For over 40 years, Jack M. Sasson has been studying and commenting on the cuneiform archives from Mari on the Euphrates River, especially those from the age of Hammurabi of Babylon. Among Mari’s wealth of documents, some of the most interesting are letters from and to kings, their advisers and functionaries, their wives and daughters, their scribes and messengers, and a variety of military personnel. The letters are revealing and often poignant. Sasson selects more than 700 letters as well as several excerpts from administrative documents, translating them and providing them with illuminating comments. In distilling a lifetime of study and interpretation, Sasson hopes to welcome readers into a fuller appreciation of a remarkable period in Mesopotamian civilization.
Sasson’s presentation is organized around major institutions in an ancient culture: (1) Kingship, treating accumulation of wealth, control of vassals, dynastic marriages, treaty-obligations, as well as illustrating the hazards and vexation of ruling a large territory; (2) Administration, from palaces that teem with bureaucrats, musicians, and cooks, to the management of provinces and vassal kingdoms; (3) Warfare, military establishment and martial practices; (4) Society, including organs of justice (and shortcuts to it), crime, punishment, and civil transactions; (5) Religion, including notices on diverse pantheons, rituals, priesthood, cultic paraphernalia, vows, ordeals, and channels to the gods (divination, dreams, and prophecy); and (6) Culture, including ethnic distinctions, class structure, and moments in the life cycle (birth, childhood, family life, health matters, death, and commemoration).
Sasson’s presentation of the material brings to life a world entombed for four millennia, concretizes the realities of ancient life, and gives it a human perspective that is at once instructive and entertaining.
The book is accompanied by extensive concordances and indexes (including to biblical passages) that will be useful to those who wish to study the letters more intensively.
Acknowledgments
Introduction
0.1. Amorite Mari
0.2. Languages
0.3. Archives
0.4. Evaluation of the Archives
0.5. References
0.6. Biblical Comparison
Chapter 1. Kingship
1.1. Becoming a King
1.2. The King’s Charisma
1.3. The Wealth of Kings
1.4. Acts and Behavior
1.5. Vassals
1.6. Diplomacy and Treaty-making
1.7. Dynastic Marriages
1.8. The Marriage of Mari Princesses
Chapter 2. Administration
2.0. Ruling Mari
2.1. Provincial Officers
2.2. Palace Officers
2.3. Notables (wedûtum)
Chapter 3. Warfare
3.0. Military Mari
3.1. War Mentality
3.2. Casus belli
3.3. Armies
3.4. Combat
3.5. Siege Tactics
3.6. Aftermath
Chapter 4. Society
4.1. Organs of Justice
4.4. Asylum Seekers
4.5. Detention
4.6. Punishment
4.7. Legal Documents
Chapter 5 Religion
5.1.”Pantheon”
5.2. Devotion
5.3. Rituals
5.4. Paraphernalia
5.5. Caring for the Gods
5.6. Divine Power
5.7. Communicating the Will of God
5.8. Ordeals
Chapter 6. Culture
6.1. Population
6.2. The City Mari
6.3. Court Life
6.4. Life Cycle I: Childhood
6.5. Life Cycle II: Adulthood
6.6. Life Cycle III: Health
6.7. Life Cycle IV: Death and burial
Chapter 7. Reflections
Works Consulted
Abbreviations
Bibliography
Concordances and Indexes
A. Concordances
1. By Paragraph to Translations
2. By Publication Numbers
B. Correspondents
1. From–To
2. To–From
C. Subject Index
D. Biblical Citations
“Jack Sasson has done a great service to Mari scholarship and academia in general with this book that will hopefully inspire more attention to the world of Mari’s two most well known kings, Yasmah-Addu and Zimri-Lim.”
