Inheritance Feuds in the Ur-Pabilsaĝa Archive from Old Babylonian Nippur

Abstract

The study of an inheritance division is usually limited by its isolated recording, which leads to an incomplete interpretation of the division’s influence on the status and/or financial position of the family members involved. Inheritance divisions found in the so-called Ur-PabilsaÄa Archive from Old Babylonian Nippur not only enable inclusive interpretations of the divisions’ influence on the status and/or financial position of the family members involved but also reveal their social and financial networking with two other families. The influence of Nippur’s interrelated social institutions restricted the family members in securing beneficial allocations of their inheritances due to conflicting needs and the consequences of economic disparity. Consequently, family feuds developed. The circumstances and events described in the recordings undermined the advantages that could have been gained from the social and financial networking between the interconnected families.