The House of Prisoners: Slavery and State in Uruk during the Revolt against Samsu-iluna (Studies in Ancient Near Eastern Records (SANER) Book 2)

This book deals with the house of prisoners (bit asiri ) at the city of Uruk during the revolt against king Samsu-iluna of Babylon, Hammurabi’s son. The political history of this brief period (ca. 1741–1739 BC) is not widely known and until now there has been no comprehensive treatment of the bit asiri. This book includes autograph copies, transliterations, and translations of 42 unpublished cuneiform tablets from various collections, collations, and detailed tables and catalogues. The analysis comprises some 410 documents dated or attributable to king Rim-Anum, one of the insurgents who attained relative independence as the ruler of Uruk. The study of this corpus reveals details about diplomatic dealings between the central power and rebel rulers, about the functioning of the house of prisoners of war, and about the individuals who participated in different echelons of the local administration. This monograph investigates what kind of organization “the house of prisoners” was, how it worked, how it interacted with other institutions, the composition of its labor force, and state management of captive and enslaved individuals. List of tables 16 Plans and maps 17 List of abbreviations 18 Introduction 21 I “Why and How?” 21 II Prisoners of war and the bīt asīrī in previous scholarship 27 III Interpretations of the role of the bīt asīrī 30 IV About this book 35 V Cuneiform texts, conventions, principles of transliteration, and related matters 37 Chapter 1 The archive of the house of prisoners and political history 40 I Documents dated to Rīm-Anumand the archive of the house of prisoners 40 II Uruk during the Old Babylonian period 46 III The revolts against Samsu-iluna and Rīm-Anum’s reign 47 IV Year names, chronology and political history 49 V Administrative records and political history 56 V.1 Rīm-Anum’s first year 62 V.2 Rīm-Anum’s second year 62 VI Military activities 64 VII The rebels according to the bīt asīrī sources 67 VII.1 Daganma-ilum 68 VII.2 Ilūni 69 VIII Conclusion 71 Chapter 2 Allocation of flour 75 I General remarks 75 II Records dealing with flour allocation from the bīt asīrī 77 III Flour allocation of the ana ĝešbun type 77 III.1 Sealings 78 III.2 Recipients of the allocation 83 IV Flour allocation of the šuku type 88 IV.1 šuku e2 asīrī 88 IV.2 ana šuku e2 u ah̬iātim 89 IV.3 ana šuku lugal (u ah̬iātim) 90 IV.4 ana šuku (erin2) mu-wa-ar-ba-tim 90 IV.5 ana šuku lu2 GN u ah̬iātim) 91 V Flour allocation of the ana si-la2 type 92 V.1 Sealings 92 V.2 Recipients of the ana si-la2 allocations 93 VI Flour allocation of the sudû type 95 VII Other allocations 95 VIII Comparative analysis of the various flour allocations 98 IX Conclusion 102 Chapter 3 Prisoners and slaves 130 I General remarks 130 II Prisoners of war and slaves 130 III Geographic provenance of prisoners and slaves 132 IV Ties of personal dependency of prisoners and slaves 140 V Status of prisoners and slaves 147 VI Allocation of prisoners and slaves 151 VII Conclusion 158 Chapter 4 The organization of Uruk under Rīm-Anum Part I: “Houses” and institution 162 I Concepts and sources 162 II The “houses” (e2, bītum) 166 II.1 The bīt asīrī 166 II.2 The e2-a ĝrig 169 II.3 The e2 šabrîm 174 II.4 The e2-(munus-)uš-bar 174 II.5 The e2-mušen-hi-a 178 II.6 The e2-bur-saĝ 179 II.7 Other houses 182 The e2 182 The e2-a-zu-meš 182 The