MESOPOTAMIA MIDDLE BABYLONIAN PERIOD Kathryn Slanski Middle Babylonian is a linguistic term describing the language of documents written in Akkadian in Babylonia (southern Mesopotamia) in the sixteenth through eleventh centuries. Middle Babylonian is also used to designate the historical period of that place and time. The Kingdom of Babylonia, known in international correspondence as màt Kardunia“, was ruled by two successive dynasties during this period.1 Following the collapse of the Old Babylonian Kingdom in 1595, a dynasty identified as Kassite took hold in northern Babylonia and by 1475 had extended control over the south as well. A dynasty claiming to hale from the ancient city of Isin claimed the Babylonian throne in 1157. The Isin II kings ruled for over a century, until 1026. Upstream from Babylon on the Middle Euphrates lay the ›ana Kingdom. The ›ana Kingdom has recently been dated to the Middle Babylonian period,2 and it is likely that the Middle Euphrates region was at times independent and at times a vassal state under foreign control. 1. S L Although there are abundant archaeological and textual sources for this period, these have yet to be systematically studied, and so knowl- edge of the history of the period, including the history of law, is provisional. 1 For the history of Babylonia under the Kassite and Isin II dynasties, see Brinkman, “Kassiten,” and “Isin. B. II. Dynastie.” For a general overview of the Kassites, see Sommerfeld, “Kassites . .” Regnal dates follow Brinkman, “Chronology...” 2 Podany, “Middle Babylonian...” 486 1.1 Public-display inscriptions Neither law codes nor royal edicts composed during this latter part of the second millennium have been found.3 However, a new kind of public-display inscription is introduced during the Middle Baby- lonian period: the Babylonian Entitlement narû. Formerly known as kudurrus (“boundary markers” or “boundary stones”) recent research indicates that these artifacts stood not on field boundaries but in temples.4 They were known to the Babylonians simply as narû “(stone) monument,” and rather than marking bound- aries, their function was to commemorate acquisition of entitlement to a source of income in perpetuity. In most cases, this source of income was a plot of agricultural land, but income from temple prebends and real income stemming from release from traditional tax or labor obligations due the crown are also attested. The Entitle- ment narûs (henceforth simply narûs) commemorated acquisition to an entitlement and were intended to ensure that the entitlement be permanent, that is, inheritable, and remain part of the recipient’s family holdings theoretically forever. The narû inscriptions have formal characteristics both of monu- mental and legal texts. On the one hand, like other (i.e., royal) mon- umental inscriptions from Mesopotamia, the texts are written in archaizing script and elevated language. They are inscribed on stone and partnered with pictorial images of divine symbols or scenes of royal or cultic activity. On the other hand, the inscriptions charac- teristically open with a pithy description of the entitlement and go on to list witnesses to the entitlement transaction, give account of sealing of the entitlement, and provide a time and place of the trans- action—all elements associated with Mesopotamian legal records. Regardless of their formal classification, the narûs are a rich source of information for Middle Babylonian social and legal history. 1.2 Private or Archival Legal Records Far fewer private legal texts are available from the Middle Babylonian period than from the preceding Old Babylonian and succeeding Neo- 3 Note, however, that the text of the Law Stele of Hammurabi was known in the scribal schools of this time. See Finkelstein, “Hammurapi Law Tablet . .,” and Borger, BAL I, 2–4. 4 See Slanski, Study....