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SUMMARY:Looking up and down\, and back and forth – Understanding the Thi
 rd Dynasty of Ur - Prof. Jacob Dahl
DTSTART:20241126T171500Z
DTEND:20241126T193000Z
UID:TALK224179@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Megan Hinks
DESCRIPTION:Few periods of human history can be understood in isolation\, 
 nor is it easy to understand the causes of historical change when using a 
 microhistoical approach or without proper source criticism.\nThe study of 
 the Ur III period is burdened by all these issues. Students spend years wo
 rking out the administrative system of labour management\, or strategies f
 or shepherding\, and so forth\, without asking why the system is as it is.
  Other scholars use literary or historical texts to understand the role of
  the king\, or the origins of the dynasty without a firm grip of folkloris
 tic or even historical methodology\, and without questioning the point of 
 view of the texts.\nIn this talk I will suggest that the Third Dynasty of 
 Ur\, henceforth Ur III\, is best understood as a predatory dynasty monopol
 ising power in southern Babylonia in an aggressive attempt to establish su
 zerainty over Babylonia against the real political and military power of t
 he period\, the Elamites. I will try and show how this was a short-lived a
 ttempt eventually failing\, and I will use simple statistics of the text d
 istribution to show how the dramatic increase in the bureaucracy was a res
 ponse to these failings.
LOCATION:McDonald Seminar Room\, Department of Archaeology
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