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Judeans in Babylonia Judeans in Babylonia Tero Alstola - 978-90-04-36542-1 Downloaded from Brill.com12/16/2019 04:16:53PM via free access <UN> Culture and History of the Ancient Near East Founding Editor M.H.E. Weippert Editor-in-Chief Jonathan Stökl Editors Eckart Frahm W. Randall Garr B. Halpern Theo P.J. van den Hout Leslie Anne Warden Irene J. Winter volume 109 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/chan Tero Alstola - 978-90-04-36542-1 Downloaded from Brill.com12/16/2019 04:16:53PM via free access <UN> Judeans in Babylonia A Study of Deportees in the Sixth and Fifth Centuries bce by Tero Alstola leiden | boston Tero Alstola - 978-90-04-36542-1 Downloaded from Brill.com12/16/2019 04:16:53PM via free access <UN> This is an open access title distributed under the terms of the CC-BY-NC 4.0 License, which permits any non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Alstola, Tero, author. Title: Judeans in Babylonia : a study of deportees in the sixth and fifth centuries BCE / Tero Alstola. Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, [2020] | Series: Culture and history of the ancient Near East, 1566–2055 ; volume 109 | Includes bibliographical references. | Summary: “In Judeans in Babylonia, Tero Alstola presents a comprehensive investigation of deportees in the sixth and fifth centuries BCE. By using cuneiform documents as his sources, he offers the first book-length social historical study of the Babylonian Exile, commonly regarded as a pivotal period in the development of Judaism. The results are considered in the light of the wider Babylonian society and contrasted against a comparison group of Neirabian deportees. Studying texts from the cities and countryside and tracking developments over time, Alstola shows that there was notable diversity in the Judeans’ socio-economic status and integration into Babylonian society”-- Provided by publisher. Identifiers: LCCN 2019044633 (print) | LCCN 2019044634 (ebook) | ISBN 9789004365414 (hardback) | ISBN 9789004365421 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Jews--History--Babylonian captivity, 598–515 B.C. | Jews--History--586 B.C.-70 A.D. | Jews--Social conditions. | Jews--Economic conditions. Classification: LCC DS121.65 .A75 2020 (print) | LCC DS121.65 (ebook) | DDC 935/.004924009014--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019044633 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019044634 Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface. ISSN 1566-2055 ISBN 978-90-04-36541-4 (hardback) ISBN 978-90-04-36542-1 (e-book) Copyright 2020 by Tero Alstola. Published by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi, Brill Sense, Hotei Publishing, mentis Verlag, Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh and Wilhelm Fink Verlag. Koninklijke Brill NV reserves the right to protect the publication against unauthorized use and to authorize dissemination by means of offprints, legitimate photocopies, microform editions, reprints, translations, and secondary information sources, such as abstracting and indexing services including databases. Requests for commercial re-use, use of parts of the publication, and/or translations must be addressed to Koninklijke Brill NV. This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner. Tero Alstola - 978-90-04-36542-1 Downloaded from Brill.com12/16/2019 04:16:53PM via free access <UN> Contents Acknowledgements IX List of Figures and Tables XI Conventions and Abbreviations xii 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Aims and Relevance of This Study 1 1.2 Historical Background 2 1.2.1 Political History 2 1.2.2 Forced and Voluntary Migration in the Ancient Near East 8 1.2.3 Deportations from Judah to Babylonia 11 1.2.4 Babylonian Society 15 1.3 Babylonian Exile: Reception and Research History 24 1.3.1 Reception History 24 1.3.2 Research History 27 1.4 Sources 33 1.4.1 The Hebrew Bible 34 1.4.2 Cuneiform Sources 37 1.4.2.1 Archival Approach 38 1.4.2.2 Ethics and Unprovenanced Artefacts 39 1.4.2.3 Text Groups 43 1.4.3 Archaeology 46 1.5 Identifying Foreigners in Babylonian Sources 47 1.5.1 Naming Practices in Babylonia 47 1.5.2 Yahwistic Names as the Criterion for Identifying Judeans 49 2 Judean Royalty and Professionals in Babylon 58 2.1 Introduction 58 2.2 German Excavations at Babylon 58 