JACK M. SASSON. From the Mari Archives: An Anthology of Old Babylonian Letters. Winona Lake, Eisenbrauns, 2015. xx + 454. ISBN 1–57506–830–3. $ 59.50

Abstract

Professor Jack M. Sasson has recently retired from teaching at Vanderbilt University’s Divinity School. In this volume, he offers a well-crafted product of decades of engagement with the archives of Mari. From the Mari Archives is a very well-edited collection of hundreds of diverse documents, letters and fragments pertaining to the Old Babylonian (OB) period. Prof. Sasson links each text or fragment to a specific topic in a list that includes religion, warfare, diplomacy, culture, administration, and other topics. The collection contains a short introduction and a brief series of final remarks in the end, followed by appendixes indexing the documents by source, topic and biblical cross-references. These appendixes should become part of every OB scholar’s research toolbox...