Prisons in Ancient Mesopotamia: Confinement and Control Until the First Fall of Babylon

Cover
Prisons in Ancient Mesopotamia: Confinement and Control until the First Fall of Babylon
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
Acknowledgments
List of Figures
List of Tables
Introduction
	The Birth and Evolution of the Prison in Modernity
	The Prison and Punishment
	A Roadmap to This Book
1: Imprisonment from the Dawn of History to the First Fall of Babylon
	Introduction
	What We Know and What We Don’t
	Methodology and the Hymn to the Prison Goddess Nungal
		“A Hymn to the Prison Goddess Nungal”
2: Confine and Control: Lexical and Social-Historical Summary
	Introduction
	e2-eš2
	bīt asīrī
	e2 ennuĝ = bīt ṣibitti
	Other Key Terms
	The Prison in Literary Texts
	Conclusion
3: How to End up Imprisoned
	Introduction
	Law Collections in Ancient Mesopotamia
	Imprisonment in Edicts and Law Collections
	Reasons for Imprisonment
	Conclusion
4: Judicial Process and Proof
	Introduction
	Justice in Mesopotamia
	Judicial Summoning
	Detainment of Suspects
	Judicial Process
	The Awe of the Judicial Process
	Oaths
	The River Ordeal
	Imprisonment of the Guilty
	Conclusion
5: The Imprisoned Life
	Introduction
	Life on the Inside: A Literary Perspective
	Personal Accounts of Life on the Inside
	Ur III Prison Rations
	Old Babylonian Prison Rations
	Time Served
	Conclusion
6: The King in the Cage: Ritual Purification and Imprisonment
	Introduction
	Purity and Purification
	Purity and the Gods
	Control Through Imprisonment
	Ritual Purification Through Imprisonment
	Imprisonment and Positive Change
	Conclusion
Conclusion
Bibliography
Authors
Primary Texts
General Subject Index