Administrative Epistolography in the Formative Phase of the Neo-Babylonian Empire (Spatbabylonische Briefe)

The 215 "early Neo-Babylonian" administrative letters discussed and edited in this study stem from the two major Neo-Babylonian temple archives known to researchers today, Eanna and Ebabbar. The term "formative phase" of the Neo-Babylonian Empire refers to the ca. 40 years between Nabopolassar's accession to the Babylonian throne in 626 BCE and the mid-reign of his son and successor, Nebuchadnezzar, ca. 585 BCE. In many ways, these letters are the closest we get to the erratic drama which was day-to-day life in Babylonia at the mid first millennium BCE. The letters were a vital administrative tool, necessary for the ongoing functioning of these institutions. As such, they provide first-hand testimony for the tasks and obstacles that the Neo-Babylonian bureaucrats faced. This, to some extent, is also true for the legal texts from the archives, and to a lesser extent for the administrative notes. Both groups in fact far surpass the letters in terms of numbers of texts. However, the ad hoc and ephemeral nature of letters, as well as their not strongly standardised phrasing, let us tap into their authors' sense of identity and state of mind. Moreover the patterns of communication between these officials are an important source of information on administrative hierarchies, networks of dependencies and patronage, and bureaucratic procedures. The Neo-Babylonian letters are still one of the most underrepresented and underexploited source material in Neo-Babylonian studies. This is due to the lack of up-to-date editions, the "elusive nature" of epistolography (namely the difficulty in accurately dating and contextualising the letters), as well as the unique philological difficulties of the texts. These factors are in fact feeding each other. No systematic attempt has been made to date and contextualise the Neo-Babylonian administrative letters and they have never been studied as a group. Three interdependent goals stand at the base of this study: 1. Establishing new, up-to-date editions of the early Neo-Babylonian letters from Eanna and Ebabbar; 2. studying these letters as a distinct text group; 3. contextualising the letters. - The study is supplemented by extensive indices. Cover 1 Acknowledgments 6 Table of contents 7 Tables and figures 11 Abbreviations and orthographic conventions 12 1. Introduction 15 1.1. Periodisation 16 1.2. Goals and methods 19 1.3. The sources and the archives 23 1.3.1. The Eanna archive 24 1.3.2. The (early) Ebabbar archive 26 1.3.3. The corpus 27 1.4. State of the problem 29 1.4.1. Previous publications of letters in the corpus 29 1.4.2. Previous literature 30 1.5. On the translation 33 2. Methodological aspects 35 2.1. Definition and function of a letter 35 2.1.1. Typology 36 2.1.1.1. Letter proper 36 2.1.1.2. Letter order 37 2.1.1.3. “Memorandum” 37 2.1.1.4. Additional aspects 38 2.1.1.4.1. Hierarchical relation between the writers and the addressees 38 2.1.1.4.2. Incoming/Outgoing 38 2.2. The structure of a letter 39 2.2.1. Introduction 39 2.2.1.1. Formal address 39 2.2.1.1.1. ṭuppi PN address 40 2.2.1.1.2. Servant (ardu) address 40 2.2.1.1.3. ana PN umma address 41 2.2.1.1.4. šulmu šâlu address 41 2.2.1.1.5. Royal formal address (amāt šarri) 42 2.2.1.1.6. Variables within the formal address 42 2.2.1.2. Greeting formula 45 2.2.1.2.1. May the gods decree (liqbû) 47 2.2.1.2.2. Daily I pray (ūmussu uṣalla) 49 2.2.1.2.3. May you be well (lū šulmu) 49 2.2.1.2.4. May the gods bless ... (likrubū) 50 2.2.1.2.5. Royal (I am well ...) 51 2.2.1.2.6. “Double” greeting formula 51 2.2.2. The body of the letter 52 2.2.2.1. Particles structuring the epistolographic discourse 54 2.2.2.1.1. ana muḫḫi, ina muḫḫi, ša (at the head of a sentence) 54 2.2.2.1.2. amur 55 2.2.2.1.3. enna, adû, enna adû, and enna amur 56 2.2.2.1.4. kapdu and ḫanṭiš 56 2.2.2.1.5. umma 57 2.2.2.2. Stock phrase 58 2.2.2.2.1. DN (lū īdû) kī oath 58 2.2.2.2.2. DN (lū īdû) kī adī oath 59 2.2.2.2.3. ḫarrānu ana šēpē šakānu 59 2.2.2.2.4. kī nakutti šapāru 60 2.2.2.2.5. kī pāni (bēli) maḫir 60 2.2.2.2.6. lā šelû 61 2.2.2.2.7. libbu (ša PN) lū ṭâbu 61 2.2.2.2.8. lū īdû and (lū) īdû kī 62 2.2.2.2.9. nubattu lā bâtu 63 2.2.2.2.10. suddir-ma (take care of ...) 