Admission requirements
Open for students of (res)MA CAC, (res)MA History, and (res)MA Archaeology
Description
In this class, we will search for the archival traces of the many enslaved men, women and children who lived in Babylonia during the Neo-Babylonian and Persian periods (c. 620–330 BCE). Many archives of affluent citizens, most of them slave-owners, survive from this time. So far, these archives have mostly been mined for information on the lives of the Babylonian citizens. In this class, we will adopt a different perspective by assessing these sources against the interests of the slave-owners. We will discover that, by reading these sources carefully, we can hear the voices of enslaved persons surprisingly often, e.g. in testimonies that they delivered during court proceedings, in legal contracts recording their oaths, or in actions of resistance against their condition (e.g. escape). We will ask how such testimonies came about, how they were constructed in texts, whose agency they reflect, and for what purposes these records were stored in archives. We will confront those instances of voiced presence with the many instances when enslaved persons appear as silent objects in these archives. With this archival approach we hope to counterbalance the legal-historical tradition of the field of Assyriology that has approached the topic of slavery mostly as a problem of legal status and ownership. We will engage with post-colonial practices of reading the archives against (and along) the grain, in order to assess the representation of slavery in the sources that have come down to us. As part of this course, the students will engage in a group project aimed at developing an online database holding the names of hundreds of enslaved individuals who are recorded in the archival texts.
Course objectives
Students who attend this seminar will
critically engage with inherited practices in Assyriology that evaluate slavery primarily as a problem of legal status and ownership;
acquire reading skills that allow them to read Babylonian archival sources against and along the grain;
be able to situate these reading strategies in post-colonial theory and the archival turn;
acquire expert knowledge of Babylonian archival culture and its treatment of slavery;
situate the production of texts in their social and cultural contexts;
practice their ability to process, discuss and evaluate primary and secondary evidence;
use methodologies of archival research, including digital prosopography;
be trained to participate in discussions on complex topics;
be trained to conduct original research and to report results clearly, in oral and written form.
be trained to work collaboratively as part of a team.
Timetable
The timetables are available through My Timetable.
Mode of instruction
- Seminar
Assessment method
Research paper (50% of the final grade). The requirements for MA and ResMA students are differentiated: ResMA students are expected to write an original research paper; MA students may write a critical literature review.
Team project (30%). This will be a presentation of the student’s proposed paper topic for development with the group.
Participation in and preparation for seminar meetings (20%).
Weighing
Research paper: 50%
Team project: 30%
Participation in and preparation for seminar meetings: 20%
Resit
If the overall mark is unsatisfactory, the paper can be repeated after consultation with the lecturer. The marks for the team project and the class participation will still count in such a case.
Inspection and feedback
Students will receive individual feedback on their presentations and research papers. There will be the possibility to hand in a draft of the paper before its final submission. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organized.
Reading list
An extensive reading list of scholarly articles and an overview of primary sources will be compiled by students participating in this course, in consultation with the teacher. Some key monographs that will be used are:
Jursa, M. 2005. Neo-Babylonian Legal and Administrative Documents: Typology, Contents and Archives. Guides to the Mesopotamian Textual Record 1. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag.
Dandamaev, M. 1986. Slavery in Babylonia: From Nabopolassar to Alexander the Great (626–331 BCE). DeKalb: Northern Illinois Press.
Registration
Enrolment through MyStudyMap is mandatory.
General information about course and exam enrolment is available on the website.
Registration À la carte education, Contract teaching and Exchange
Information for those interested in taking this course in context of À la carte education (without taking examinations), eg. about costs, registration and conditions.
Information for those interested in taking this course in context of Contract teaching (with taking examinations), eg. about costs, registration and conditions.
For the registration of exchange students contact Humanities International Office.
Contact
For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.
For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office: Arsenaal
Remarks
Not applicable.