To preserve and resist: patterns of land alienation in ancient babylon

Abstract

Analysis of the economic activities of domestic groups in ancient Mesopotamia has generally relied upon archives belonging to real estate buyers. Buying strategies have therefore always been the privileged focus of understandings of the circulation of land within ancient Babylonian society. The present article tries to documents behavioral trends among land sellers, using a serial study of the known contracts from the city of Larsa during the XIX-XVIIIth B.C. as its main basis.

Mesopotamia; Real Estate; Sellers' Behavior