64 2.2.2.2.11. ṭēmu (u šulmu) lū šemû 64 2.2.3. Closing formulae 65 2.3. Letters as administrative reports 66 2.4. Rhetoric and methods of persuasion 67 2.4.1. Rational argumentation 68 2.4.2. Emotions 69 2.4.3. Appeal to personal relationships 70 2.4.4. Reference to higher authorities – secular and divine 72 2.4.4.1. Threats 73 2.5. Methods of dating 73 2.5.1. “Museum archaeology” and archival context 74 2.5.2. Physical attributes (of tablet and text) 75 2.5.3. Lexical and stylistic considerations 77 2.5.4. Contents 78 2.5.5. Prosopography 81 3. The basics of epistolographic communication 82 3.1. Language 82 3.2. The tablets 85 3.2.1. Seals 87 3.3. Sending a letter 90 3.4. The messengers (mār šipri) 92 4. Administrative procedures 95 4.1. Temples’ high officials 95 4.1.1. Eanna 98 4.1.1.1. The royal resident (qīpu) 99 4.1.1.2. Temple administrator (šatammu) 100 4.1.1.3. Temple scribe (ṭupšar bīti) 101 4.1.2. Ebabbar 104 4.1.2.1. Royal resident (qīpu) 104 4.1.2.2. Chief priest (šangû) and temple administrator (šatammu) 105 4.1.2.2.1. Temple administrator (šatammu) of the Ebabbar 105 4.1.2.2.2. Chief priest (šangû) of the Ebabbar 105 4.2. Rules of administrative practice referred toin the letters 106 4.2.1. The concept of ‘service’ (maṣṣartu) 106 4.2.1.1. maṣṣartu owed by/for x? 108 4.2.1.2. Institutional maṣṣartu: maṣṣartu of the temple 110 4.2.1.3. Personal maṣṣartu: maṣṣartu of official/individual(s) 111 4.2.1.3.1. Between patrimonial and formal relations 113 4.2.1.3.2. “My maṣṣartu” in the letters of the governor of the Sealand 115 4.2.1.4. The (absence of) royal maṣṣartu 117 4.2.1.5. Conclusions (maṣṣartu) 118 4.2.2. ḫīṭu 118 4.2.2.1. Sin vs. punishment 119 4.2.2.2. The administrative context of ḫīṭu 120 4.2.2.3. Legal aspects of ḫīṭu 120 4.2.3. Interaction of temple officials with their temple colleagues 121 4.2.3.1. The “early career” of (the scribe) Nabû-bān-aḫi 125 4.2.3.1.1. Identification: between Nabû-bān-aḫi1 and Nabû-bān-aḫi2 125 4.2.3.1.2. The interaction of Nabû-bān-aḫi1 with other temple officials 128 4.2.3.2. The dossier of Mušēzib-Bēl and Ibni-Ištar 131 4.2.3.3. Piggyback messages 133 4.2.3.4. The interaction between the high-ranking Eanna officials 135 4.2.3.5. The royal resident of Ebabbar and the local Ebabbar officials 141 4.2.4. Interaction of temple officials with non-temple officials 142 4.2.4.1. Eanna – Uruk 142 4.2.4.1.1. The “Urukeans” 146 4.2.4.2. Eanna and its satellites: Larsa and Udannu 148 4.2.4.2.1. Larsa 148 4.2.4.2.2. Udannu 150 4.2.4.2.3. Conclusions (Larsa and Udannu) 151 4.2.4.3. Eanna – Sealand 152 4.2.4.3.1. Identifying the “Sealand letters” 153 4.2.4.3.2. Sealand officials 155 4.2.4.3.2.1. The governor of the Sealand 156 4.2.4.3.2.2. The deputy and the royal resident of the Sealand 157 4.2.4.3.3. Administrative aspects of Eanna/Sealand interaction 159 4.2.4.3.4. Personal aspects of Eanna/Sealand interaction 162 4.2.4.3.4.1. Nabû-ēṭer-napšāti and Nabû-nādin-šumi (aka Nādin) 162 4.2.4.3.5. Summary Eanna – Sealand 165 4.2.4.4. Eanna – Babylon 165 4.2.4.4.1. The royal family 168 4.2.4.4.1.1. Royal letters 168 4.2.4.4.1.2. Interaction with the king in letters of others 172 4.2.5. Interactions in the Ebabbar letters 174 5. Topics of correspondence 177 5.1. Building and infrastructure projects 177 5.1.1. Palace 178 5.1.2. Temple 179 5.1.3. The system at work 180 5.2. Military service 187 5.3. Agriculture 189 5.3.1. Legal and administrative aspects 189 5.3.2. Storage 195 5.3.3. Transportation 196 5.4. Cult 197 5.5. Management of personnel; legal problemsand court procedure 203 6. Comparison with earlier and later letter corpora 214 6.1. The Babylonian letters from the “State Archives of Assyria” (SAA) 214 6.2. Achaemenid (and late Neo-Babylonian)letters from Eanna and Ebabbar 221 7. Text editions 229 7.1. Letters from Eanna (Uruk) 231 7.2. Letters from Ebabbar (Sippar) 464 7.3. Appendix A: Cavigneaux 1981: 139f. 491 7.4. Appendix B: CT 22,160 492 8. Glossary 495 9. Bibliography 604 Indices 619 Genaral index 619 Month names: in the editions 623 Akkadian words 623 Hebrew words 625 Aramaic words 625 Toponyms and hydronyms: general 625 Toponyms and hydronyms: in the editions 626 Temple names: in the editions 627 Divine names: general 627 Divine names: in the editions 628 Personal names: general 630 Personal names: in the editions 632 Letters according to publication 658 Letters according to museum number 662 Letters in the corpus (+ appendixes A and B) 667 Texts 674 Biblical texts 682