Abstract
In Mesopotamia there is a shift in the conception of justice from the grand cosmic vision to a conception of justice embodied in law. This set the tone for later representation of justice in the Middle and Near East and in the Western world thereafter. While the Mesopotamian conception of justice was still considered divine business and, to some extent, cosmic, it was much less so than earlier conceptions. The Mesopotamian conception of justice was limited, for the most part, to protection of the widows, orphans, the dispossessed and the weak. While in Zarathustra’s, Egyptian and Rig Vedic systems, all humans including the rulers were subject to the divine-cosmic rules of justice, in Mesopotamia the law was given by the deities to the kings who were responsible for their implementation as representatives of the gods on earth.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
As we see later, this conception finds a parallel in much of the post-prophetic period of Islamic history where the majority of rulers did not consider themselves bound or constrained by the rules of just behavior as prescribed by the Qur’an and the Tradition of the Messenger (sawa).
- 2.
See Roth 1997.
- 3.
About 10,000 BC after transition from the Ice Age to warmer climate.
- 4.
Hole (1987, p. 49) suggests that true agricultural villages appear in the uplands of Zagros about eight millennium BC as exemplified by a village in the mountain valley of Luristan called Tepe Abdul Hossein. Tepe means mound in Persian and Turkish, Tell in Arabic. According to Abdi (2003, pp. 397–425), the number of these villages began to grow from that period down to the fifth millennium when (about 4000 BC) these villages were abandoned abruptly apparently in favor of nomadic, mobile pastoralism. The reasons for this abrupt change, according to Hendrickson (1985, pp. 39–41), were change in the climate, the growing interests of the settlers of lowlands in the resources of the high lands and the population growth. Also, Abdi (2003) considers that the general deterioration of the climate in the period of fifth millennium as well as overgrazing led to more and more people turning to pastoral nomadism as a survival strategy.
- 5.
For a more detailed discussion of Shendge’s hypothesis, see chapters 10 and 11 of her book: Shendge, Malati. The Aryas: Facts without Fancy and Fiction. New Delhi: Shakti Malik, 1996. Abhinav Publications, pp. 66–96; see also S. P. Gupta. The Indus-Saraswati Civilization. New Delhi: Pratibha Prakashan, 1996. Other scholars share Shendge’s speculation that Ubaid migrated to Mesopotamia from Iran; see, for example, Hole (2006, p. 228) who suggests that up to the late fifth millennium, the two regions of Mesopotamia and Susiana (in southwestern plain of Iran with center at Susa) were one but were separated by the rising levels of waters of the Persian Gulf that extended 200 km further inland. In this context see also Abdi 2003; Alizadeh 2003, 2004, 2005; Mashkur 2006. On the spread of the Ubaid in the Near East, see Beech and Elders 1999; Henrickson and Thuesen 1988; Yayoi 2006; Trentin 2006; Parker 2006; Chataigner et al. 2006. Kriwaczek (2010, pp. 4–6) considers Susa “as one of the oldest continuously inhabited anywhere in the world.” He also suggests that the kingdom of Elam in Susania was “founded by a people who may just possibly, from the linguistic evidence, have been related to the speakers of Dravidian languages now found exclusively in South India” (p. 5).
- 6.
See Frankfort, Henri. Archaeology and the Sumerian Problem. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1932.
- 7.
Transcaspia refers to the region adjacent to and surrounding the Caspian Sea, north of the present Iran.
- 8.
Woolley (1965, p. 8), comparing the archaeological discoveries in Mesopotamia and Indus-Harappa, suggested that these discoveries show a “a good deal” of commonality between the two.
- 9.
Nieuwenhuyse and Suleiman 2016, pp. 41–53.
- 10.
