile populations as a point of departure, this paper applies both quantitative and qualitative methods to explore Babylonian population dynamics in general; especially morbidity, mortality, and ages at which Babylonians experienced important life events. As such, it can be added to the handful of publications that have sought basic demographic data in the cuneiform record, and therefore has value to those scholars who are also interested in migration and settlement. It suggests that the origins of servile systems in Babylonia can be explained with the Nieboer-Domar hypothesis, which proposes that large-scale systems of bondage will arise in regions with plentiful land but few workers. Once established, these systems persisted and were reinforced through Babylonia's high balance mortality, political ideologies, economic incentives, and social structures.