Debt and Indebtedness at Emar / / Maurizio Viano.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter DG Plus DeG Package 2023 Part 1
• VerfasserIn: Viano, Maurizio,
• Place / Publishing House: Berlin ;, Boston : : De Gruyter, , [2023]; ©2023
• Year of Publication: 2023
• Language: English
• Series: Studies in Ancient Near Eastern Records (SANER) , 28
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (XXII, 630 p.)

This book is the first comprehensive study of debts and credit system at Emar. It focuses on the socio-economic aspects of credit access and indebtedness as well as on the motivations behind debts and debt settlement in the city of Emar. The credit system is analyzed through several factors: the purpose of debts, i.e., productive or consumptive; the procedures for granting loans; the strategies put in place to meet an obligation and to cope with economic difficulties; the consequences of non-fulfillment, which may lead to servitude or slavery; the different types of slavery; slave prices; the mechanisms of enslavement; and termination of slavery. Moneylending practices and the formation of servile conditions at Emar are studied in the context of the Syrian economy aiming to understand whether the Emar evidence conforms with a socio political and economic crisis that is generally acknowledged to have struck Syria, Anatolia and Northern Mesopotamia at the end of the Late Bronze Age. This work is of sure relevance for scholars interested in socio-economic history, not only of the pertinent historical-geographical area.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Acknowledgments -- Summary of Content -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- Abbreviations -- 1 Introduction -- Part I: Textual Analysis -- 2 Credit Transactions -- 3 Default and Dependency -- Part II: Synthesis -- 4 The Emar Credit System -- 5 Forms of Dependency at Emar -- 6 Conclusions -- 7 Appendix -- 8 Bibliography -- Personal Name Index -- Source Index