Old Babylonian Marriage Law
Raymond Westbrook
VERLAG FERDINAND BERGER & SOHNE GESELLSCHAFT M. B. H.
The purpose of this study is to examine an institution as it existed in Babylonia 1 of the Old Babylonian (OB) period. 2 The end of this period. can be identified without difficulty: the fall of the last king of the first dynasty of Babylon, Samsuditana, ushered in an era marked not only by a change in language but in the composition of the society, not the least being the presence of a foreign ruling class- the Kassites. The sources relevant to our study end in the reign of the penultimate king, Ammi-~aduqa, and when, after a hiatus, Middle-Babylonian sources begin to appear, they represent an entirely different tradition, clearly marked in language and formulation.