Michael Jursa
Biographic Data
| ID | 1424664 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Michael Jursa |
| GIVEN NAMES | Michael |
| FAMILY NAME | Jursa |
| SIGNATURE | JURSA M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Vienna |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2682-8933 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 3 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1997 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Conceptualizing a Priestly World: Past, Present, and Future in Hellenistic Babylon
In a world that grew increasingly more foreign, the Marduk priests of Hellenistic Babylon endeavored to maintain their ancient traditions and beliefs. Central to their worldview was the idea that the gods decided the fates of the land and that to ensure their benevolence, temple worship was not only necessary but the primary raison d'être of the priests themselves. However, foreign rule posed significant challenges to the traditional Babylonian t…
Sources at the end of the cuneiform era
The aim of this article is to discuss several groups of sources which are of special interest regarding the question of Mesopotamian identities after 539 bce, towards the end of the use of cuneiform writing. In this late period, several languages and scripts were in use in Mesopotamia; therefore, groups of Akkadian, Aramaic, Greek, and Sumerian texts are discussed. The scripts used are Aramaic letters, cuneiform, and the Greek alphabet. A scholar…
Greek and Roman Slaving in Comparative Ancient Perspective: State and Dependent Labour in the Ancient Near East and the Graeco-Roman World
This chapter surveys the evidence for dependent labour in the Ancient Near East, particularly in the state or institutional sector of the economy, comparing the findings to pertinent institutions and structures known from the Graeco-Roman world. There is a focus on diachronic change within the Ancient Near East, where the role of dependent labour evolved significantly over time. The chapter highlights similarities as well as differences and point…
For a Fistful of Barley: More on the Remuneration of Scribes and State Taxation in the Neo-Babylonian Eanna Temple
Cet article retrace l’évolution de l’institution de l’ upnu dans le temple d’Eanna du IX e au VI e siècle avant notre ère. À l’origine, il s’agissait d’une taxe prélevée par le scribe du temple sur les transactions et les dépenses internes du temple. Le paiement de l’ upnu a été converti en un impôt payable à la couronne au plus tard sous Nabonide, mais peut-être déjà un peu plus tôt, sous Nabuchodonosor. Cette évolution est un autre aspect du lo…
Judeans and Other West Semites: Another View from the Babylonian Countryside
This paper studies several hitherto unpublished or unedited Late Babylonian documents which shed light on the ethno-linguistic composition of the population of the countryside in southern Babylonia in the sixth century BCE. The new evidence includes information on Judeans that can be linked to the data of the so-called Yahudu archive.
Zababa-šar-uṣur and the Town on the Kabar Canal
This article presents a new edition of a tablet from the Moussaieff Collection. The text is connected with the activities of Zababa-sar-uṣur and mentions the Kabar-canal
Agriculture, ancient Near East
Two fundamentally different regimes characterized ancient Near Eastern agriculture: a dry‐farming regime based on the cultivation of cereals, and irrigation agriculture with cereals and dates as two leading crops. Dry farming was restricted mostly to Upper Mesopotamia, parts of the Jazirah and adjacent areas of northern Syria, as well as to the mountainous fringes of Mesopotamia in the northeast. Irrigation was (and is) indispensable in southern …
Administration, ancient Near East
The invention of writing, mathematics, and metrology in the ancient Near East at the end of the fourth millennium bce is owed to the exigencies of (public) administration and control under conditions of increasing social and economic complexity. The precursors of writing (systems of accounting based on the use of “tokens” and seals) that are attested in the region document the need for complex administrative practices already at a much earlier pe…
A ‘Prisoner Text’ From Birmingham
Urukean Priests and the Neo-Babylonian State
The paper is constructed around a short micro-historical portrait of a priestly family active in Uruk in the sixth century BCE . This introduces two interrelated issues that the paper will subsequently discuss with a view towards a contextualization of the family in question: the interaction between the Neo-Babylonian state and priests outside the capital city, and the drive towards inter-temple interaction and standardization of procedures based…
The Ousting of the Nūr-Sîns: Micro-historical Evidence for State-Building at the Neo-Babylonian Empire's »Augustan Threshold« during the Reign of Nebuchadnezzar
In this article we deal with Nebuchadnezzar's removal from office of the High Priest of Uruk's main temple, the Eanna, during a formative period of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. The incident is tied historically and politically to the process of state building and imperial consolidation associated with this monarch, especially in the second quarter of the 6th century b.c.e., at the Neo-Babylonian empire's »Augustan Threshhold.«
Documentary Sources in Ancient Near Eastern and Greco-Roman Economic History: Methodology and Practice
The Cambridge History of Capitalism: From Ancient Origins To 1848
The first volume of The Cambridge History of Capitalism provides a comprehensive account of the evolution of capitalism from its earliest beginnings. Starting with its distant origins in ancient Babylon, successive chapters trace progression up to the 'Promised Land' of capitalism in America. Adopting a wide geographical coverage and comparative perspective, the international team of authors discuss the contributions of Greek, Roman, and Asian ci…
Factor Markets in Babylonia from the Late Seventh to the Third Century BCE
This paper studies the evidence for the existence of a labour market, a market for agricultural land, and a market for capital in Babylonia from the sixth to the third century bce . The argument is informed by our current understanding of the performance of Babylonian commodity markets, for which abundant quantitative information is available. I attempt to establish a connection between the general political and socio-economic development in Baby…
Palace economy
In its most general sense, the term “palace economy” designates an economy embedded in a patrimonial, hierarchical society and geared towards financing a small elite including the ruler (king or chief) and his household.
