Keywords
Cuneiform, antiquities market, Ur III, Drehem, dog

§1. Introduction
§1.1. The recent article by C. Tsouparopoulou (2012) on the role of dogs at Drehem and in the army during the Ur III period brings to the fore additional interesting insights into both the Ur III military organization (recently Lafont 2009) and the various roles that certain military officials played in the administration of canines at Puzriš-Dagan (Drehem) and other sites in Sumer. The article also reveals the potential limitations imposed by evidence coming primarily from a single site, in this case Puzriš-Dagan, and how new evidence, unfortunately today mostly from unprovenienced sources, enhances greatly our understanding of the existing evidence. It also calls into question the rigid position that some scholars maintain by refusing to consider unprovenienced^[1] evidence for their research.^[2] The following comments based entirely on unprovenienced data, which are excluded from consideration by these individuals, reveal the haplessness of their reasoning.

§1.2. The publication of 1159 mostly unprovenienced texts, the great majority from the city of Irisaĝrig/Āl-Šarrākī (Owen 2013^[3]) and environs follows upon the publication and elaboration of ca. 1400 texts, all unprovenienced, from Garšana (Owen & Mayr 2007; Kleinerman & Owen 2009; Heimpel 2009; Owen 2011)^[4] that provided substantial new and often unique data for the Ur III period. The texts from Irisaĝrig/Āl-Šarrākī are doing no less. Among the latter, and directly relevant to the role of canines^[5] in Ur III society, are those texts that document the care and feeding of palace dogs by dog handlers/kennelmen at Irisaĝrig/Āl-Šarrākī. Following upon the publication of Nisaba 15 (Owen 2013), the following observations can now be offered.

§2. The Evidence
§2.1. Dog Handler/Kennelman (sipa ur-gi₇-ra)
There are seven dog handlers known now from the Irisaĝrig/Āl-Šarrākī texts. None is attested in other sources as a dog handler/kennelman or serving in any other capacity in the ration distribution texts (“messenger texts”) at Irisaĝrig/Āl-Šarrākī. All of the names are Semitic and, except for Puzur-KU(-ku^?; MVN 11, 175 obv. 4 and seal), all names appear in the Ur III corpus for the first time. The following chart lists named dog handlers/kennelmen so far attested in the Ur III corpus but who are documented primarily for three cities—Āl-Šarrākī, Girsu, and Puzriš-Dagan (see also Tsouparopoulou 2012: 12-15). With few exceptions, the individual dog handlers/kennelmen are mentioned infrequently by name. At Puzriš-Dagan Ilum-ba-ni can be documented over a twenty-five year period. He was followed by Iš-me-ilum and Puzur-Enlil, the latter two having overlapped their predecessors at Puzriš-Dagan. Although there are overlapping positions among the dog handlers/kennelmen, there seems to have been only a single individual in charge of the dogs at any one extended period. At Irisaĝrig/Āl-Šarrākī the sequence appears to have been Šu-Nabar → Puzur-Šulal → Puzur-Ku(-ku^?) → Puzur-Šulal → Epine → Iku-me/išar → Irdum-alsin → Ikume/išar → Rima. Their basic daily rations at Iri-Saĝrig/ Āl-Šarrākī were two liters of soup/stew (tu₇). Aside from two single references from Umma, it is worth noting that dog handlers/kennelmen are not documented by name at any of the other major cities in Sumer.

§2.2. Palace dogs (ur-gi₇ e₂-gal)^[10]

ur-gi₇ e₂-gal, Nisaba 15, 283 obv. 6 (tablet & envelope); 420 obv. 6; 451 obv. 5; 718 rev. 10. All references to dogs in this archive are to palace dogs.

§2.3. Types of dogs

a. ur-gi₇-munus, “female mastiff ,” Nisaba 15, 54 obv. 2, 420 obv. 1

b. ur-gi₇-nita₂, “male mastiff ,” Nisaba 15, 54 obv. 1, 420 obv. 2

(obv. 1.) 15 ur-gi₇-munus (2.) 2 [ur-gi₇]-nita₂ (3.) ninda-[bi 2 sila₃-ta] (4.) u₄ 1-kam u₄ 30–še₃ (5.) |ŠU+LAGAB| 3 gur (6.) ša₃-gal ur-gi₇ e₂-gal (rev. 1.) puzur₄-^dšu-lal sipa ur<-gi₇-ra> (2.) šu ba-ti, Nisaba 15, 420 obv.

