Nuzi Tablets

Overview

The Nuzi Tablets, discovered during excavations at the site of Nuzi in northern Iraq between 1925 and 1931 by American archaeologist John P. Peters, consist of approximately 20 clay tablets containing legal and economic records from the late Bronze Age. Written in Akkadian cuneiform, these documents detail property transfers, adoption agreements, and inheritance laws that closely mirror the customs described in the Book of Genesis. The tablets confirm that patriarchal societies of the 2nd millennium BCE operated with legal frameworks involving surrogate mothers, concubines, and inheritance rights that align with the stories of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Particularly significant are records showing how property could be transferred through a handmaid, a practice evident in Sarah's use of Hagar and Rachel's use of Bilhah and Zilpah. The tablets were found in situ within domestic contexts, providing archaeological validation for the social structures described in Genesis rather than later Israelite law. Today fragments of the tablets are housed in the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and other institutions, forming crucial evidence for the historical plausibility of the patriarchal narratives.

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