The Correspondence of the Kings of Ur: An Epistolary History of an Ancient Mesopotamian Kingdom (Mesopotamian Civilizations)

My work on the royal letters of the Ur III kings began many years ago as a doctoral dissertation at Yale University under the direction of W. W. Hallo. Soon after I began work on my thesis, I visited the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago to examine the pertinent cuneiform documents that were in their care. Advised by a friend to pay my respects to the great master, A. Leo Oppenheim, I knocked on the frame of his open door and was granted an audience. After a minor exchange of pleasantries, Prof. Oppenheim asked me what I was doing at the Institute; when I told him that I was editing the Sumerian literary correspondence, he looked into my eyes and stated dismissively: "This is work for an experienced scholar, not for a beginner." This was hardly what I wanted to hear at the time, and I left in a somewhat depressed mood. I eventually finished my dissertation, and by that time I had come to appreciate the wisdom of his prescient, if troubling statement, but I never saw him again and was unable to acknowledge his advice. Oppenheim was right, of course, and once I finished my dissertation I never wanted to touch the topic again; I was tired of the subject, the material seemed too difficult, and I could not imagine doing it justice. In addition, personal and political affairs prevented me from traveling abroad for a time, and thus I could not collate many of the sources. Over the years, colleagues would remind me of the obligation I had taken on and implored me to publish my editions of the royal letters; periodically, I returned to the subject, only to be sidetracked by other interests and obligations. In 2005, I was able to visit the Museum of the Ancient Orient in Istanbul to photograph all the relevant tablets in that collection, and this opportunity spurred me on to make a serious attempt to finish this book. The final product bears little resemblance to my original dissertation and I therefore decided to rename it, to distinguish it from the unpublished "Royal Correspondence of Ur" (RCU), which has, in photocopy, often been cited in the literature. As I send this out into the world, I still hear Oppenheim's words in my head and worry that they may continue to apply to this difficult material, the only large body of Sumerian literary prose that we possess at present. This book is divided into two parts: an analytical section, and one that contains the text editions. For practical reasons, I have used different citation conventions for each: in the first part, scholarly works are referred to according to the social science format, but in the commentaries to the text editions, which will only be Foreword x used by philologists, I use standard familiar Assyriological abbreviations as listed by the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI) and used in the Database of Neo-Sumerian Texts (BDTNS). Within the narrative, CKU items are cited according to the abbreviations assigned to them in the letter list, in tandem with their consecutive number; thus, the first letter, Aradmu to Šulgi 1, is referred to as Arš1 (1). The new labeling and numbering replaces the system used for the letters decades ago in RCU as well as the names used in ETCSL and elsewhere, and therefore a concordance between the RCU and CKU is provided on p. 246. The manuscript of this book was finished in the fall of 2009; I have updated it, within reason, in the proof stage, but much of the text has remained the same. Because it has taken so long to bring this research project to a close, I am indebted to many people and to numerous institutions for support, information, scholarly materials, and generosity of spirit. First, I must thank my teachers at Yale, J. J. Finkelstein, Harry H. Hoffner, Richard Ellis, and above all, William W. Hallo, who asked me to take on this topic, generously mentored me, and directed my thesis.

The Correspondence of the Kings of Ur is a collection of literary letters between the Ur III monarchs and their high officials at the end of the third millennium B.C. The letters cover topics of royal authority and proper governance, defense of frontier regions, and the ultimate disintegration of the empire and represent the largest corpus of Sumerian prose literature we possess. This long-awaited edition, based on extensive collation of almost all extant manuscripts, numbering more than a hundred, includes detailed historical and literary analyses, and copious philological commentary. It entirely supersedes the Michalowski’s oft-cited unpublished Yale dissertation of 1976.

The edition is accompanied by an extensive analysis of the place of the letters in early second-millennium schooling, treating the letters as literature, followed by chapters that contextualize the epistolary material within historical and historiographic contexts, utilizing many Sumerian archival, literary, and historical sources. The main objective here is to try to navigate the complex issues of authenticity, authority, and fiction that arise from the study of these literary artifacts. In addition, Michalowski offers new hypotheses about many aspects of late third-millennium history, including essays on military history and strategy, on frontiers, on the nature and putative character of nomadism at the time, as well as a long chapter on the role of a people designated as Amorites.

The included DVD includes various photographs at high resolution of most of the tablets included in the study.

The Correspondence of the Kings of Ur is a collection of literary letters between the Ur III monarchs and their high officials at the end of the third millennium B.C. The letters cover topics of royal authority and proper governance, defense of frontier regions, and the ultimate disintegration of the empire and represent the largest corpus of Sumerian prose literature we possess. This long-awaited edition, based on extensive collation of almost all extant manuscripts, numbering more than a hundred, includes detailed historical and literary analyses, and copious philological commentary. It entirely supersedes the Michalowski’s oft-cited unpublished Yale dissertation of 1976. The edition is accompanied by an extensive analysis of the place of the letters in early second-millennium schooling, treating the letters as literature, followed by chapters that contextualize the epistolary material within historical and historiographic contexts, utilizing many Sumerian archival, literary, and historical sources. The main objective here is to try to navigate the complex issues of authenticity, authority, and fiction that arise from the study of these literary artifacts. In addition, Michalowski offers new hypotheses about many aspects of late third-millennium history, including essays on military history and strategy, on frontiers, on the nature and putative character of nomadism at the time, as well as a long chapter on the role of a people designated as Amorites. The included DVD includes various photographs at high resolution of most of the tablets included in the study. [edited By] Piotr Michalowski. Series Numbering Comfirmed By Publisher's Website. Accompanying Dvd-r Contains Color Photos Of Tablets Containing Texts Discussed In The Book And A Pdf File Of An Index To Those Photos. Includes Bibliographical References And Indexes. System Requirements For Accompanying Cd-rom: Adobe Acrobat Reader; Cd-rom Drive.