Use of Relational Databases for Medium Sized Corpus Study: Case Studies of Old Babylonian Nippur and Ur (2016-1841 BCE)

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Abstract (En)

This poster presentation details the methodology of my ongoing Ph.D. dissertation, tentatively titled “The Organizational History of Old Babylonian Nippur and Ur". This study advances civic and social organizational analyses of the cities of Nippur and Ur, previously explored by Elizabeth Stone (1987) and Marc van de Mieroop (1992). The objective is to create comparative models of urban organization in southern Babylonia, analogous to those developed for Sippar (Harris 1975) and Assur (Larsen 1976).

To achieve this, I employ a microhistorical approach, utilizing archival research and prosopography. I organize and analyze a corpus of approximately 4,000 entries using relational database management software (Claris’s FileMaker). Data is sourced from online databases such as CDLI, ARCHIBAB, and Ur-Online, as well as museum collections hosted by the University of Chicago’s Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, the Penn Museum, and the British Museum.

The methodologies employed include archival research—focused on excavation, museum collections, and published data—and prosopography. Regarding this second method, I seek to replicate and contribute to the work of scholars such as Kraus (1951), Charpin (1986), and Goddeeris (2016), while also establishing new dossiers. This poster will highlight initial findings from my fourth chapter, which examines texts dated from 2016 to 1841 BCE.