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Seth Richardson is a historian of the ancient Near East focusing on Mesopotamia’s Old Babylonian period (ca. 2000–1600 BCE) and the problem of the Fall of Babylon in 1595 BCE. His research looks at socio-political problems such as slavery, sovereignty, legal conflicts, migration, and social violence. What draws this work together is a view of ancient states as unfinished projects—what he calls “presumptive” states—with weak infrastructural capacity, but endlessly creative in projecting and attaining new powers.

Richardson is also a committed generalist delving into topics as diverse as food insecurity, ancestor cult, a disappearing princess, words for sneering, the lost name of a wine jar, omens of uncertainty, talking animals, the legal functions of divine emblems, the literary functions of date-lists, the emotional functions of lawsuits, robbers, competitive proverb-games, and, of course, dirty jokes. His current work focuses on speech and political interactivity.

Richardson has published almost 100 articles (impact factors: h-index: 21, i-10: 37), cited by more than 1,200 other publications, including comparative work on dozens of other cultures, as varied as the preclassic Maya, eleventh-century Kyivan Rus’, and twenty-first century Nigeria. His work has appeared in specialist journals like Revue d’Assyriologie and Iraq and historical journals such as Past & Present and The American Historical Review. Most of his publications are freely available online.

He is Co-Editor of the Journal of Cuneiform Studies and Managing Editor of the Journal of Near Eastern Studies.