HIS 368 Law and Society in the Ancient Near East

3 hours 

This course studies the legal traditions shared by ancient Near Eastern societies in the second and first millenniums BCE. By reading a wide variety of legal texts— such as law codes, royal edicts, trial records, land sale documents, wills, marriage contracts, and narratives about the law—students will reconstruct aspects of the legal tradition common to the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, ancient Mesopotamia, and ancient Egypt. The course will examine administrative and constitutional law, litigation, personal status, family, property and inheritance, contract, and crime and delict. It will also explore the function of the law in ancient Near Eastern culture and society, its implementation and enforcement, its relationship to structures of governance, and its literary and visual portrayal.