Weeks et al. 2006, explain that: “The term “Ubaid Period’ originated in 1930 at a conference in Baghdad, where it was decided to adopt type-site names for prehistoric occupation phases that had been identified in Iraq. In its original incarnation, the word was primarily used to denote the distinctive black-on-buff painted ceramic assemblages found at Tell Al-‘Ubaid and Ur. The terminology of “Ubaid-related” has now become commonplace in discussions of the archaeology of contemporary communities adjacent to the perceived Ubaid heartland of southern Mesopotamia.” However, the authors find the use of such terminologies problematic and biased since the “very concept of a coherent Mesopotamian Ubaid cultural assemblage to which others may be related is questionable.” For a view on the biases of Western archaeology, see Gupta 1996, pp. 137–163.
- 11.
Nissen, Hans J. 1988. The Early History of the Ancient Near East: 9000–2000 BC. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
- 12.
In 2013, the National Geographic Society initiated a five-year program of “The Dialogue of Civilizations” with the mission of holding annual conferences in which scholarly discourse regarding the civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, South Asia and Mesoamerica. In the first of these conferences, held in Guatemala, participants pointed out that the term “civilization” had become a “loaded” term and sought various ways in which a definition could be provided that would avoid misunderstanding and misinterpretations. One such definition suggested was that a culture becomes a civilization when it possesses the following characteristics: (1) it has a worldview and an ideology; (2) there is a dense population living in a largely man-made environment, cities and towns; (3) there exists a codified law and administration; (4) there is specialization; (5) there are complex and hierarchical social roles; (6) there is extensive food production; (7) it has some form of detailed writing (see Haley, Andrew. “The Ancient Past as a Window to the Future” Explorer Journal (2013).
- 13.
- 14.
Most of the characteristics that make a city according to archaeologists are the same as given above in their definition of a civilization.
- 15.
Sumerians believed that the patron deity of Uruk was the goddess Inanna, the daughter Enke. To them, Inanna was the goddess of love and war.
- 16.
Molina (2008, p. 20) says that archaeological excavations in southern Mesopotamia have yielded some 120,000 clay tablets dating back to the Ur III period. This is the period of the Neo-Sumerian Dynasty, 2112–2004 BC, known as Ur III, the last Sumerian Dynasty in Mesopotamia.
- 17.
It is important to note that the question of how and why cities emerged in human history transcend Mesopotamia; it is a universal question.
- 18.
By the term “scholars of Mesopotamia,” it is meant archaeologist (including its sub-sections such as zoo-archaeologists and bio-archaeologists), anthropologists, historians (including economic historians) and sociologists who focus on studying various aspects of Mesopotamia.
- 19.
For a list of the patron gods of some of the cities and the functions of the gods, see Woolly 1965, pp. 119–126.
- 20.
Much power and prestige were accorded to the priests of temples as well as to those who attended to the performance of rituals. Some of these were considered to have extraordinary powers that were displayed during these rituals (see, e.g., Nemet-Nejat 1998, p. 190).
- 21.
See also Frankfort 1948.
- 22.
In their cosmology, the Sumerians called the universe An-Ki, meaning heaven-earth, in between heaven and earth was Lil, air. They were named after their gods and goddess. An was the god of heaven, Ki the goddess of the earth and Enlil was the air-god. Considered the most important god, Enlil was regarded as the father of the gods, and it was he who bestowed kingship to chosen humans. Utu was the sun-god, Nanna the moon-god and Inanna was the goddess of love and war. Astral bodies, plants, animals and humans were created thereafter. Each god or goddess had specific power to deal with natural and human affairs (Kramer 1963).
- 23.
While it is apparently clear that unlike the Akkadians of the north, the Sumerians were a non-Semitic people, there is no consensus among historians and scholars of Mesopotamia as to the ethnic origins of the Sumerians. See, for example, Shavit (2001/2013) who contends that the early population of much of this area was made up of black-skinned people as implied by the term Sag-Giga.
- 24.
Sumerian population, a non-Semitic people, was a mixture of Sumerians, about whose ethnic origin little is known (but note Malati Shendge’s argument that they came from Iran), and Semitic people. The term “Semitic” is considered a subfamily of Afro-Asiatic languages including Aramaic, Arabic, ancient Babylonian, Phoenician, Abyssinian, Assyrian, Canaanite and Hebrew. The Akkadians of Mesopotamia adopted Sumerian writing as well as much of their ideology after King Sargon of Akkadia conquered Sumer in 2350 BC creating the first united Mesopotamian Empire. There was a revival of the Sumerian Empire (2047–1750 BC) when King Ur-Nammu began the Third Dynasty of Ur (Ur III) after the collapse of the Akkadian Empire. The city-state of Ur (dated to 4000 BC) became the capital of the Third Dynasty during the reign of Ur-Nammu’s son King Shulgi (2094–2047 BC).
- 25.
The story of creation is recorded on tablets discovered at the site of the Sumerian city of Nippur according to which humans were formed out of clay and created to serve the gods.
- 26.
Saggs 1978, pp. 168–170, argues that the Mesopotamian stories of creation did not intend to explain the nature of human beings but to comment on a society of humans that relied heavily on cooperation and coordination to undertake communal actions such as irrigation and farming “for which the gods’ estates were primary foci of administration.” Saggs further suggests that this gave the Mesopotamians their dignity and self-worth.
- 27.
Sumerian King List, dated to 2100 BC, is an early second millennium detail record of kings of Mesopotamia. For the details and the history of the King List, see Jacobson 1939.
- 28.
The flood is mentioned in the King List. According to the story of the flood, the gods became disappointed in the human wrongdoings and decided to destroy humanity with a massive flood. The god Enke saved the humanity from the devastation. For the details of the Mesopotamian story of the flood and its causes see Moran 1987. See also Lambert and Millard 1969.
- 29.
Matthiae 2016, p. 158, believes that the statues of the kings and their steles placed in temples “spoke” to the gods. Specifically, they summarized the king’s accomplishment and his plans, served as witnesses to the god’s approval of the king’s work, they evidenced the king’s good work with divine approval for his future plans, and, finally, they represented divine guarantee of the favor of the gods for the king, his dynasty and his people.
- 30.
Tetlow 2004, asserts that laws and codes of Mesopotamia reflect a clear masculine bias and that it was dominated by men.
- 31.
The most famous of these law codes, in addition to the decree of King Urukagina mentioned in the previous paragraph, are the Code of Ur-Nammu, the founder and the first king of the Third Dynasty of Ur (2012–2095 BC), and his son Shulgi (2095–2047 BC); the Code of Lipit-Ishtar who was the fourth king of the city of Isin, in southern Mesopotamia (1868–1857 BC); Code of Eshunna, a city on river Diyala, a tributary of the Tigris river (2000–1700 BC) and conquered by Babylonia in 1700 BC, written in Akkadian; and the Code of Hammurabi (1792–1750). For the details of these codes and their relation to justice, see Woolley 1965; Michaelowski 1990, 2011; Roth 1995; Zaccagnini 1994; Richardson 2000; Westbrook 1995, 2003; Foster 1995; Frankfort 1989.
- 32.
In the Old Babylonian period, the city-states like Isin, Larsa, Eshunna and Babylon dominated the region. Among these, Babylon became the most important from 1894 BC when it was ruled by an Amurite (a Semitic people) dynasty. King Hammurabi was the sixth ruler of this dynasty.
- 33.
Scholars caution that the lack of availability of written records prior to the third millennium (referred to as the “Sumerian Millennium”) constrain generalization about developments in Mesopotamia between the eighth and third millennia (see, e.g., Oppenheim 1967, pp. 10–18).
- 34.
According to Oppenheim, as of 1967, “nearly half a million clay tablets have been found to date in Mesopotamia and adjacent regions” (Oppenheim 1967, p. 9).
- 35.
Apparently, tithes were voluntary at first. Later however they became mandatory. This is based on documents recording farmers’ debt to temples, which, after the emergence of the interest rates mechanism, sometimes carried interest rates (see, for example, Hudson 2000; Van De Miercoop 2005; Horsley 2009).
- 36.
