Old Babylonian

Old Babylonian is a historical language that was spoken and written in ancient Mesopotamia, primarily between 2000 and 1600 BCE. It is a form of Akkadian, using cuneiform script on clay tablets. This language was used for administrative records, legal documents, poetry, and scholarly texts, notably during the reign of Hammurabi. While it’s a predecessor to later Akkadian dialects, Old Babylonian played a key role in the development of written culture in the ancient Near East. Scholars study it through surviving inscriptions to understand the history, society, and language of that era.