"‘Death certificates’ in the bīt asīrī: new texts from the British Museum"

This paper offers a study of an unpublished group of Old Babylonian texts kept at the British Museum in London that come from the bīt asīrī, the “house of prisoners”, dated to the reign of Rīm-Anum. All texts presented are administrative documents recording the deaths of prisoners of war, male and female. After the sign úš and the name of the deceased prisoner, each text provides some additional information, such as the prisoner's place of capture and/or origin, and sometimes the activity in which he or she was engaged. These “death certificates” also provide further data on the dating of Rīm-Anum’s texts and the location of the bīt asīrī.