How I spent my weekend, continued

One nice thing about smaller conferences is that most people are there for the sessions. That means that, as a bookseller, you can also attend them. Well, I freely admit that Egyptology is not my thing, so I didn't attend any. But, instead I used the time to read.

So, what does a bookseller read in his spare time? Well, I can't speak for all, but here is what I read:

Early Ancient Near Eastern Law
A History of Its Beginnings: The Early Dynastic and Sargonic Periods
Second edition, with a 44-page addition/appendix
EIS - Eisenbrauns
by Claus Wilcke
Eisenbrauns, 2007
204 pages, English
Paper, 5.5 x 8.5 inches
ISBN: 1575061325
List Price: $26.00
Your Price: $23.40
www.eisenbrauns.com/wconnect/wc.dll?ebGate~EIS~~I~WILEARLYA

It actually was a fun read, full of interesting details—of course, this is from someone who reads grammars for fun :) The book covers ancient "law," I mean ancient. A few texts are in Old Akkadian, but most are in Sumerian, which means we are talking 3rd millenium BCE. The reason I put law in scare quotes is because the book deals more with contracts, land deeds, bills of sale, etc., than what we would think of as law today.

I can tell you are breathlessly awaiting some of the interesting facts, so here are a few:
Land sales ended with a meal, paid for by the person purchasing the land. The seller, magistrate, and witnesses for both sides were invited.

It seems that the sale of land also was occasionally accompanied by a haircut! The person selling the land would receive a haircut to symbolically portray that they were "cutting" their claim to the land.

Women could buy and sell property, inherit property, engage in contracts, just as well as men.

Children and wives were frequently sold into slavery to pay off debts of the father/husband. In fact, this was so common that one tablet stands out as unusual in that the father states he would rather lose his land than sell his kids!

There were other interesting little details, but that should be enough to give you a feel for the book, which you will run right over the Eisenbrauns and purchase :)