Episode 72 – Mitanni 7 Lawyers of Nuzi

Today we have a very real discussion about some very real people, hearing from the Hurrians in their own words by looking at the goings on in a town called Nuzi. When two groups disagree about who is the rightful owner of some land, the matter gets resolved in a peaceful and civilized fashion, with a well ordered and reasonable lawsuit. This may be the bronze age, but it turns out that we can, in fact, resolve our problems using words instead of violence. Today we are using actual court documents surrounding a particular lawsuit to follow a legal dispute from start to finish, and in the process learn quite a bit about how the Hurrians lived.

All this comes from a single book of translations, Maynard Paul Maidman’s Nuzi Texts and their Uses as Historical Evidence, which is a nice little collection and a good place to look if you want to start really digging into the city of Nuzi