Keywords
Ur III, Sumerian, letter-order, subsistence field

§1. The tablet published here for the first time (SM 1899.2.135) is an Ur III letter-order housed in the Semitic Museum at Harvard University that records the assignment of a subsistence field to the official Ayakala.¹ It was identified and photographed by Palmiro Notizia on June 2008. The tablet is well preserved, it measures 50×40×18 mm, and it is not ruled. The provenance from Girsu-Lagaš can be determined on the basis of onomastics.

§2. Text edition (Palmiro Notizia)

²

§2.1. Commentary
obv. 1: Bazi is attested as the addressee of four letter-orders,³ but only two, TCS 1, 49 (= Michalowski 1993: no. 163), and BM 94502, have a content analogous to our text. In the case of TCS 1, 49, Bazi is requested to take away (kar) a 3 bur₃ field plot (=54 iku = 19.44 ha) from Lugaluruda and to give it (šum₂) to Ludingira, who was likely the rightful grantee. However, any reference to the nature of the field plot or to the term šuku is missing in the text. In BM 94502, he is ordered to “release” (šu–bar) two large allotment plots situated in two different fields.⁴

obv. 3: In the Ur III period the average size of a land allotment distributed by the crown (šuku) was 6 iku (= 14,400 m²),⁵ however it varied depending on the dependent worker’s (erin₂) social position and profession.⁶ A lower-ranking state dependent would normally receive 4 iku (= 1.44 ha) of land, that is the same extension assigned to Ayakala.⁷ If we accept the standard yield ratio of 20 to 30 gur of barley for one bur₃ (= 18 iku) of soil,⁸ then a 4 iku field plot could provide up to 6 gur (= 2,000 sila₃) of barley per year. It is worth noting, however, that the same dependent could hold more than one šuku-plot within different fields and that the location of a single plot might change from one year to the other due to the unstable topographical conditions in the southern part of the Mesopotamian alluvium.⁹

For the reading of the sign MUR₇ (LAK 193, KWU 354, ABZ 242), see Civil 2011: 232-233. I assume that in our text MUR₇ does not have a simple prepositional use (“behind [the temple of] Tira’aš”), but rather it refers to a specific part of the domain unit of the field of Tira’aš (see below). In the land survey texts from Girsu, plots of each field are classified according to the differences in either the quality of the soil, or in the use of the land. The sign MUR₇ indicates in those texts the “rear part” (Akkadian arkatu) of a domain unit, with no direct relationship to the quality of the soil as proposed by Pettinato.¹⁰ However, I am uncertain about the reading of the sign MUR₇ in these cases, whether mur₇ or murgu₂. Tira’aš was the name of one of the four secondary shrines of Ningirsu mentioned in Cylinder A of Gudea.¹¹ The site of the homonymous settlement is unknown, but it is probably to be located in the environs of Girsu, close to its borders with the province of Umma. A palace/fortress (e₂-gal) seems to have existed, both in Tira’aš and in Antasura, built by Eannatum and Urukagina to protect the northern boundary of Lagaš.¹² For the Ur III period the following attestations of the toponym are documented¹³:

Besides, several texts record offers to the sanctuary of Tira’aš or religious events connected with Tira’aš:

Both TLB 3, 167 (A) and BPOA 6, 37 (E) confirm that Tira’aš was in the Girsu district. More precisely, according to HLC 102 (C) and HLC 267 (C), it was located in the area of Kisura, literally “the border.”¹⁶

obv. 4: For date palms growing in a field, possibly on the levee that surrounded it, see Heimpel 2011: 80. For the expression gaba a-ša₃, see PSD A/I, p. 171 (1.9 “features of a field”).

Ulu₃-di in a-ša₃ ulu₃-di might be either a personal name or a cultic profession.¹⁷ Be that as it may, this field name is not attested in any other text, while an i₃-dub ulu₃-di “granary (of the field) of Uludi/the lamentation singer” is known from MVN 9, 66 (tablet obv. 4, envelope obv. 4).

As to the personal name Uludi, at Girsu-Lagaš the most important officials bearing that name were an estate manager (nu-banda₃-gu₄) and a foreman of the female millers (ugula kikken₂).¹⁸

rev. 1: The expression im-a ge.n “to confirm on a tablet” suggests the redaction of a new document by Bazi – or on behalf of Bazi – as a response to the request of the central administration to assign a šuku-plot to Ayakala.¹⁹ However, it is virtually impossible to identify the aforementioned document—or a single entry mentioning the assignment operation in a larger account—among the thousands of texts of the Ur III corpus, given also the lack of any title or patronymic accompanying Ayakala.

§3. Seal impression (Alessandro Di Ludovico)

§3.1. The tablet shows traces of multiple seal impressions on both faces, but no sealings on the rounded minor sides. In general, all seal impressions look quite feeble and well-worn. Very probably sealings were made before the document's drafting, since its incised signs still appear quite wide and deep. As one can often observe in Ur III administrative texts, the last line of the tablet's text, located on the reverse, is followed by a single partial but uninterrupted sealing which begins with the legend and reaches the end of the document's surface. Spatial relations between lines of text and legend frame of seal impressions had to follow very precise correspondences, according to what is still visible of the legend's impressions which follow one another.

Figure 1: The seal impression

§3.2. The cylinder that was used to seal this tablet bore a presentation scene before a seated goddess. In these impressions the latter is the best recognizable of the three characters that were originally represented on the seal's surface. In fact, the receiving goddess is almost completely preserved on the reverse and partially distinguishable in one impression on the obverse. She sits on a niched throne and wears a flounced robe and a headgear of the multi-tiered horned crown kind, with a disk-like element on its top. The scene was certainly completed by the typical couple of a goddess and a man standing hand in hand. What remains visible of them in the impressions is only part of the body of the male figure (wearing his typical fringed mantle), who raises his right hand before his face. Before the sitting goddess no traces of astral symbols are visible in the top part of the field, but, in its middle region, a barely legible integrating motif clearly appears. In presentation scenes of Ur III period such a position can be occupied by an animal or monster, like a goose, an Anzu-like eagle, a lion or a bull. Seal impressions of SM 1899.2.135 do not show enough of this motif to allow a sound interpretation of its nature. According to what can still be observed in one of the impressions on the reverse, one can suppose that this element could correspond to a lion placed on a standard and facing towards the right. Such iconography recurs in this region of the scene in some well-known published specimens of presentation scenes of the same period.²⁰ The presence here of an Anzu-like eagle or a lion standing on his hind-legs or cowering down is much less likely.²¹

Notes

Version: 23 November 2012  

@article{Notizia2012New,
	note = {[Online; accessed 2024-12-03]},
	address = {Oxford; Berlin; Los Angeles},
	author = {Notizia,  Palmiro and di Ludovico,  Alessandro},
	journal = {Cuneiform Digital Library Bulletin},
	issn = {1540-8760},
	number = {3},
	year = {2012},
	publisher = {Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative},
	title = {A {New} {Ur} {III} {Letter}-{Order} from the {Semitic} {Museum} at {Harvard} {University}},
	url = {https://cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/articles/cdlb/2012-3},
	volume = {2012},
}

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TI  - A New Ur III Letter-Order from the Semitic Museum at Harvard Universit
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