Texts from the Late Old Babylonian Period

The Late Old Babylonian period (1711-1595 B.C.) was at the end of 500 years of "uninterrupted textual production in lower Mesopotamia" (from the preface), and it was a time of political instability. Some documentary practices carried over from earlier times, and there were also innovations, some of which were precursors to later practices and others of which disappeared. Richardson has chosen texts to present and analyze that are "unusual, unexpected, or exceptional in some way. That is, this is not a volume of well-known text types (seeding loans, house rentals, ration accounts) as such, though a few of these find their way in." The documents relate to historical topics, and the author discusses them in greater detail than is usual. He includes texts that discuss "...provisioning systems, chronology, terminologies, and land redistribution...[hoping] that this combination satisfies the interest of both historians and Assyriologists." Distributed in North America by The David Brown Book Co. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Seth F. C. Richardson is a historian of the Ancient Near East who works in several different areas of ancient history. His work on the history of Mesopotamia's Old Babylonian period (ca. 2000-1600 B.C.) includes publications of cuneiform texts from the end of the period, and studies of political-economic questions about institutions, warfare, and prosopography. He also works on problems of violence, including its role in the rise of the ancient state, changing conceptions of the body, violations against individuals, rebellion, and social histories of the ancient military. Richardson has been Research Associate at the Oriental Institute and Managing Editor of the Journal of Near Eastern Studies since 2011.