On Shifting Social and Urban Landscapes in Uruk under Nabû-kudurrī-uṣur II

Abstract

Abstract This paper discusses a small dossier of four documents concerning a house that stood in Neo-Babylonian Uruk. These documents, among which are two previously unpublished texts, offer a rare opportunity to follow the history of one property and one neighborhood over a period of more than half a century. Apart from supplying unique long-term data on property prices in Uruk, the dossier provides insight into various social and political changes that shaped Uruk’s urban landscape in the late seventh and early sixth centuries BC. In particular, it contributes to the evidence concerning a dramatic purge of Uruk elites that took place in the middle of Nabû-kudurrī-uṣur (Nebuchadnezzar) II’s reign.