The Southern Babylonian Countryside in the Late 5th Century BCE

A View from Šāṭir

von Kathleen Abraham, Peter Zilberg

262 Seiten, Hardcover

Kurzbeschreibung des Verlags

The study is dedicated to the small city of Šāṭir, which was situated in the southern Babylonian countryside, near the major urban center of Uruk and in the Chaldean region of Bīt-Amukānu. What is known about it comes from legal and administrative texts drafted in the city itself, in towns or small villages in its vicinity and from the neighbouring urban centre of Uruk. This study focuses on those primary sources dated to the 5th century BCE, a period when all of Babylonia was under Persian Achaemenid rule. It contains 28 documents published here for the first time, supplemented by updated editions of 10 previously published documents from Šāṭir and nearby sites. As limited as this textual evidence is, it nevertheless allows a view on agricultural and cultural life in rural southern Babylonia. It will be argued that the evidence from Šāṭir can serve as a promising micro-historical case study of the hinterland of Uruk, because of the scarcity of comparable textual evidence from 5th century Babylonia, the texts’ pronounced focus on local issues and concerns, and the unique location of Šāṭir, between two disparate cultural and political spheres of influence, namely the world of urban Babylonia on the one hand and that of the Chaldean tribes from Bīt-Amukānu on the other. The discussion and analysis of the evidence shows that Šāṭir was an example of how local urban centres functioned and ruled over various population groups in the southern Babylonian periphery. The reality of life in Šāṭir under Achaemenid rule was one of agrarian opportunities, challenges, and local resilience, in an environment of linguistic and cultural complexity.

• Reihe: dubsar / Altorientalistische Publikationen / Publications on the Ancient Near East
• ISBN: 9783963272608
• Sprache: Englisch
• Erscheinungsdatum: 01.04.2025
• Genre: Geschichte/Altertum
• Verlag: Zaphon