Some even suggest that the Sumerian word for interest rate (Ma’sh) means “lamb,” indicating the payment of rent by herders who rented land to graze their animals and paid the owner lambs out of the growth of the herd at the end of the grazing season (Heichelheaim 1958; Steinkeller 1981; Van De Miercoop 2005). Hudson (2000) however rejects the idea.
- 37.
Rationing system became “a fundamental characteristic of the Mesopotamian economy” during the third millennium (Van De Miercoop 2005).
- 38.
Before the use of silver as medium of exchange, interest was determined on the basis of barley at a rate of 33 1/3 percent. Once loans were made in silver, the rate of interest was determined at 20 percent. Van De Miercoop (2005, p. 20) notes that “in the first centuries of the second millennium the loan contract was the most common record of Babylonian textual corpus.” He further notes (pp. 24–25) that: “A remarkable aspect of interest rates throughout Mesopotamian history was their constancy when officially stated. From the early second millennium, a number of royal decrees exist that always proclaim a 20 percent interest rate for silver loans, and a 33 percent rate for barley loans.” For some explanation on the selection of these rates, see Hudson 2000.
- 39.
- 40.
Van De Miercoop (2005, p. 28) provides an example of this type of debt contracts in a document from 2029 BC.
- 41.
It should be noted that these types of decree were not limited to the second millennium. Already in the third millennium, King Urukagina addressed the problem of usury in his decree (Kramer 1959, p. 49).
- 42.
Anthropologist Aubit 2013, maintains that Mesopotamia and its immediate neighbors, from Iran to Syria, shared in common the same system of symbols and iconography, a factor which facilitated trade agreements between them.
- 43.
There were three classes in Babylonia: the first class, “Free Men,” Awelum (also written as Amelum), included the king, his governors, top military officers, nobles, the landed aristocracy, scribes, educated groups and priests, high government officials, skilled craftsmen, all of whom enjoyed great privileges; the second class, called “Mushkinu” or Serfs, were also free men but did not enjoy the privileges of the Awelum, lived in special quarter of the city; the third class composed of the Wardum, the slave class whose members were the property of their owners, whether purchased outright or acquired as debt-slaves. Even the offspring of slave became the master’s property who would often provide the slaves with wives for this purpose (Budge 1993, pp. 160–185).
- 44.
Ningirsu was the Sumerian patron god of the city-state of Lagash.
- 45.
For the contents of the Pre-Axial Mesopotamian law codes, edicts, proclamations and decrees and their relation to the conception of justice, see Barton 1918, 1929; Sapeister 1954; Stephens 1955; Finkelstein 1961; Meisel 1965–1966; Saggs 1968; Finkelstein 1968–1969; Vantiphout 1978; Boecker 1980; Dandamaev 1984; Cooper 1986; Yaron 1988; Luckenbill 1989; Bottero 1992; Postgate 1992; Roth 1995; Veenhof 1995; Richardson 2000; Versteeg 2000; Doak 2006; Milosavljevic 2007; Snell 2011. For a contemporary translation of the code of Hammurabi, see King’s translation at http://www.avalon.law.yale.edu/ancient/hamframe.asp.
- 46.
Some may argue that to suggest that the Rig Veda’s conception of justice presumed equality of all humans contradicts existence of caste system in Hinduism. However, all scholars of Rig Veda maintain that the caste system was a much later development in the Indian culture and that there is no indication anywhere in the Rig Veda of social stratification that would suggest unequal treatment of humans based on social classes. For greater understanding of this issue, readers are referred to the sources listed in the reference section of the coverage of the conception of justice in Rig Veda above.
- 47.
Mesopotamians believed that Hammurabi received his law directly from Shamash, the sun-god and the god of justice. His “Law Code,” which Hammurabi himself called “the laws of justice,” is preserved on a black-stone stele discovered in Shush, Iran, in 1901 or 1902 (Slanski 2013, p. 6) and contains some 300 provisions dealing with contracts, debt, slavery, interests, prices and wages, family relationships, inheritance, penalties or punishments and judicial procedures. The text of the Code makes clear that Hammurabi desired a system of protection “so that the strong should not harm the weak” (Roth 1997).
