The Intellectual Heritage of the Ancient Near East, pp. 517-538, 2023/04/12
Proceedings of the 64th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale and the 12th Melammu Symposium, University of Innsbruck, July 16‒20, 2018
Prosopographical research on Old Babylonian documents is not as far advanced as corresponding studies on other periods. This paper gives an overview of factors that account for this difference and presents some methodological questions and observations that result from prosopographical studies on the archival sources from Larsa and its neighbourhood. In contrast to the contemporary material from Northern Babylonia (especially Sippar), the study of these documents offers a series of difficulties, especially as they lack the individuals’ paternal names far too often. For this reason, the importance of seal impressions and the proper reconstruction of family trees will be emphasized. The paper also discusses some particular phenomena such as the problem of the so-called “double filiation” and the role of the king’s name in onomastics. In addition, an inheritance document is published here for the first time.
