On Wednesday, 13 November, Jonathan S. Tenney, Assistant Professor of
Ancient Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University, will give a lecture
for the Canadian Society for Mesopotamian Studies:

SERVILITY, FAMILY, AND THE STATE IN BABYLONIA

Descriptive statistics and historical comparisons have been a useful
tool in the analysis of administrative records concerned with
thousands of government workers from Nippur in the fourteenth and
thirteenth centuries. This population was supported by the state and
toiled under duress. Some members attempted to escape their plight,
and there was a network of personnel and court procedures in place to
capture and return escapees. This lecture will review the conclusions
of the project and will provide further reflection on the basic
foundations of Babylonian society, such as age at marriage, household
size, inheritance practice, and migration. It will consider the
context in which Babylonians made life choices, the range of available
options, and how social structures and institutions affected the
decisions people made.

This free public lecture is at 8:00 pm in Earth Sciences Auditorium
B142, 5 Bancroft Avenue, University of Toronto, St George Campus.

Further information may be obtained at: <csms@chass.utoronto.ca>.