Law and (dis)order in the ancient Near East : proceedings of the 59th Rencontre assyriologique internationale held at Ghent, Belgium, 15-19 July 2013

Mesopotamia is often considered to be the birthplace of law codes. In recognition of this fact and motivated by the perennial interest in the topic among Assyriologists, the 59th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale was organized in Ghent in 2013 around the theme “Law and (Dis)Order in the Ancient Near East.” Based on papers delivered at that meeting, this volume contains twenty-six essays that focus on archaeological, philological, and historical topics related to order and chaos in the Ancient Near East. Written by a diverse array of international scholars, the contributions to this book explore laws and legal practices in the Ur III, Old Babylonian, Middle Assyrian, and Neo-Assyrian periods in Mesopotamia, as well as in Nuzi and the Hebrew Bible. Among the subjects covered are the Code of Hammurabi, legal phraseology, the archaeological traces of the organization of community life, and biblical law. The volume also contains essays that explore the concepts of chaos/disorder and law/order in divinatory texts and literature. Wide-ranging and cutting-edge, the essays in this collection will be of interest to Assyriologists, especially members of the International Association for Assyriology. Copyright Page 5 Table of CONtENTS 6 Chapter 1; Foreseeing the Future, Classifying the Present: On the Concepts of Law and Order in the Omen Literature 28 Chapter 2: Le vol à l’époque paléo- babylonienne : L’application de la loi à travers la jurisprudence 37 Chapter 3: “Let the Sleeping Dogs Lie” or the Taboo (NÍG.GIG=ikkibu) of the Sacredness of Sleepas Order and Noise at Night (“tapage nocturne”) as Disorder in Some Ancient Near Eastern Texts 46 Chapter 4: Lorsque les généraux prêtent serment ... : Quelques remarques sur l’usage du serment deloyauté (depuis la documentation d’Ur III jusqu’àl’époque néo- assyrienne) 64 Chapter 5: Unjust Law: Royal Rhetoric or Social Reality 75 Chapter 6: The Vocabulary of Rebellion in Neo- Assyrian Documents 88 Chapter 7: Legal Fiction in Emar and Ekalte: A Source of Order or Disorder in the Legal System 105 Chapter 8: What the “Man of One Mina” Wanted: Law and Commerce in the Ur III Period 114 Chapter 9: How Ancient Near Eastern Societies Regulated Life in the Community: Crucial Clues from Archaeology 122 Chapter 10: A Variationist Approach to Orthographic and Phonological Peculiarities of the Language in the Laws of Hammurabi 144 Chapter 11: “For Each Runaway Assyrian Fugitive, Let Me Replace Him One Hundred- Fold”: Fugitives/ Runaways in the Neo- Assyrian Empire 163 Chapter 12: Perfections of Justice? Measure for Measure Aspirations in Biblical and Cuneiform Sources 171 Chapter 13: Luminous Oils and Waters of Wisdom: Shedding New Light on Oil Divination 196 Chapter 14: Luminous Oils and Waters of Wisdom: Shedding New Light on Oil Divination 196 (Chapter 15: Mis) Translating Gender: The Scribes Couldn’t Have Been Competent, They Didn’t Go to Yale 204 Chapter 16: Rétablir l’ordre par la mort dans les textes législatifs du début du IIe millénaire av. J.-C. 226 Chapter 17: To Be Guilty at Nuzi 235 Chapter 18: Fremde Götter—eigene Götter: Zu de nneuassyrischen Götterbeschreibungen 246 Chapter 19: “Not Even Her Own Jewelry”: Marital Property in the Middle Assyrian Laws 269 Chapter 20: Disorder and Its Agents: The Akkadian Epic of Anzû Revisited 297 Chapter 21: When the Trial Does Not Work: Pathological Elements in the Judicial Procedure in the Old Babylonian Period 311 Chapter 22: The Ashurbanipal Library Project at the British Museum 318 Chapter 23: The Sea and Monarchic Legitimation in the Ancient Near East 324 Chapter 24: Putting Life in Order: The Architecture of the New Excavations in Kamid el- Loz, Lebanon 335 Chapter 25: Enmity Against Samsu- ditāna 351 "A collection of 26 essays delivered at the 2013 yearly meeting of the Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale on archaeological, philological, and historical topics related to order and chaos in the Ancient Near East"-- Provided by publisher