Abstract
This special issue aims to move beyond the traditional binary of slavery and freedom in the study of ancient Mesopotamian societies. Legal texts have long shaped our understanding of social status in this region, but a broader approach incorporating diverse textual genres and diachronic comparison reveals a far more nuanced social landscape. The articles collected here argue that ethnic, legal, political, religious, and socioeconomic factors continually shaped groups with ambiguous statuses who were neither clearly citizens nor enslaved individuals. Rather than locating a fixed “third” legal category of “serfs,” the contributors emphasize distinctions such as citizens versus noncitizens or emancipated versus dependent household members – both free and enslaved. The volume refines the binary legal model, reaffirming that ancient Mesopotamia recognized only two legal statuses – free and unfree – but complicates how these were lived and perceived. Six key insights emerge, including the legal and social diversity within both categories, the importance of household structures, and the precarious positions of groups like muškēnū (“those who prostrate themselves”), un -il 2 (“menials”), temple dependents, war captives, freed slaves, and detained persons. Collectively, these studies challenge static interpretations and reveal the dynamic and context-dependent nature of social identity in ancient Mesopotamia.
References
Brinkman, John A. 1980. “Forced Laborers in the Middle Babylonian Period.” Journal of Cuneiform Studies 32 (1): 17–22. https://doi.org/10.2307/1359787.Suche in Google Scholar
Charpin, Dominique. 1987. “Les Décrets Royaux à l’Époque Paléo-Babylonienne, à Propos d’un Ouvrage Récent.” Archiv für Orientforschung 34: 36–44.Suche in Google Scholar
Culbertson, Laura. 2011. “Slaves and Households in the Near East.” In Slaves and Households in the Near East, edited by Laura Culbertson, 1–17. Oriental Institute Seminars 7. Chicago: The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.Suche in Google Scholar
Culbertson, Laura. 2024. “Slaves, serfs, and foreigners.” In Society and the Individual in Ancient Mesopotamia, edited by Laura Culbertson, and Gonzalo Rubio, 241–68. Studies in Ancient Near Eastern Records 33. Berlin: De Gruyter.10.1515/9781501517655-007Suche in Google Scholar
Dassow, Evavon. 2011. “Freedom in Ancient Near Eastern Societies.” In The Oxford Handbook of Cuneiform Culture, edited by Karen Radner, and Eleanor Robson, 205–24. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199557301.013.0010Suche in Google Scholar
Dassow, Evavon. 2013. “Piecing Together the Song of Release.” Journal of Cuneiform Studies 65: 127–62, https://doi.org/10.5615/jcunestud.65.2013.0127.Suche in Google Scholar
Finley, Moses I. 1980. Ancient Slavery and Modern Ideology. New York: Viking.Suche in Google Scholar
Fynn-Paul, Jeffrey. 2009. “Empire, Monotheism and Slavery in the Greater Mediterranean Region from Antiquity to the Early Modern Era.” Past & Present 205 (1): 3–40. https://doi.org/10.1093/pastj/gtp036.Suche in Google Scholar
Jursa, Michael. 2010. Aspects of the Economic History of Babylonia in the First Millennium BC: Economic Geography, Economic Mentalities, Agriculture, the Use of Money and the Problem of Economic Growth, vol. 4 of Veröffentlichungen zur Wirtschaftsgeschichte Babyloniens im 1. Jahrtausend v. Chr. Alter Orient und Altes Testament 377. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag.Suche in Google Scholar
Kleber, Kristin. 2011. “Neither Slave nor Truly Free: The Status of the Dependents of Babylonian Temple Households.” In Slaves and Households in the Near East, edited by Laura Culbertson, 101–11. Oriental Institute Seminars 7. Chicago: The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.Suche in Google Scholar
Kleber, Kristin. 2018. “Dependent Labor and Status in the Neo-Babylonian and Achaemenid Periods.” In What’s in a Name? Terminology related to the Work Force and Job Categories in the Ancient Near East, edited by Agnès Garcia-Ventura, 441–65. Alter Orient und Altes Testament 440. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag.Suche in Google Scholar