2.3 The Palace Archive of Nebuchadnezzar II 60 2.4 Foreign Royalty and Professionals in Babylon 63 2.5 Living Conditions in Babylon and Jehoiachin’s Amnesty 70 2.6 Conclusion 77 3 Judean Merchants in Babylonia 79 3.1 Introduction 79 3.2 Trade and Traders in Babylonia 80 Tero Alstola - 978-90-04-36542-1 Downloaded from Brill.com12/16/2019 04:16:53PM via free access <UN> vi Contents 3.3 Judean Royal Merchants in Sippar 82 3.3.1 Sources 82 3.3.2 Social Network 91 3.3.3 Identity, Integration, and Socio-Economic Status 95 3.4 Other Judean Merchants in Babylonia 98 3.5 Conclusion: Long-Distance Trade and Judean Merchants 100 4 Texts from Yāhūdu, Našar, and Their Surroundings 102 4.1 Introduction 102 4.2 Geographical and Economic Environment 104 4.2.1 The Location of Yāhūdu and Našar 104 4.2.2 The Land-for-Service Sector: Economic Environment of the Texts 108 4.3 Text Groups and Their Protagonists 110 4.3.1 Three or More Groups? 110 4.3.2 Texts Pertaining to Rīmūt/Abī-ul-īde and Rīmūt/ Samak-Yāma 112 4.3.3 Texts Pertaining to Ahīqar, Son of Rīmūt 115 4.3.4 Texts Pertaining to Bēl-ahhē-erība, Son of Nūr-Šamaš 120 4.3.5 Scribes and Royal Administration in Našar 121 4.3.6 Texts Relating to Yāhūdu 125 4.3.6.1 General Remarks 125 4.3.6.2 Early Texts Relating to Yāhūdu 126 4.3.6.3 Texts Pertaining to Ahīqam/Rapā-Yāma and His Sons 133 4.3.6.4 Royal Administration in the Environs of Yāhūdu 142 4.3.7 Texts from Āl-šarri 146 4.3.8 Texts Pertaining to Zababa-šar-uṣur and Bīt-Abī-râm 148 4.3.9 Loosely Connected and Isolated Texts 152 4.3.10 Administrative Practices and the Origins of the Text Corpus 154 4.4 Judeans in Yāhūdu and Its Surroundings 159 5 Judeans in the Murašû Archive 164 5.1 Introduction 164 5.1.1 The Murašû Archive 164 5.1.2 Judeans in the Murašû Archive 167 5.1.3 Seal Impressions 169 5.2 Yadi-Yāma and Pili-Yāma: Entrepreneurs or Representatives? 170 Tero Alstola - 978-90-04-36542-1 Downloaded from Brill.com12/16/2019 04:16:53PM via free access <UN> Contents vii 5.2.1 Business Partners of the Murašûs? 171 5.2.2 Yadi-Yāma and the Village of Bīt-Gērāya 172 5.2.3 Pili-Yāma’s Transactions 174 5.2.4 Yāhû-natan, Son of Yadi-Yāma 177 5.2.5 Representatives of a Community of Farmers 178 5.3 Judean Landholders and the Land-for-Service Sector 181 5.3.1 General Features 181 5.3.2 Haṭru of the Sēpirus 186 5.3.2.1 Haṭrus in the Murašû Archive 186 5.3.2.2 Haṭru of the Sēpirus (of the Troops) 187 5.3.2.3 Haṭrus and High-Ranking Sēpirus 189 5.3.2.4 Conclusion 194 5.3.3 Large-Scale Landholding: Rahīm-il and His Family 196 5.3.4 Other Judean Landholders 200 5.3.5 Patterns of Judean Landholding 201 5.4 Judean Officials 203 5.5 Judean Witnesses 206 5.6 Socio-Economic Status 207 5.6.1 The Framework of the Archive: the Land-for-Service Sector 207 5.6.2 Taxation and Service Obligations 209 5.6.3 Dependency and Freedom 211 5.7 Culture 213 5.7.1 Seal Use 213 5.7.2 Naming Practices 218 5.7.3 Conclusion 219 5.8 Conclusion 220 6 Judeans Outside the Main Archives 223 6.1 Officials 223 6.2 Temples 226 6.3 Royal Lands and the Land-for-Service Sector 231 6.4 Miscellaneous Texts 234 6.5 Seals of Exiles 235 6.6 Conclusion 235 7 The Neirabian Community in Babylonia 237 7.1 Neirab of Syria and Neirab of Babylonia 237 7.2 The Archive and Its Socio-Economic Context 241 7.2.1 The Protagonists of the Texts 241 7.2.2 Promissory Notes for Barley 242 Tero Alstola - 978-90-04-36542-1 Downloaded from Brill.com12/16/2019 04:16:53PM via free access <UN> 7.2.3 Promissory Notes for Silver 244 7.2.4 Diverse Documents 246 7.3 Conclusion 248 8 Conclusions 251 8.1 Sources: the Perspective of Babylonian Scribes 252 8.2 Resettlement and Organisation of Deportees 254 8.3 Social and Economic Aspects of Life in Babylonia 258 8.4 Women 263 8.5 Religion 265 8.6 Identity and Integration 272 Research Data 277 Bibliographical Abbreviations 278 Bibliography 282 General Index 341 Terms 345 Sources 347 Tero Alstola - 978-90-04-36542-1 Downloaded from Brill.com12/16/2019 04:16:53PM via free access Acknowledgements This book is a revised version of my doctoral dissertation submitted under a cotutelle agreement to Leiden University and the University of Helsinki in 2017. My work in Leiden was financially supported by the ERC Starting Grant project ‘By the Rivers of Babylon: New Perspectives on Second Temple Judaism from Cuneiform Texts’.
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