Local Power in Old Babylonian Mesopotamia.

• Author: Stol, Marten

Local Power in Old Babylonian Mesopotamia. By ANDREA SERI. Studies in Egyptology and the Ancient Near East. London: EQUINOX Publishing Limited, 2006. Pp. xvi + 240, maps. $95. [Distrib. in North America by David Brown Book Co., Oakville, Conn.]

This book studies the authorities in the Old Babylonian city: the mayor, the elders, the "members of the city," the assembly. It is the first time since the work of A. Walther in 1917 that an investigation on such a broad scale has been undertaken. Since then, the textual evidence has increased enormously--think only of the Mari texts, not known at that time--and this book is most welcome. The book also has a focus: to study the interaction between the State and local authorities (pp. 28, 184, 191).

The first two chapters are introductory. Chapter one gives a broad status quaestionis of Mesopotamian historiography with the observation that Assyriologists are positivists, descriptive, and almost antiquarian (pp. 19f., 21). "Antiquarian" means: "to gather objects and facts for the sake of curiosity" (p. 186). Indeed, they have "an obsession with written records and philology," but the author sees no other methodology than philology for studying institutions (p. 185). Literary sources, omina and model contracts are biased or unreliable (pp. 2, 136f., 171).

As for Old Babylonian society, modern scholars agree upon a tripartite approach: a division between State, community, and a private sector. Up till now, historians were mainly interested in the centrality of the State, whereas this book pays attention to local situations in the cities. "Debates concerning Old Babylonian economic and social history have reached stalemate" (p. 184). The author "seeks to reconstruct urban elites, and the ways in which these local leaders implemented, restricted, or overstepped State policies" (p. 7). Elsewhere, she remarks that she is opposed to the "evolutionary" approaches of M. Stol (pp. 66, 80), J.-R. Kupper, H. Klengel, and G. Pettinato (pp. 101f.). Similar remarks are made elsewhere (pp. 134, 182 [social evolutionism], 191). This is in line with N. Yoffee's "criticism of neo-evolutionist theories of anthropologists and archaeologists" (p. 193). These evolutionary theories explain situations from a nomadic background; the author's alternative is this: "Rather, nomadism itself is a specialized adaptation that evolved in conjunction with village life and urbanism" (p. 102).

Chapter two offers an overview of the history of the Old Babylonian period. Chapter three studies rabianum, a title designing two different authorities. "On the one hand it was a royal title used by several kings. On the other, it was a post held only temporarily by certain representatives of local authorities" (p. 71). The author shows...