Studies On The Documents Of The Slave Sale In Mesopotamia In The Old Babylonian Period

The slave was very important in the Old Babylonian Period, and they were the important part of the Old Babylonian Period society. Studies on the slave is to know the politics, economy, culture of the Old Babylonian Period. It is difficult to do all best because of the large field in the study of slave. So it is practicable to choose one or several items about slave,. During the study of the history of the Old Mesopotamia, the researcher will always to the way which is empty.The article is built on the tablets of the Old Mesopotamia. After reading several times some conclusions are born. From the number of slave in the business to the price to the slave, from the indebtedness of the slave to the reason on it, from the recognizing the man who takes the seal to the study on the sale of the foreign man, everything is based on the texts of the slave sale. Moreover, we can draw the objective conclusion on the slave sale according to the present situation and the history of the other regions and times.Apart from the introduction and conclusion, the main text is divided into four parts. At the ending of this article, some basic knowledge about the Old Babylonian Period is added.Chapter One: The texts which have been finished are classified according to the site of the text. The basic conditions about the slave sale documents are given by the south and north parts.Chapter Two: The format of the slave sale documents has been given here. Meanwhile the price of the slave sale and the seals in the documents will be analyzed in this chapter. So the machine-processed of the slave sale can be found on the reading of the documents.Chapter Three: The contracts concerning the indebtedness of a man are ranked here alone. First, the documents of this kind of type will be read and translated. Then some particular situation will be discussed.Chapter Four: The texts on buying the slave from the outer land will be analyzed. Especially, the two regions Subartu and Guti will be discussed in detail. And a man will be studied by the documents about him. Meanwhile others relating to him will be also analyzed.At last, some conclusions are lined up so that we can have an integral view on the slave sale in the Old Period.