The literate and city-based polities of Sumer and Akkad in southern Iraq are widely regarded as among the earliest examples of successful city-based civilisation, and great strides have been made in understanding their archaeology, economy, literature and social conditions. Fundamental to the development of these societies was a network of water channels, which provided irrigation for the culti...

A bout 120 new Mesopotamian mathematical cuneiform texts, all from the Norwegian Schøyen Collection, are published in the author’s book A Remarkable Collection of Babylonian Mathematical Texts, Springer (2007). Most of the texts are Old Babylonian (1900–1600 BC), but some are older (Sumerian), or younger (Kassite). In addition to the presentation and discussion of these new texts, the book cont...

The archives of the Assyrian merchants, found at KanešKaneš (Assyrian merchant settlement in Anatolia) Central AnatoliaAnatolia, highlight use a weight system, well adapted to quantifyPracticepractice quantification [practices quantification, quantify, quantifying] metals they traded from East West and back. An atypical progressive metrological list weightsMetrological listmetrological shows im...

there are rare references to professional training in mesopotamian sources mainly because this used to be done in the family, from father to son. nevertheless, there are some 35 apprenticeship contracts from the neo-babylonian period which open a unique window to the social, legal and economic aspects of professional training. the present article edits and translates 3 such apprenticeship contr...