Urukean priests and the Neo-Babylonian state

The paper is constructed around a short micro-historical portrait of a priestly family active in Uruk in the sixth century bce. This introduces two interrelated issues that the paper will subsequently discuss with a view towards a contextualization of the family in question: the interaction between the Neo-Babylonian state and priests outside the capital city, and the drive towards inter-temple interaction and standardization of procedures based on the model of Esangila, the Marduk temple in the capital.