Legal Acculturation in Āl-Yaḫūdu?

The recently-published Neo-Babylonian records from Āl-Yaḫūdu provide significant, direct evidence for legal contact between Judeans and cuneiform legal culture. This presentation will contextualize legal aspects of the Āl-Yaḫūdu materials by comparing them with features attested in other Neo-Babylonian legal corpora. It will focus on two main aspects of the materials: the general make-up, in terms of legal contents, of the Āl-Yaḫūdu corpus, and the specific evidence these texts provide about trial procedure. Two published texts (CUSAS 28 Nos. 16A/B and 27) pertain directly to litigation and attest to Judeans` use of Babylonian adjudicatory mechanisms. Thus, they may be meaningfully situated within broader discussions of Neo-Babylonian trial law, such as the preliminary stages of the trial and the use of evidence. Furthermore, attention to the apparent ethnicities of the protagonists raises important questions regarding the Judeans` socio-legal situation in exile.