The Imprisoned Life

Chapter 5 discusses what imprisoned life was like. After considering the descriptive account in the literary vision attested in the relevant portion of the “Hymn to Nungal,” life on the inside will be discussed through several documents of practice to answer questions about the provision of food, abuse, suffering, and time spent on the inside. It will become further evident that imprisonment was multifunctional, not just in relation to purpose but also its context. For example, the administrative approaches to imprisonment and spikes in lengths of stay in prison are two areas in which development can be observed, suggesting that imprisonment was available to be used but the approach was not standardized. Such observations fit with other known changes across locales and periods of time in early Mesopotamia. The concepts of suffering and misery introduce the topic of the resultant lament, which is discussed in its Mesopotamian context in Chapter 6.