e2-maš-lugal 183 The e2-sukkal 183 The e2-uzu 184 III Other institutions 184 III.1 The e2-gal 184 III.2 The (e2-)ĝi6-par3 185 III.3 The en-nu e2-gal 186 Chapter 5 The organization of Uruk under Rīm-Anum Part II: Professions and individuals 191 I General remarks 191 II Personnel with title and clear affiliation with houses and institutions 192 II.1 a-zu-gal (azugallum) 192 II.2 aĝrig (abarakkum) 192 II.3 dub-sar en-nu e2-gal 193 II.4 gu-za-la2 (guzalûm) 193 II.5 sukkal (šukkallum) 194 II.6 ša3-tam (šatammum) 195 II.7 šabra (šabrûm) 196 II.8 ugula asīrī 197 II.9 ugula e2 and ugula e2-meš 200 II.10 ugula e2-mušen-hi-a 201 II.11 ugula (e2-)munus-uš-bar 202 II.12 zabar-dab5-ba (zabardabbûm) 203 III Personnel without title but with clear affiliation with houses 203 III.1 Personnel of the e2-aĝrig 203 III.2 Personnel of the e2-uš-bar 204 IV Personnel with title and no clear affiliation with specific houses and institutions 205 IV.1 Administrative personnel 205 bisaĝ-dub-ba (šandabakkum) 205 dub-sar (țupšarrum) 206 IV.2 Other professions and occupations 206 ad-KID (atkuppum) 206 lu2azlag2 (ašlākum) 207 ensi2 (iššiakkum) 208 hub2-bu-meš (h?uppû) 209 kisal-luh (kisalluh?h?um) 210 lu2-ur3-ra (lurrakkûm) 211 lunga3 (sirāsûm) 211 manzaz bābim and mazzaz ka2 ra2-gaba 212 muhaldim (nuḫatimmum) 212 na-gada (nāqidum) 213 nar-gal (nargallum) 213 santana (šandanakkum) 213 simug (nappāḫum) 214 sipad (rē’um) 214 su-si-ig (šusikkum) 214 ša3-gud (kullizum) 215 šu-i (gallābum) 215 u2-tul2 (utullum) 216 ugula geme2 217 zadim (sasinnum) 217 V Personnel affiliated with temples 218 ensi2 dutu 218 gudu4 (pašīšum) 218 saga (šanĝum) 219 VI Men without titles but with seals 219 VI.1 Seal inscriptions with the legend “servant of royal name” 219 Apil-Amurrum / dumu Šulgi-[...] / arad Rīm-Anum 219 Apil-ilīsu / dumu Țāb-târ-ilī / arad Samsu-iluna 220 Awīl-ilī / dumu Šillī-[...] / arad Samsu-iluna 220 VI.2 Seal inscriptions with the legend “servant of divine name(s)” 221 Adad-rīm-ilī / dumu Kānišum / arad Nabium 221 Apil-Amurrum / dumu Ilam-ēriš / arad Amurrum 221 Etel-pī-d⌜Erra?⌝ / dumu Enanatum / arad Iggala 222 Iballuț / dumu H?ubbušum / arad Amurrum 222 Šarrum-i3-[li2?] / dumu Sîn-[...] / arad Nin-siana 222 Ur-Ninurta / dumu a?-wi-ia-⌜x⌝ / arad Lugal-banda 223 Wussum-nu-⌜x-x⌝ / dumu Iddin-Ištar / arad Nin-siana 223 [...]-Amurrum / dumu Sîn-iddinam / arad Nabium 223 VI.3 Partially legible sealings 223 Abum-ilī / dumu [...] /[...] 223 Ātanah̬-ilī / dumu Lā-qīpum / arad den-[...] 223 Awīl-[...] /dumu Sîn-[.] / arad [...] 224 Bāštī-d[...] / dumu Kih̬lī-’el / arad [...] 224 E2-an-[.] / dumu ma-a-nu-um / [arad ...] 224 Enlil-[...] / dumu Sîn-[...] / [arad .] 224 Eteī-pī-Marduk / dumu AN.⌜x⌝-[.] / [arad .] 224 Sîn-[...] / dumu Sîn-gāmil/ [.] 225 VII Men without seals or titles from tablets from the Sîn-kāšid palace 225 Amurrum-mušallim 225 B/Ma-ni-[...] 225 Ibni-dNin-[...] 225 Iddinyatum 225 Marduk-nādā 226 Pirh̬um dumu Ilī-u-Šamaš 226 Sukkukum 226 Șillī-[...] 227 [...]