The Oath by the King's Name in Neo-Sumerian Nippur

Neo-Sumerian archival texts from Nippur more often attest oaths taken by invoking the king's name (mu-lugal) than those expressed by the phrase originally meaning “cutting curse (namerim2), ” which seem to have been conducted under the jurisdiction of a god or gods. This paper focuses on and analyzes the former, and makes the following arguments:1. Obligations sworn to in the mu-lugal oath are primarily of two categories: 1) performance of some future act in “executory” contracts and 2) preclusion of possible dissension in “executed” contracts.2. The swearers are basically poeple of lower economic status, while the beneficiaries are those occupying higher economic ranks.This study thus uncovers some aspects of the Sumerian socio-economic custom hitherto little noted

Ancient history · Art · Curse · Epistemology · Jurisdiction · Linguistics · Literature · Meaning (existential) · Oath · Phrase · Political science · Sumerian · Theology · Ancient Near East History · Eurasian Exchange Networks · History · Law · Linguistics and language evolution · Philosophy