Koslova, Natalia. 2008. “Bezeichnungen der Arbeitskräfte in Umma der Ur III-Zeit.” In The Growth of an Early State in Mesopotamia: Studies in Ur III Administration; Proceedings of the First and Second Ur III Workshops at the 49th and 51st Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, London July 10, 2003 and Chicago July 19, 2005, edited by Steven, J., and J. Cale Johnson, 149–206. Biblioteca del Próximo Oriente Antiguo 5. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas.Suche in Google Scholar
Kramer, Samuel Noah. 1963. The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Lenski, Noel. 2018. “Framing the Question: What Is a Slave Society?” In What Is a Slave Society? The Practice of Slavery in Global Perspective, edited by Noel Lenski, and Catherine M. Cameron, 15–57. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/9781316534908Suche in Google Scholar
Lewis, David M. 2017. “Orlando Patterson, Property, and Ancient Slavery: The Definitional Problem Revisited.” In On Human Bondage: After Slavery and Social Death, edited by John Bodel, and Walter Scheidel, 31–54. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.10.1002/9781119162544.ch2Suche in Google Scholar
Molina, Manuel. 2011. “Sklave, Sklaverei. A. Im 3. Jahrtausend.” In Reallexikon der Assyriologie, vol. 12, parts 7/8, edited by M. P. Streck, 562–64. Berlin: De Gruyter.Suche in Google Scholar
Molina, Manuel. 2025. “The Laws of Ur-Namma and the Neo-Sumerian Legal Practice.” In Keilschriftrecht zwischen Theorie und Praxis, Episteme in Bewegung. Beiträge zu einer transdisziplinären Wissensgeschichte, edited by E. Cancik-Kirschbaum, and I. Schrakamp, 265–339. Wiesbaden: Harrasowitz.Suche in Google Scholar
Patterson, Orlando. 1982. Slavery and Social Death: A Comparative Study. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Pottorf, Andrew Richard. 2022. Social Stratification in Southern Mesopotamia during the Third Dynasty of Ur (ca. 2100–2000 BCE). PhD diss., Harvard University.Suche in Google Scholar
Prentice, Rosemary. 2010. The Exchange of Goods and Services in Pre-Sargonic Lagash. Alter Orient und Altes Testament 368. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag.Suche in Google Scholar
Ragen, Asher. 2006. The Neo-Babylonian širku: A Social History. PhD diss., Harvard University.Suche in Google Scholar
Richardson, Seth. 2019. “Aliens and Alienation, Strangers and Estrangement: Difference-Making as Historically-Particular Concept.” In A Stranger in the House – the Crossroads III. Proceedings of an International Conference on Foreigners in Ancient Egyptian and Near Eastern Societies of the Bronze Age held in Prague, September 10–13, 2018, edited by Jana Mynářová, Marwan Kilani, and Sergio Alivernini, 307–40. Prague: Charles University, Faculty of Arts.Suche in Google Scholar
Richardson, Seth. 2021. “Partial Persons, Unsafe Spaces: The Babylonian Production of Class through Laws About Animals.” In Animals and the Law in Antiquity, edited by Saul M. Olyan, and Jordan D. Rosenblum, 41–67. Brown Judaic Studies. Providence: Brown University.10.2307/j.ctv1vk8cd6.7Suche in Google Scholar
Richardson, Seth. 2023. “Mesopotamian Slavery.” In The Palgrave Handbook of Global Slavery throughout History, edited by Damian A. Pargas, and Juliane Schiel, 17–39. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.10.1007/978-3-031-13260-5_2Suche in Google Scholar
Rio, Alice. 2017. Slavery After Rome, 500–1100. Oxford Studies in Medieval European History. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198704058.001.0001Suche in Google Scholar
Roth, T. (with a contribution by Harry, A. Jr.) 1997. Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor, edited by Piotr Michalowski. 2nd ed. Writings from the Ancient World 6. Atlanta: Scholars Press.10.2307/jj.25577265Suche in Google Scholar