Bibliography
Abdi, Kamyar. 2003. The Early Development of Pastoralism in the Central Zagros Mountains. Journal of World Prehistory 17: 395–448.
Adams, R.M. 1972. Pattern of Urbanism in Early Southern Mesopotamia. In Man, Settlement and Urbanism, ed. P.J. Ucko, R. Tringham, and G.W. Dimbleby, 735–749. London: Duckworth.
———. 1974. Historic Patterns of Mesopotamian Irrigation Agriculture. In Irrigation’s Impact on Society, ed. T.E. Dawning and M. Gibson, 1–6. Arizona: The University of Arizona Press.
———. 1981. Heartland of Cities. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Algaze, G. 2008. Ancient Mesopotamia at the Dawn of Civilization. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Alizadeh, Abbas. 2003. Some Observations Based on Nomadic Character of Fars Prehistoric Cultural Development. In Yeli Bud Yeki Nabud: Essays on the Archaeology of Iran in Honor of William M. Sumner, ed. N.F. Miller and K. Abdi, 83–97. Los Angeles, CA: Cotsen Institute Archaeology, University of California Press.
———. 2004. Recent Archaeological Investigations on the Persepolis Plain. The Oriental Institute News and Notes 183: 1–7.
Archi, A. 2002. Debt in an Archaic Palatial Economy: The Evidence from Elba. In Debt and Economic Renewal in the Ancient Near East, ed. M. Hudson and M. Van De MIercoop, 95–108. Bethesda: CDL Press.
Aubit, Maria Eugenia. 2013. Commerce and Colonization in Ancient Near East. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Barton, George A. 1929. The Royal Inscriptions of Sumer and Akkad. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Beech, M., and J. Elders. 1999. An ‘Ubaid-Related Settlement on Dalma Island, Abu Dhabi Emirate, United Arab Emirates. Bulletin of the Society of Arabian Studies 4: 17–21.
Boecker, H.J. 1980. Law and the Administration of Justice in the Old Testament and Ancient East. Minneapolis, MI: Augsburg Fortress Publishers.
Bottero, Jean. 1992. Mesopotamia: Writing, Reasoning, and the Gods. Trans. Zainab Bahrani and Marc Van De Miercoop. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Bricker, Daniel P. 2000. Innocent Suffering in Mesopotamia. Tyndale Bulletin 51 (2): 193–214.
Buccellati, G. 1981. Wisdom and Not: The Case for Mesopotamia. Journal of American Oriental Society 101: 35–47.
Budge, E.A.W. 1993. Babylonian Life and History. New York: Barnes and Noble.
Carter, Robert A., and Graham Phillip, eds. 2006. Beyond the Ubaid. Chicago: University of Chicago.
Chataigner, Christiane, Pavel Avestisyan, Guilio Palumbi, and Hans-Peter Uerpmann. 2006. Godedzor, A Late Ubaid-Related Settlement in the Southern Caucasus. In The Beyond the Ubaid, ed. Robert A. Carter and Graham Phillip, 377–392. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Chirichigno, Gregory E. 1993. Debt-Slavery in Israel and the Ancient Near East. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press.
Cooper, J.S. 1986. Sumerian and Akkadian Royal Inscriptions. New Haven: American Oriental Society.
Crawford, Harriet. 2004. Sumer and Sumerians. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dandamaev, M.A. 1984. Slavery in Babylonia from Naboplassar to Alexander (626–331 B.C.). Dekalb: Northern Illinois University Press.
Diakonoff, I.M. 1958. Some Remarks on the “Reforms” of Urukagina. Revue d’Assyriologie et d’archaeologie Orientale 52: 1–15.
Doak, Brian R. 2006. The Origins of Social Justice in the Ancient Mesopotamian Religious Traditions. Faculty Publications-College of Christian Studies, Paper 185. http://digitalcommunications.georgefox.edu/ccs/185.
