Sumerian Model Contracts from the Old Babylonian Period in the Hilprecht Collection Jena.

• Author: Gadotti, Alhena

Sumerian Model Contracts from the Old Babylonian Period in the Hilprecht Collection Jena. By GABRIELLA SPADA. Texte und Materialien der Hilprecht Collection, vol. 11. Wiesbaden: HARRAS-SOWITZ VERLAG, 2018. Pp. x + 126, 32 pis. [euro]78.

The book under review is a very welcome addition to the study of the Sumerian Old Babylonian (OB) scribal curriculum. In a succinct and clear manner, G. Spada provides transliteration, translation, commentary, copies, and photos of eleven objects housed in the Hilprecht Collection, Jena, all of which preserve model contracts. An important component of Sumerian scribal education in Mesopotamia, model contracts have only recently become the subject of more systematic study, mostly under the leadership of Spada herself. Indeed. Spada has not only published extensively on this subject (e.g., 2011, 2012) but she is also the director of the Old Babylonian Model Contracts project (http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/obmc/).

Spada's book is divided into several sections: a brief introduction (pp. 3-4) is followed by the textual edition of the manuscripts (pp. 11-84), indexes (pp. 89-114), bibliography (pp. 117-26), and plates.

The textual edition of the documents makes up the bulk of the book and it is very well organized and thorough. Spada offers a description of each object, the place of its typology within the scribal curriculum, the organization of the manuscript whenever it contains more than one document, a list of duplicates, a discussion of the model contract(s) itself, its transliteration, translation, and commentary. The editions are easy to navigate and provide the reader with a plethora of information about the text itself as well as different aspects of Mesopotamian life. For instance, when Spada examines Text 1, a prism containing several model contracts about slaves' manumission, she discusses the practice itself within the broader context of Mesopotamian law. Thus the reader is given relevant information about the potential applications of the training Mesopotamian students received through these model contracts.

The indexes Spada has compiled for the volume are very useful, especially the glossary of Sumerian and (one) Akkadian words. The glossary includes references to both the manuscripts published in the book as well as the duplicates housed in other collections. The bibliography is comprehensive and the plates have the high quality that this series is renowned for. Spada's copies and photographs are...