On the Third Dynasty of Ur

Includes 36 b/w illustrations. The Ur III period (2112-2004 BCE) was one of the more significant periods in the history of ancient Mesopotamia for modern scholarship and for native cultural traditions and historiography as well. The centralized patrimonial bureaucracy of the time is documented by almost a hundred thousand known documents, and this was when much of what we know as classical Sumerian literature was first initiated. We would not have so many published texts at our disposal if it were not for the tireless efforts of Marcel Sigrist of the Ecole Biblique in Jerusalem, whose scholarship and generosity are celebrated in this volume in twenty-seven essays by an international group of grateful experts on Ur III studies. The subjects range from the publication of new administrative and magical texts, as well as a new piece of the Sumerian King List, to studies of merchants, land tenure, court records, royal concubines, scribes, foreign bodyguards, and even of cuisine.