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Treating Garments in the Old Babylonian Period: “At the Cleaners” in a Comparative View1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2014

Nathan Wasserman
Nathan Wasserman*
Affiliation:
The Institute of Archaeology—Assyriology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem 91905, Israel, Nathan.Wasserman@mail.huji.ac.il
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Abstract

This article examines UET 6/2, 414, the Old Babylonian dialogue between a fuller and a client, commonly referred to as “At the Cleaners”, from the point of view of ancient technology. Drawing upon a wide range of Talmudic and Classical sources mentioning laundry, and based on a careful philological reading of the Akkadian text, this study offers a new understanding of the different stages of washing and treatment of luxury garments in the Old Babylonian period. It is argued that the possible humorous aspect of the text is irrelevant to the fact that UET 6/2, 414 is a unique composition in antiquity, offering a long and accurate sequence of laundry instructions. Washing procedures and ways of treating luxury garments in Mesopotamia are outlined step by step; new Akkadian terms pertaining to garments and clothing are presented; wages of laundry workers in ancient Mesopotamia are briefly discussed. The study concludes with a new edition and translation of UET 6/2, 414.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 75 , 2013 , pp. 255 - 277
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 2013

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Footnotes

1

This study was carried out within the framework of SEAL (Sources of Early Akkadian Literature), directed by M. P. Streck and the author of the present paper, and supported by the German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and Development (GIF). Prof. Shlomo Naeh of the Dept. of Talmud and Jewish Thought at the Hebrew University kindly read an early version of this paper and offered important improvements regarding the Rabbinic sources. All remaining mistakes are my own. The drawings, unless stated otherwise, are by Alexander Pechuro.

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