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1.1 Public-display inscriptions
Neither law codes nor royal edicts composed during this latter part
of the second millennium have been found.^3 However, a new kind
of public-display inscription is introduced during the Middle Baby-
lonian period: the Babylonian Entitlement narû.
Formerly known as kudurrus (“boundary markers” or “boundary
stones”) recent research indicates that these artifacts stood not on
field boundaries but in temples.^4 They were known to the Babylonians
simply as narû“(stone) monument,” and rather than marking bound-
aries, their function was to commemorate acquisition of entitlement
to a source of income in perpetuity. In most cases, this source of
income was a plot of agricultural land, but income from temple
prebends and real income stemming from release from traditional
tax or labor obligations due the crown are also attested. The Entitle-
ment narûs (henceforth simply narûs) commemorated acquisition to
an entitlement and were intended to ensure that the entitlement be
permanent, that is, inheritable, and remain part of the recipient’s
family holdings theoretically forever.
The narû inscriptions have formal characteristics both of monu-
mental and legal texts. On the one hand, like other (i.e., royal) mon-
umental inscriptions from Mesopotamia, the texts are written in
archaizing script and elevated language. They are inscribed on stone
and partnered with pictorial images of divine symbols or scenes of
royal or cultic activity. On the other hand, the inscriptions charac-
teristically open with a pithy description of the entitlement and go
on to list witnesses to the entitlement transaction, give account of
sealing of the entitlement, and provide a time and place of the trans-
action—all elements associated with Mesopotamian legal records.
Regardless of their formal classification, the narûs are a rich source
of information for Middle Babylonian social and legal history.1.2 Private or Archival Legal Records
Far fewer private legal texts are available from the Middle Babylonian
period than from the preceding Old Babylonian and succeeding Neo-(^3) Note, however, that the text of the Law Stele of Hammurabi was known in
the scribal schools of this time. See Finkelstein, “Hammurapi Law Tablet.. .,” and
Borger, BALI, 2–4.
(^4) See Slanski, Study...
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