Ancient childhood : perspectives from Iraq and Syria in the early second millennium BC
Despite being a major demographic component, our reconstructions of Old Babylonian social, economic, and legal history have tended not to consider how children fit into them. In part, this is because scholars' opinion was that syntheses at this level required the publication of the remaining unpublished sources. But this thesis will argue that, due to the more than 30,000 texts published by now, more can be teased out of Old Babylonian sources than previously supposed (for reasons of space, archaeological evidence is not considered). The main aim of this thesis is to introduce children into our reconstruction of Old Babylonian society (Iraq and Syria, 2000-1600 BC) and to provide insights into their lived experience. To do that it is also necessary to understand the Old Babylonian concept(s) of childhood, or the lack thereof. Research into several periods of history (up to Medieval and early modern times) has illustrated how our modern conception of childhood cannot be projected onto ancient evidence easily and has shown the need to conceptualise childhood within its respective sociocultural setting. The thesis explores the terminology and semantic fields associated with children, and monitors diachronic and
Schmidhuber, Christoph
Assyriology ; History of Childhood ; Mesopotamia ; Old Babylonian period ; Social History
Ancient childhood : perspectives from Iraq and Syria in the early second millennium BC. Despite being a major demographic component, our reconstructions of Old Babylonian social, economic, and legal history have tended not to consider how children fit into them. In part, this is because scholars' opinion was that syntheses at this level required the publication of the remaining unpublished sources. But this thesis will argue that, due to the more than 30,000 texts published by now, more can be teased out of Old Babylonian sources than previously supposed (for reasons of space, archaeological evidence is not considered). The main aim of this thesis is to introduce children into our reconstruction of Old Babylonian society (Iraq and Syria, 2000-1600 BC) and to provide insights into their lived experience. To do that it is also necessary to understand the Old Babylonian concept(s) of childhood, or the lack thereof. Research into several periods of history (up to Medieval and early modern times) has illustrated how our modern conception of childhood cannot be projected onto ancient evidence easily and has shown the need to conceptualise childhood within its respective sociocultural setting. The thesis explores the terminology and semantic fields associated with children, and monitors diachronic and
ancient childhood perspective iraq syria despite major demographic component reconstruction old social_economic legal_history tend consider child fit them part scholar opinion synthesis level require publication remain_unpublished source argue due text_publish old source previously suppose reason space archaeological_evidence consider main_aim introduce child reconstruction old society iraq syria provide_insight live_experience also necessary old concept childhood lack thereof several period history medieval_early modern_time illustrate modern conception childhood project onto ancient evidence easily show need conceptualise childhood within respective sociocultural setting explores terminology semantic_field associate child monitor diachronic