-gāmil 227 VIII Men without seals or titles presumably acting in an official capacity 227 Adad-mušallim dumu Mu-duga 227 Anum-ilī 227 Awīl 228 Ibni-Adad 228 Ikūn-pûm 228 Ilīma-abī 228 Ilšu-bānî 228 Inbi-ilīšu 228 Nabium-mālik 229 Ninurta-ibnīšu 229 Nūratum 229 Šamaš-gāmil 229 Šamaš-muballiț 229 Šamaš-nāsir 229 *Tigilâ-ana-Damkina 230 Ubār-Zababa 230 IX Conclusion 230 Chapter 6 The military, messengers and foreign officials 234 I General remarks 234 II ugula MAR.TU 237 III PA.PA 242 IV aga3-us2 (rēdûm) 243 ugula aga3-us2(-meš) 243 šāpir aga3-us2-meš (šāpir rēdî) 243 aga3-us2 saĝ (lugal) 244 aga3-us2 lugal 245 V ra(2)-gaba 245 VI Administrative officials in the army 245 dumu e2-dub-ba(-a) 245 dub-sar ugnim 246 VII lu2-kiĝ2-gi4-a 247 VIII Other leadership posts from outside Uruk 248 IX Conclusion 254 Conclusion The House of Prisoners: State and slavery in Uruk during the revolt against Samsu-iluna 257 I An exercise in fragmentology 257 II Political history 258 III The administration of Uruk under Rīm-Anum 262 IV The bīt asīrī 272 V State and slavery in Uruk during the revolt against Samsu-iluna 278 Appendix 1: Autographs and text editions 284 Catalogue of tablets edited in this volume 284 Concordance: Tablets arranged alphabetically after the Museum signature 285 Autographs 286 Transliterations and translations 309 Appendix 2: Collations 344 Appendix 3: Chronological catalogue of texts from Uruk dated to Samsu-iluna and Rīm-Anum 363 Appendix 4: Catalogue of texts from Uruk dated to Samsu-iluna and Rīm-Anum 391 Appendix 5: Glossary 427 I List of Sumerian words and logograms and their Akkadian and English renderings 427 II Akkadian words and their Sumerian and logographic renderings 429 Bibliography 431 Indexes 447 1. Personal names 447 2. Divine names 451 3. Geographic names 452 4. Akkadian words 453 5. Sumerian words and sumerograms 454 6. Cuneiform texts 456 Studies in Ancient Near Eastern Records (SANER) is a peer-reviewed series devoted to the publication of monographs pertaining to all aspects of the history, culture, literature, religion, art, and archaeology of the Ancient Near East, from the earliest historical periods to Late Antiquity. The aim of this series is to present in-depth studies of the written and material records left by the civilizations and cultures that populated the various areas of the Ancient Near East: Anatolia, Arabia, Egypt, Iran, the Levant, Mesopotamia, and Syria. Thus, SANER is open to all sorts of works that have something new to contribute and which are relevant to scholars and students within the continuum of regions, disciplines, and periods that constitute the field of Ancient Near Eastern studies, as well as to those in neighboring disciplines, including Biblical Studies, Classics, and Ancient History in general. This book studies the house of prisoners at the city of Uruk during the revolt against king Samsu-iluna (ca. 1741-1739 BC). The history of this period is not widely known and there is no previous comprehensive treatment of the institution under consideration. The analysis of some 410 documents dated or attributable to R?m-Anum of Uruk, one of the rebel kings, reveals details about diplomatic dealings between the central power and independent rulers and about the functioning of the house of prisoners of war. This monograph explores state management of captive and enslaved labor in times of political upheaval This book studies the house of prisoners at the city of Uruk during the revolt against king Samsu-iluna (ca. 1741-1739 BC). The history of this period is not widely known and there is no previous comprehensive treatment of the institution under consideration. The analysis of some 410 documents dated or attributable to Rim-Anum of Uruk, one of the rebel kings, reveals details about diplomatic dealings between the central power and independent rulers and about the functioning of the house of prisoners of war. This monograph explores state management of captive and enslaved labor in times of poli