Books in the Nisaba series

Seven years in the making, this publication restores a major section of the archives of the Sumerian city of Iri-Saĝrig/Āl-Sarrākī during the Third Dynasty of Ur (ca. 2012-2004 B.C.E.).The volumes contain the transliterations of 1,159 texts now scattered over five continents in public and private collections. They represent the archival records of the office of the governor of the city and add a wide variety of texts, some types of which are entirely new, to our knowledge of the period. The texts provide significant new evidence on foreign relations with Elam, religion and cult, the Ur III royal family, the Ur III local economy and professions, and a new calendar. Volume 1 consists of an extensive overview of the archives by David I. Owen, supplemented by contributions by Hagan Brunke (rations), Douglas Frayne (history and geography), Wolfgang Heimpel (sesame cultivation), and Gonzalo Rubio and Christopher Woods (Sumerian grammar), as well as an excursus by Owen on the importance of publishing unprovenanced texts. Comprehensive indexes by Alexandra Kleinerman and extensive notes by Owen facilitate access to the extensive and often unique data in the texts presented in volume 2. A selection of copies and photos is provided in volume 2.These volumes constitute a major addition to the evidence for the history and culture of the Third Dynasty of Ur and will be of interest to historians, anthropologists, archaeologists, and Assyriologists.

The period between the accession of Nabonasser, in 747 B.C.E., and the accession of Nabopolasser, in 625 B.C.E., was a period of significant stability for the city of Babylon, due in large part to the projection of Assyrian power in the region. During this transitional period, increased economic activity throughout Babylonia resulted in an increase in the amount of written evidence. And the legal and administrative texts that have thus far come to light are, in the words of J. A. Brinkman, “a mine of information for researchers interested in demography, social institutions, economic history, and even ancient technology.” In this volume, John Nielsen provides an index of the personal names found on texts from this period. As such, the index is a valuable supplement to the Prosopography of the Neo-Assyrian Empire project (Helsinki). Information presented in the book is modeled on the Helsinki project’s publications. The index includes comprehensive cross-references to the CAD, Stamm’s Namengebung, the Helsinki PNAE indexes, Hölscher’s Personennamen, and Knut Tallqvist’s Neubabylonisch Namenbuch. Nielsen’s prosopographical index adds a major new resource to the study of the Neo-Babylonian period.