True crime! Corruption in city hall! A gang of thugs terrorizing a town! One of the most interesting finds in the town of Nuzi is a series of court documents which contain testemony about a large number of criminal activities by a gang of thugs, including men who have positions in city hall. Today we get an on the ground look at what sort of crime went on in Nuzi, and what was done about it. Plus, we will start to get a sense of how many sheep the Hurrians actually had.
The translations for today and last week all come out of Maynard Paul Maidman’s book called Nuzi Texts and their Uses as Historical Evidence. These are very readable, high quality translations, and effort was clearly made to turn even the fragments into tantalizing parts of the story.
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