Driver, G. R., and J. C. Miles. 1968. The Babylonian Laws (2 vols). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Fensham, F.C. 1962. Widow, Orphan, and the Poor in Ancient Near Eastern Legal and Wisdom Literature. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 21: 129–139.
Finkelstein, Jacob J. 1961. Ammisaduqa’s Edict and the Babylonian ‘Law Codes’. Journal of Cuneiform Studies 15: 91–104.
———. 1965. Some New Misharum Material and Its Implications. Assyriological Studies 16: 243–255.
———. 1970. On Some Recent Studies in Cuneiform Law. Journal of the American Oriental Society 90: 243–253.
Forest, J. 2005. The Process of State Formation as Seen from Mesopotamia. In Archaeologies of the Middle East: Critical Perspectives, ed. S. Pollock and R. Bernbeck, 184–206. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Foster, Benjamin R. 1995. Social Reform in Ancient Mesopotamia. In Social Justice in the Ancient World, ed. K.D. Irani and M. Silver, 165–177. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Frankfort, Henry. 1948. Ancient Egyptian Religion: An Interpretation. New York: Columbia University.
Garbutt, D. 1984. The Significance of Ancient Mesopotamia in Accounting History. The Accounting Historians Journal 11 (1): 83–101.
Gibson, M. 1974. Violation of Fallow: An Engineered Disaster in Mesopotamian Civilization. In Irrigation’s Impact on Society, ed. T.E. Dawning and M. Gibson, 7–20. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press.
Graeber, D. 2011. Debt: The First 5,000 Years. London: Melville House.
Grayson, A.K. 1980. Histories and Historians of the Ancient Near East: Assyria and Babylonia. Orientalia 49: 140–194.
Gupta, S.P. 1996. The Indus-Saraswati Civilization: Origins, Problems and Issues. New Delhi: Pratibha Prakashan.
Harris, R. 1960. Old Babylonian Temple Loans. Journal of Cuneiform Studies 14 (4): 126–137.
Henrickson, Elizabeth F. 1985. The Early Development of Pastoralism in the Central Zagros Highlands (Luristan). Iranica Antiqua 20: 1–42.
Hole, Frank. 2006. A Monumental Failure: The Collapse of Susa. In Beyond the Ubaid, ed. Robert A. Carter and Graham Phillip, 226–243. Chicago: University of Chicago.
Horsley, Richard A. 2009. Covenant Economics: A Biblical Vision of Justice for All. Louisville, KY: Westminster john Knox Press.
Hudson, M. 2000. How Interest Rates Were Set, 2500 BC–1000 AD. Journal of Economic and Social History of the Orient 43: 132–161.
Jacobsen, Thorkild. 1976. The Treasures of Darkness: A History of Mesopotamian Religion. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Steinkeller, P. 1981. The Renting of Fields in Early Mesopotamia and the Development of the Concept of ‘Interest’ in Sumer. Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 43: 132–161.
Keister, D.R. 1963. Commercial Record-Keeping in Ancient Mesopotamia. Accounting Review 38 (1963): 371–376.
———. 1965. The Mechanics of Mesopotamian Record Keeping. The National Association of Accountant Bulletin 46: 1–14.
Kramer, S.N. 1963. The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Krejci, Jaroslave. 1990. Before the European Challenge: The Great Civilizations of Asia and the Middle East. New York: New York University Press.
Kriwaczek, P. 2010. Babylon: Mesopotamia and the Birth of Civilization. London: Thomas Dunn Books.
Lambert, W.G., and A.R. Millard. 1969. Atra-hasis: The Babylonian Story of the Flood. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Larsen, M.T. 1977. Partnership in Old Assyrian Trade. Iraq 39 (1): 119–145.
Leemans, Wilhelmus F. 1950a. The Old Babylonian Merchant, His Business and Social Position. Leiden: E. J. Brill.
———. 1950b. The Rate of Interest in Old Babylonian Times. Revue Internationale des Droits del’Antiquite 5: 7–34.
———. 1960. Foreign Trade in the Old Babylonian Period as Revealed by Texts from Southern Mesopotamia. Leiden: E. J. Brill.
