Overview

The study offers a comprehensive overview of slavery and its manifestations in the 19th and 18th centuries BC based on texts from the Old Assyrian site Kane/Kultepe. The term ""slave"" was deliberately defined broadly and openly because the terminology makes it impossible to determine whether a person described as a ""wardum"" was a permanent slave or a debt slave. Within Old Assyrian society, neither slaves nor other groups of people were necessarily differentiated from one another. They could be in various dependent relationships, could work purely as ""unskilled workers"" (slaves in the household), but also as self-employed employees in trade. This meant that they were able to occupy different positions in society despite the uniform designation ""slave"". Many of them were not considered ""objects""; although they were highly dependent on another person, both legally and in terms of work, they could not be considered the property of that person. Only people who have been explicitly described as ""wardum"" ""slave"" can be identified as slaves. Among the people who were referred to as ""amtum"", in addition to female slaves, there were also so-called ""second wives"" or ""traveling wives"" who can only be identified based on an archival context and based on their tasks. In many cases, separation is not possible or can only be assumed based on the context. The ""boys"" (""suharum"") are made up of different groups: (1) sons of the traders, (2) hirelings/employees of the traders and (3) slaves. In contrast, it has become apparent that the people described as ""suhartum"" ""girl, young woman"" were not slaves. In addition to the terminology for slaves (Chapter 3), the study is also dedicated to legal aspects of slavery (Chapter 4 - slaves as a legal object; slaves as a legal subject; termination of slave status), the daily life of slaves (Chapter 5 - work in companies and families, names of slaves) and the geographical dimension of slavery (Chapter 6 - origin and ethnicity of slaves). Extensive indices conclude the volume.

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