Lesson 1: Law and Royal Inscriptions

Lesson 1: Law and Royal Inscriptions#

In this lesson, we will explore the formal language of royal decrees and legal collections, such as the famous Laws of Hammurabi.

Core Texts to Read#

PLACEHOLDER: Please insert primary text reading here from a publication (e.g., excerpts from the Code of Hammurabi prologue, epilogue, or specific laws). Suggested citation: Roth, M. T. 1995. Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor. SBL Writings from the Ancient World Series. Scholars Press. Keep sections that highlight conditional sentences (šumma).

Grammatical Focus (Reference to Appendix)#

While we focus on the reading, texts in this genre typically employ:

  • Conditional Sentences (šumma clauses)

  • G-Preterite and G-Perfect

  • The status constructus for genitive relationships.

Digital Methods#

PLACEHOLDER: Describe a digital method here to parse legal texts (e.g., regex for conditional clauses, or tagging conditional nodes using an NLP pipeline).

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