Article

The care of the elderly in Susa. A study in the Akkadian docuetns from the Sukkalmah period

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Abstract

The present research examines the care of the elderly in Elamite law in the 2nd millennium BC through the corpus of Akkadian legal documents found in Susa. Nearly 600 legal texts from Susa during the first half of the 2nd millennium BC constitute a unique source for the study of Elamite law and society. The care of the elderly was ordinarily a private matter and had to be provided within the family. The sources are mostly private testaments that lack context, thus an understanding of the inheritance laws of the Ancient Near Eastern societies and comparative legal history is necessary in order to properly contextualize the testaments. It emerges from the study that inheritance is often used to secure the elderly care when parents face ungrateful sons. Daughters could be contracted to do the service in return of getting sometimes the entire inheritance. The couple had to make their own arrangements to make sure that the surviving spouse does not face destitution in old age. In our re-examination of the texts, a completely new aspect of the elderly care will come to light.

How to Cite:

Badamchi, H., (2018) “The care of the elderly in Susa. A study in the Akkadian docuetns from the Sukkalmah period”, Akkadica 139(2), 159–178. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/akkadica.99661

Rights: © The author