Leik, Gwendolyn. 2002. Mesopotamia: The Invention of Cities. New York: Penguin Books.
Lemche, Niels. 1979. Andurarum and Misarum: Comments on the Problem of Social Edicts and their Application in the Ancient Near East. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 38 (1): 11–22.
Lenski, G.E. 1966. Power and Privilege: A Theory of Social Stratification. New York: Mcgraw-Hill.
Liverani, M. 2006. Uruk: The First City. London: Equinox.
Lutz, H.F. 1924. Kingship in Babylonia, Assyria, and Egypt. American Anthropologist 26 (4): 435–453.
Makkay, J. 1983. The Origin of the Temple Economy: As Seen in the Light of Prehistoric Evidence. Iraq 45 (1): 1–6.
Mashkur, Marjan. 2006. Faunal Remains from Tol-e Nurband and Tol-e Sepid. In The Mamasani Archaeological ProjectOne, ed. D.T. Potts and K. Roustaei, 135–146. Tehran: Iranian Center for Archaeological Research.
Matthiae, Paolo. 2016. Gods and Humans in Mesopotamian Art: A Communication System Through Visual Expression. In the Proceedings of the 2nd International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, ed. Ingolf Thusen, 153–165. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbraun, Inc.
Mellaart, J. 1967. The Earliest Settlements in Western Asia: From the Ninth to the End of the Fifth Millennium B. C. London: Cambridge University Press.
Mendelsohn, Isaac. 1949. Slavery in the Ancient Near East. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Michalowski, P. 1984. History as Charter: Some Observations on the Sumerian King List. In Studies in Literature from the Ancient Near East Dedicated to S. N. Kramer, ed. J.M. Mason, 237–248. New Haven: American Oriental Society.
Molina, M. 2008. The Corpus of Neo-Sumerian Tablets: An Overview. In The Growth of an Early State in Mesopotamia, ed. S.J. Garfinkle and J.C. Johnson, 19–53. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigationes Cientifica.
Nel, Phillip J. 2000. Social Justice as Religious Responsibility in Near Eastern Religions: Historical Ideal and Ideological Illusion. Journal of Northwest Semitic Languages 26 (2): 143–153.
Nemet-Nejat, Karen Rhea. 1998. Daily Life in Ancient Mesopotamia. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Nieuwenhuyse, Olivier, and Antoine Suleiman. 2016. From Pre-Halaf to Halaf—The Changing Human Environment in Khabur Hendwater, Northern Syria. In Proceedings of the 2nd International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, 41–53. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbraun Inc.
Nissen, H.J. 1988. The Early History of the Ancient Near East, 9000–2000 BC. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Oates, Joan. 1986. Babylon. London: Thames and Hudson.
Oppenheim, A.L. 1967. Letters from Mesopotamia. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Parker, Bradley J. 2006. Networks of International Interaction During Mesopotamia’s Ubaid Period. In Beyond ‘Ubaid, ed. Robert A. Carter and Graham Phillip, 339–360. Chicago: University of Chicago.
Pollock, S. 1999. Ancient Mesopotamia: The Eden that Never Was. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Postgate, J.N. 1992. Early Mesopotamia: Society and Economy at the Dawn of History. London: Routledge.
Renger, Johannes. 1994. On Economic Structures in Ancient Mesopotamia. Orientalia 18: 157–208.
Richardson, M.E.J. 2000. Hammurabi’s Laws: Text, Translation and Glossary. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press.
Roth, Martha T. 1995. Mesopotamian Legal Traditions and the Laws of Hammurabi. Chicago-Kent Law Review 71: 13–39. http://scholarship.kentlaw.iit.edu/cklawreview/vol71/iss1/3.
———. 1997. Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor. Society of Biblical Literature: Writing from the Ancient World.
Safar, F., M.A. Mustafa, and S. Lloyd. 1981. Eridu. Baghdad: State Organization of Antiquities and Heritage.
Saggs, H.W.F. 1978. Encounter with the Divine in Mesopotamia and Israel. London: Athlone.