Cuneiform Tablets in the Bristol Public Library
Der ‚Zahn‘ des Schreibers. Ein aramäischer Buchstabenname in akkadischer Transkription
Article Der ‚Zahn‘ des Schreibers. Ein aramäischer Buchstabenname in akkadischer Transkription was published on January 1, 2000 in the journal Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Vorderasiatische Archäologie (volume 90, issue 1)
Neu- und spätbabylonische Texte aus den Sammlungen der Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery
Die vorliegende Arbeit setzt die von Philip Watson begonnene Edition der 1982 in die Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery gekommenen Texte aus der Wellcome-Sammlung fort. Ich danke Philip Watson für die Publikationserlaubnis und ihm und seinen Kollegen und Mitarbeitern, voran David Symons, für die freundliche Aufnahme im Department of Antiquities des Museums und die Bewirtung mit vielen Tassen Tee. Den Trustees des British Museum danke ich für die …
Cuneiform Tablets in the Bristol Public Library
Factor Markets in Babylonia from the Late Seventh to the Third Century BCE
This paper studies the evidence for the existence of a labour market, a market for agricultural land, and a market for capital in Babylonia from the sixth to the third century bce . The argument is informed by our current understanding of the performance of Babylonian commodity markets, for which abundant quantitative information is available. I attempt to establish a connection between the general political and socio-economic development in Baby…
Neu- und spätbabylonische Texte aus den Sammlungen der Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery
Die vorliegende Arbeit setzt die von Philip Watson begonnene Edition der 1982 in die Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery gekommenen Texte aus der Wellcome-Sammlung fort. Ich danke Philip Watson für die Publikationserlaubnis und ihm und seinen Kollegen und Mitarbeitern, voran David Symons, für die freundliche Aufnahme im Department of Antiquities des Museums und die Bewirtung mit vielen Tassen Tee. Den Trustees des British Museum danke ich für die …
Der ‚Zahn‘ des Schreibers. Ein aramäischer Buchstabenname in akkadischer Transkription
Article Der ‚Zahn‘ des Schreibers. Ein aramäischer Buchstabenname in akkadischer Transkription was published on January 1, 2000 in the journal Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Vorderasiatische Archäologie (volume 90, issue 1)
Cuneiform Tablets in the Bristol Public Library
Palace economy
In its most general sense, the term “palace economy” designates an economy embedded in a patrimonial, hierarchical society and geared towards financing a small elite including the ruler (king or chief) and his household.
