Beyond Slavery and Freedom in Ancient Mesopotamia: A Response
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Amanda H. Podany
Abstract
This essay provides a response to the articles assembled for the JANEH special issue titled ‘Beyond Slavery and Freedom in Ancient Mesopotamia.’ The experiences of a few free men, women, and children who came from “odd” social groups are highlighted, in order to emphasize and humanize the stories of how they negotiated their ambiguous social and legal situations. Although these individuals were not enslaved, the freedom they experienced was more constrained than that of citizens. Some saw their status change as a result of detention as a prisoner of war or as an escaped worker, or because they had been manumitted from slavery in order to be adopted into a family or dedicated in service to a deity. Others had been identified from birth as an un -il 2 or muškēnum, two categories of mostly menial laborers who were neither citizens nor slaves. The individuals in this essay are drawn from documents discussed in articles in the volume, and the reader is encouraged to explore the whole special issue to learn more about the authors’ innovative and important interpretations.
References
Levavi, Yuval. 2017. “Four Middle-Babylonian Legal Documents Concerning Prison.” Revue d’assyriologie et d’archéologie orientale 111: 87–108. https://doi.org/10.3917/assy.111.0087.Search in Google Scholar
Levavi, Yuval, and Elena Devecchi. 2020. “Corrigenda and Addenda to Four Middle Babylonian Legal Documents Concerning Prison, (Levavi 2017).” Nouvelles Assyriologiques Brèves et Utilitaires 4: 290–1.Search in Google Scholar
Rositani, Annunziata. 2019. “I prigionieri di guerra come forza lavoro asservita a Uruk durante il regno di Rīm-Anum.” SEL 36: 287–305.Search in Google Scholar
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Articles in the same Issue
- 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
Articles in the same Issue
- 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