Shavit, Yaacov. 2001/2013. History in Black: African-Americans in Search of an Ancient Past. New York: Routledge.
Shendge, Malati J. 1996. The Aryas: Facts Without Fancy and Fiction. New Delhi: Shakti Malik Abhinav Publications.
Skaist, A. 1994. The Old Babylonian Loan Contract: Its History and Geography. Ramat Gan: Bar-Ilan University Press.
Slanski, Kathryn E. 2013. The Law of Hammurabi and Its Audience. Yale Journal of Law and Humanities 24 (1): 1–14.
Snell, D.C. 1982. Ledger and Prices: Early Mesopotamian Merchant Accounts. New Haven: Yale Near Eastern Researches, Paper No. 8.
———. 2011. Religions of Ancient Near East. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Steinkeller, P. 2001. The Ur Period. In Security for Debt in Ancient Near Eastern Law, ed. R. Jason and R. Westbrook, 57–74. Leiden: Brill.
———. 2002. Money-Lending Practices in Ur III Babylonia: The Issue of Economic Motivation. In Debt and Economic Renewal in the Ancient Near East, ed. M. Hudson and M. Van De Miercoop. Bethesda, MD: CDL Press.
Stephens, F.J. 1955. Notes on Some Economic Texts of the Time of Urukagina. Revue d’Assyriologie et d’Archeologie Orientale 49: 129–136.
Tetlow, Elizabeth M. 2004. Women, Crime, and Punishment in Ancient Law and Society. New York: Continuum.
Trentin, Maria Giuseppina. 2006. The Ubaid in the Balikh Valley, Northern Syria: Balikh Period IV–V. In Beyond the ‘Ubaid, ed. Robert A. Carter and Graham Phillip, 329–338. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Trigger, Bruce G. 2003. Understanding Early Civilization: A Comparative Study. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ur, Jason. 2014. Household and the Emergence of Cities in Ancient Mesopotamia. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 26 (2). http://scholar.harvard.edu/jasonur.
Van De Miercoop, M. 2005. The Invention of Interest and Sumerian Loans. In The Origin of Value: The Financial Innovations that Created Modern Capital Market, ed. W.N. Goetzman and K.G. Rouwenhorst, 17–30. New York: Oxford University Press.
Veenhof, Klaas R. 1995. In Accordance with the Words of Stele: Evidence for Old Assyrian Legislation. Chicago-Kent Law Review 70: 1717–1744. http://scholarship.kentlaw.iit.edu/cklawreview/vol70/issue4/15.
Veenhof, K. 1997. “Modern” Features in Old Assyrian Trade. Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 40 (4): 336–366.
Versteeg, Russ. 2000. Early Mesopotamian Law. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press.
Weeks, Lloyd, Cameron A. Petrie, and Daniel T. Potts. 2006. Ubaid-Related-Related? The “Black-on-Buff” Ceramic Traditions of Highlands of Southwest Iran. In Beyond the Ubaid, ed. Robert A. Carter and Graham Phillip, 245–251. Chicago: University of Chicago.
Westbrook, Raymond. 1995. Social Justice in the Ancient Near East. In Social Justice in the Ancient World, ed. K.D. Irani and M. Silver. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
———. 2003. A History of Ancient Near Eastern Law (2 Vols). Leiden: Brill.
Woolley, C.L. 1965. The Sumerians. London and New York: W. W. Norton.
Yaron, Reuven. 1988. The Laws of Eshnunna. Leiden: Brill.
Yofee, Norman. 2004. Myths of Archaic State: Evolution of Earliest Cities, State and Civilizations. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Zaccagnini, Carlo. 1994. Sacred and Human Components in Ancient Near Eastern Law. History of Religions 33 (3): 265–286.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Mirakhor, A., Askari, H. (2019). Conception of Justice: Pre-Axial Mesopotamia. In: Conceptions of Justice from Earliest History to Islam. Political Economy of Islam. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54303-5_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54303-5_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-54567-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-54303-5
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)