Documentary Sources in Ancient Near Eastern and Greco-Roman Economic History: Methodology and Practice
The Cambridge History of Capitalism: From Ancient Origins To 1848
The first volume of The Cambridge History of Capitalism provides a comprehensive account of the evolution of capitalism from its earliest beginnings. Starting with its distant origins in ancient Babylon, successive chapters trace progression up to the 'Promised Land' of capitalism in America. Adopting a wide geographical coverage and comparative perspective, the international team of authors discuss the contributions of Greek, Roman, and Asian ci…
Factor Markets in Babylonia from the Late Seventh to the Third Century BCE
This paper studies the evidence for the existence of a labour market, a market for agricultural land, and a market for capital in Babylonia from the sixth to the third century bce . The argument is informed by our current understanding of the performance of Babylonian commodity markets, for which abundant quantitative information is available. I attempt to establish a connection between the general political and socio-economic development in Baby…
The Ousting of the Nūr-Sîns: Micro-historical Evidence for State-Building at the Neo-Babylonian Empire's »Augustan Threshold« during the Reign of Nebuchadnezzar
In this article we deal with Nebuchadnezzar's removal from office of the High Priest of Uruk's main temple, the Eanna, during a formative period of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. The incident is tied historically and politically to the process of state building and imperial consolidation associated with this monarch, especially in the second quarter of the 6th century b.c.e., at the Neo-Babylonian empire's »Augustan Threshhold.«
Agriculture, ancient Near East
Two fundamentally different regimes characterized ancient Near Eastern agriculture: a dry‐farming regime based on the cultivation of cereals, and irrigation agriculture with cereals and dates as two leading crops. Dry farming was restricted mostly to Upper Mesopotamia, parts of the Jazirah and adjacent areas of northern Syria, as well as to the mountainous fringes of Mesopotamia in the northeast. Irrigation was (and is) indispensable in southern …
Administration, ancient Near East
The invention of writing, mathematics, and metrology in the ancient Near East at the end of the fourth millennium bce is owed to the exigencies of (public) administration and control under conditions of increasing social and economic complexity. The precursors of writing (systems of accounting based on the use of “tokens” and seals) that are attested in the region document the need for complex administrative practices already at a much earlier pe…
A ‘Prisoner Text’ From Birmingham
Urukean Priests and the Neo-Babylonian State
The paper is constructed around a short micro-historical portrait of a priestly family active in Uruk in the sixth century BCE . This introduces two interrelated issues that the paper will subsequently discuss with a view towards a contextualization of the family in question: the interaction between the Neo-Babylonian state and priests outside the capital city, and the drive towards inter-temple interaction and standardization of procedures based…
Judeans and Other West Semites: Another View from the Babylonian Countryside
This paper studies several hitherto unpublished or unedited Late Babylonian documents which shed light on the ethno-linguistic composition of the population of the countryside in southern Babylonia in the sixth century BCE. The new evidence includes information on Judeans that can be linked to the data of the so-called Yahudu archive.
Zababa-šar-uṣur and the Town on the Kabar Canal
This article presents a new edition of a tablet from the Moussaieff Collection. The text is connected with the activities of Zababa-sar-uṣur and mentions the Kabar-canal
Greek and Roman Slaving in Comparative Ancient Perspective: State and Dependent Labour in the Ancient Near East and the Graeco-Roman World
This chapter surveys the evidence for dependent labour in the Ancient Near East, particularly in the state or institutional sector of the economy, comparing the findings to pertinent institutions and structures known from the Graeco-Roman world. There is a focus on diachronic change within the Ancient Near East, where the role of dependent labour evolved significantly over time. The chapter highlights similarities as well as differences and point…
For a Fistful of Barley: More on the Remuneration of Scribes and State Taxation in the Neo-Babylonian Eanna Temple
Cet article retrace l’évolution de l’institution de l’ upnu dans le temple d’Eanna du IX e au VI e siècle avant notre ère. À l’origine, il s’agissait d’une taxe prélevée par le scribe du temple sur les transactions et les dépenses internes du temple. Le paiement de l’ upnu a été converti en un impôt payable à la couronne au plus tard sous Nabonide, mais peut-être déjà un peu plus tôt, sous Nabuchodonosor. Cette évolution est un autre aspect du lo…
Sources at the end of the cuneiform era
The aim of this article is to discuss several groups of sources which are of special interest regarding the question of Mesopotamian identities after 539 bce, towards the end of the use of cuneiform writing. In this late period, several languages and scripts were in use in Mesopotamia; therefore, groups of Akkadian, Aramaic, Greek, and Sumerian texts are discussed. The scripts used are Aramaic letters, cuneiform, and the Greek alphabet. A scholar…
Conceptualizing a Priestly World: Past, Present, and Future in Hellenistic Babylon
In a world that grew increasingly more foreign, the Marduk priests of Hellenistic Babylon endeavored to maintain their ancient traditions and beliefs. Central to their worldview was the idea that the gods decided the fates of the land and that to ensure their benevolence, temple worship was not only necessary but the primary raison d'être of the priests themselves. However, foreign rule posed significant challenges to the traditional Babylonian t…
Ancient Near East History (14 works) · History (13 works) · Art (11 works) · Ancient history (10 works) · Ancient Egypt and Archaeology (8 works) · Law (7 works) · Political science (7 works) · Archaeology (5 works) · Classics (5 works) · Archaeology and Historical Studies (4 works)