Letters From Mesopotamia Official Business And Private Letters On Clay Tablets From Two Millennia

How should a free society protect privacy? Dramatic changes in national security law and surveillance, as well as technological changes from social media to smart cities mean that our ideas about privacy and its protection are being challenged like never before. In this interdisciplinary book, Chris Berg explores what classical liberal approaches to privacy can bring to current debates about surveillance, encryption and new financial technologies. Ultimately, he argues that the principles of classical liberalism – the rule of law, individual rights, property and entrepreneurial evolution – can help extend as well as critique contemporary philosophical theories of privacy.

This book is the fourteenth volume in the series Altbabylonische Briefe in Umschrift und Übersetzung, which aims to make the many — often dispersed — letters from the Old Babylonian period available in transliteration and translation. Volume 14 collects 226 Old Babylonian letters from The Louvre.

Honorable Mention for the 2016 Kayden Book Award This first book-length study in Chinese or any Western language of personal letters and letter-writing in premodern China focuses on the earliest period (ca. 3rd-6th cent. CE) with a sizeable body of surviving correspondence. Along with the translation and analysis of many representative letters, Antje Richter explores the material culture of letter writing (writing supports and utensils, envelopes and seals, the transportation of finished letters) and letter-writing conventions (vocabulary, textual patterns, topicality, creativity). She considers the status of letters as a literary genre, ideal qualities of letters, and guides to letter-writing, providing a wealth of examples to illustrate each component of the standard personal letter. References to letter-writing in other cultures enliven the narrative throughout. Letters and Epistolary Culture in Early Medieval China makes the social practice and the existing textual specimens of personal Chinese letter-writing fully visible for the first time, both for the various branches of Chinese studies and for epistolary research in other ancient and modern cultures, and encourages a more confident and consistent use of letters as historical and literary sources.

This study argues for new perspectives on the letters of Paul, especially the Second Letter to Timothy. It examines striking aspects of Paul's letters, especially the fact that many of them are co-authored, that six of them acknowledge that a secretary has penned the letter, and that 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy and Titus are the only ones addressed to individuals. It investigates the implications of these facts for the concept of Pauline authorship. Prior maintains that the received arguments, statistical as well as literary, which exclude 2 Timothy from the influence of Paul, are less than convincing. The author suggests an original reading of 2 Timothy arguing it was composed by Paul towards the end of his first Roman imprisonment. Contrary to all interpretations of the letter which argue that Paul was about to be martyred, Prior claims that Paul was confident that he would be released, and was assembling a mission team to bring his proclamation of the Gospel to a completion. Timothy's courage and missionary zeal needed rekindling, for he and Mark were to be key figures in this new team.

The Amarna letters are foundational documents for the study of Late Bronze Age history and language in the ancient Near East. One of the most significant aspects of these letters has been the discovery of Canaanite influence in the Akkadian language of these letters. This discovery has provided a wealth of linguistic knowledge concerning that period and its influence on subsequent ages. Though much has been written about the Amarna letters, until now there has been no comprehensive study of the personal names found in the cuneiform texts from El-Amarna. Dr. Hess fills the void with this comprehensive reference tool. The main part of the book catalogs the Amarna personal names, providing necessary information for each name, including attested spellings, occurrences, identification, textual notes, and analysis. The author then offers a grammatical analysis of the names and glossaries of the seven languages attested in personal names in the letters. Glossaries of divine name and geographical name elements and an extensive bibliography complete the study. This volume is essential for research libraries and for scholars and students working with the Amarna letters or Akkadian and Northwest Semitic languages.

Explores the lifestyles of ancient Mesopotamia, including the civilization, rulers and leaders, economics, and more.