A lot of Assyriological research conducted at Ghent University has focused on the Old Babylonian period (the beginning of the second millenium B.C.E.) and its socio-economic situation. Studying socio-economics in the Old Babylonian period can be considered from many angles and a lot of the projects mentioned on this page will have highlighting one such angle as its goal.
The focus makes sense when considering the many Old Babylonian texts found in the city Tell ed-Dēr, which Léon De Meyer started excavating in 1970. Both professors that followed Léon De Meyer in Assyriology at Ghent University, Michel Tanret and Katrien De Graef, continued this focus. Today, in 2022, there are still a lot of research done in this area, amongst other, the active project CUNE-IIIF-ORM.
Some of the many projects that have tried to shed light on socio-economics in the Old Babylonian period includes: