摘要：There was a signifi cant, and I believe unfortunate,
moment of articulation in what now appears to be a
widely accepted Assyriological view of ancient southern
Mesopotamia that is represented in the proceedings of
the XVIII. Recontre assyriologique in Munich in 1970
(Edzard 1972). It is embodied in two infl uential papers
given there by Igor Diakonoff and I. J. Gelb. The issue
between them, of late re-emerging in importance, was
some what clouded at the time by their agreement on
the then more salient subject of the relatively minor role
of chattel slavery. A further barrier to understanding
dependent/slave labor in ancient Babylonia may have
been Gelb’s subsequent, informal objections to the published
version of his remarks. But the substance of the
issue, although unremarked at the time, is clear enough.
Here is Diakonoff:
