Machine generated contents note: -- I. Materiality and literacies -- 1. Tablets as artefacts, scribes as artisans, Jonathan Taylor -- 2. Accounting in proto-cuneiform, Robert K. Englund -- 3. Numeracy and metrology, Gregory Chambon -- 4. Levels of literacy, Niek Veldhuis -- 5. Literacy and gender, Brigitte Lion -- II. Individuals and communities -- 6. The person in Mesopotamian thought, Benjamin R. Foster -- 7. The scribe of the Flood Story and his circle, Frans van Koppen -- 8. Feasts for the living, the dead, and the gods, Hagan Brunke -- 9. Cuneiform writing in Neo-Babylonian temple communities, Michael Jursa -- 10. Freedom in ancient Near Eastern societies, Eva von Dassow -- III. Experts and novices -- 11. Teacher-student relationships: two case studies, Yoram Cohen & Sivan Kedar -- 12. Patron and client: Zimri-Lim and Asqudum the diviner, Dominique Charpin -- 13. Learned, rich, famous and unhappy: Ur-Utu of Sippar, Michel Tanret -- 14. Music, the work of professionals, Nele Ziegler -- 15. The education of Neo-Assyrian princes, Silvie Zamazalova -- IV. Decisions -- 16. Judicial decision-making: judges and arbitrators, Sophie Demare-Lafont -- 17. Royal decision-making: kings, magnates and scholars, Karen Radner -- 18. Assyria at war: strategy and conduct, Andreas Fuchs -- 19. Manipulating the gods: lamenting in context, Anne Lohnert -- 20. Magic rituals: conceptualisation and performance, Daniel Schwemer -- V. Interpretations -- 21. Sheep and sky: systems of divinatory interpretation, Ulla Susanne Koch -- 22. Making sense of time: observational and theoretical calendars, John M. Steele -- 23. Letters as correspondence, letters as literature, Fabienne Huber Vulliet -- 24. Keeping company with men of learning: the king as scholar, Eckart Frahm -- 25. From street altar to palace: reading the built environment of urban Babylonia, Heather D. Baker -- VI. Making knowledge -- 26. The production and dissemination of scholarly knowledge, Eleanor Robson -- 27. Tablets of schools and scholars: a portrait of the Old Babylonian corpus, Steve Tinney -- 28. Adapting to new contexts: cuneiform in Anatolia, Mark Weeden -- 29. Observing and describing the world through divination and astronomy, Francesca Rochberg -- 30. Berossos between tradition and innovation, Geert De Breucker -- VII. Shaping tradition -- 31. Agriculture as civilization: sages, farmers, and barbarians, Frans Wiggermann -- 32. Sourcing, organising, and administering medicinal ingredients, Barbara Bock -- 33. Changing images of kingship in Sumerian literature, Nicole Brisch -- 34. The pious king: royal patronage of temples, Caroline Waerzeggers -- 35. Cuneiform culture's last guardians: the old urban notability of Hellenistic Uruk, Philippe Clancier.