Cuneiform Archives in Hellenistic Babylonia: Aspects of Content and Form

Abstract

Abstract The cuneiform tablets from hellenistic and Arsacid Babylonia which have come down to us are in the tradition of the cuneiform practice of earlier periods. Beginning with the second half of the eighth century bc, a considerable number of such documents are available. From that time till the first century bc there are no significant gaps in the documentation available for Babylonia as a whole. But from place to place the situation may differ. In examining the last period in which the cuneiform script was used, it is necessary to see the connection with the preceding periods: to study cuneiform archives of the hellenistic period one must bear in mind the Neo-Babylonian and Achaemenid periods. To date more than 15,000 cuneiform tablets of archival character have been published, from the eighth and seventh centuries to the fourth. Many thousands of clay tablets of this kind, housed in the British Museum and elsewhere, remain unpublished. Most of the Neo-Babylonian and later legal and administrative documents originate from archives of varying size, of which the largestcomprise thousands of documents. They may be categorized as temple, palace, and private archives.