Snell, Daniel C. 2011. “Slavery in the Ancient Near East.” In The Ancient Mediterranean World, vol. 1 of The Cambridge World History of Slavery, edited by Keith Bradley, and Paul Cartledge, 4–21. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CHOL9780521840668.003Suche in Google Scholar
Steinkeller, Piotr. 2013. “Corvée Labor in Ur III Times.” In From the 21st Century B.C. to the 21st Century A.D.: Proceedings of the International Conference on Sumerian Studies Held in Madrid, 22–24 July 2010, edited by Steven J. Garfinkle, and Manuel Molina, 347–424. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns.10.1515/9781575068718-021Suche in Google Scholar
Steinkeller, Piotr. 2015. “Introduction. Labor in the Early States: An Early Mesopotamian Perspective.” In Labor in the Ancient World, edited by Piotr Steinkeller, and Michael Hudson, 1–35. The International Scholars Conference on Ancient Near Eastern Economies 5. Dresden: ISLET-Verlag.Suche in Google Scholar
Steinkeller, Piotr. 2017. “An Estimate of the Population of the City of Umma in Ur III Times.” In At the Dawn of History: Ancient Near Eastern Studies in Honour of J. N. Postgate, vol. 2, edited by Yağmur Heffron, Adam Stone, and Martin Worthington, 535–66. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns.10.1515/9781575064741-038Suche in Google Scholar
Steinkeller, Piotr. 2018. “Care for the Elderly in Ur III Times: Some New Insights.” Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Vorderasiatische Archäologie 108 (2): 136–42. https://doi.org/10.1515/za-2018-0009.Suche in Google Scholar
Tenney, Jonathan S. 2011. Life at the Bottom of Babylonian Society: Servile Laborers at Nippur in the 14th and 13th Centuries B.C. Culture and History of the Ancient Near East 51. Leiden: Brill.10.1163/ej.9789004206892.i-268Suche in Google Scholar
Tenney, Jonathan S. 2017. “Babylonian Populations, Servility, and Cuneiform Records.” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 60 (6): 715–87. https://doi.org/10.1163/15685209-12341440.Suche in Google Scholar
Verderame, Lorenzo. 2018. “Slavery in Third-Millennium Mesopotamia: An Overview of Sources and Studies.” Journal of Global Slavery 3: 13–40. https://doi.org/10.1163/2405836x-00301003.Suche in Google Scholar
Vlassopoulos, Kostas. 2021. Historicising Ancient Slavery. Edinburgh Studies in Ancient Slavery. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.10.3366/edinburgh/9781474487214.001.0001Suche in Google Scholar
Wilcke, Claus. 2014. “Gesetze in sumerischer Sprache.” In Studies in Sumerian Language and Literature. Festschrift für Joachim Krecher, edited by N. Koslova, E. Vizirova, and G. Zólyomi, 455–616. Babel und Bibel: Annual of Ancient Near Eastern, Old Testament, and Semitic Studies 8. Orientalia et Classica 56. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns.10.1515/9781575063553-019Suche in Google Scholar
© 2025 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- Beyond Slavery and Freedom in Ancient Mesopotamia
- Articles
- Muškēnum in Third-Millennium BC Mesopotamia
- Humans as Donations and the Question of Temple Slavery in Early Mesopotamia
- un-il2 (“Menials”) as a Serflike Social Stratum during the Ur III Period
- The Precarious Inheritance Rights of Adopted Slaves During the Old Babylonian Period
- The Status of War Prisoners at Uruk in the Old Babylonian Period
- Detention as Liminal Space During the Middle Babylonian Period
- The Hoax of Semi-Freedom in Babylonia
- Beyond Slavery and Freedom in Ancient Mesopotamia: A Response
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- Beyond Slavery and Freedom in Ancient Mesopotamia
- Articles
- Muškēnum in Third-Millennium BC Mesopotamia
- Humans as Donations and the Question of Temple Slavery in Early Mesopotamia
- un-il2 (“Menials”) as a Serflike Social Stratum during the Ur III Period
- The Precarious Inheritance Rights of Adopted Slaves During the Old Babylonian Period
- The Status of War Prisoners at Uruk in the Old Babylonian Period
- Detention as Liminal Space During the Middle Babylonian Period
- The Hoax of Semi-Freedom in Babylonia
- Beyond Slavery and Freedom in Ancient Mesopotamia: A Response