No other qualification of dogs appears in the archive. The general identification of dogs of this period is “mastiff “ but there is no consensus as to the actual breed involved.^[11]

§2.4. Feeding of dogs^[12]

a. meat (sheep and oxen carcases)^[13]

(obv. 1.) 1 ad₇ udu (2.) u₄ 1-kam u₄ 30-še₃ (3.) ad₇ udu-bi 30 (4.) ša₃-gal ur-gi₇-ra (5.) [i-ku-me]-šar sipa ur-ra (6.) [šu ba]-ti (rev. 1.) ugula i₃-lal₃-lum,^[14] Nisaba 15, 64

(obv. 1.) 2 ad₇ udu (2.) u₄ 1-kam u₄ 30-še₃ (3.) ad₇-udu-bi 60 (4.) 3 ad₃ gu₄ (5.) 10 ad₇ šaḫ₂ (rev. 1.) ša₃-gal ur-gi₇ e₂-gal (2.) puzur₄-KU sipa ur-gi₇ (3.) šu ba-ti (4.) ugula nir-i₃-da-ĝal₂,^[15] Nisaba 15, 283

b. bread^[16]

(obv. 1.) 11 ur-gi₇-nita₂ (2.) 1 ur-gi₇-munus (3.) 2 sila₃ ninda-ta (4.) ninda-bi 24 sila₃ (5.) ninda-bi u₄ 30-še₃ (6.) |ŠU+LAGAB| 2.2.0. gur ninda (rev. 1.) ša₃-gal ur-gi₇-ra i-ku-me-šar sipa ur-ra (2.) šu ba-ti (3.) ugula i₃-lal₃-lum, Nisaba 15, 54

c. grapes^[17]

(rev. iv 2.) 1.0.0 geštin gur (3.) ša₃-gal ur-gi₇-ra-še₃ (blank space) (4.) zi-ga gar-gar-a (5.) šu-ma-ma agrig, Nisaba 15, 56

d. generic fodder

a. u₄ ša₃-gal ur-gi₇-ra-še₃ im-gen-na-a, “when he [i.e. ur-^dnanše lu₂ kin-gi₄-a-lugal ] came for fodder for the dog(s),” 1 Nisaba 15, 726 obv. 18

b. u₄ šà-gal ur-gi₇-ra-še₃ im-gen-na-a, “when he [i.e. rim-ma sipa ur-gi₇-ra] came for fodder for the dog(s),” Nisaba 15, 855 obv. 16

§2.5. Offerings for dogs^[18]

(1.) 1 a-gam NE-[x] (2.) sa₂-du₁₁ ur-gi₇-ra (3.) ki ur-mes ensi₂-ta (4.) a₂-pil-la-ša (5.) šu ba-ti, Nisaba 15, 532

§2.6. Work assignments for dog handlers/kennelmen^[19]

a. u₄ ur-gi₇-ra-še₃ im-gen-na-a, “when he [i.e. i-kume-šar sipa ur-gi₇-ra] came for the dog(s),” Nisaba 15, 596 obv. 26, 597 obv. 40, 598 obv. 30, 599 obv. 33, 600 obv. 36

b. u₄ ur-gi₇-ra-še₃ im-gen-na-a, “when he [i.e., e-pi-ne₂ sipa ur-gi₇-ra] came for the dog(s),” Nisaba 15, 774 obv. 20

§2.7. Gathering of dogs by dog handlers/kennelmen

a. u₄ ur-gi₇-ra-še₃ im-gen-na-a, “when he [i.e. i-kume-šar sipa ur-gi₇-ra] came for the dog(s),” Nisaba 15, 596 obv. 26, 597 obv. 40, 598 obv. 30, 599 obv. 33, 600 obv. 36

b. u₄ ur-gi₇-ra-še₃ im-gen-na-a, “when he [i.e. e-pi-ne₂ sipa ur-gi₇-ra] came for the dog(s),” Nisaba 15, 774 obv. 20

§2.8. Rations for dog handlers/kennelmen

a. soup/stew^[20]

(1.) 2 sila₃ tu₇ (2.) u₄ 1-kam u₄ 30-še₃ (3.) tu₇-bi 0.1.0 (4.) šukur₂ i-ku-mi-šar sipa ur-gi₇-ra-ka, Nisaba 15, 630

§3. Conclusions
What then can we conclude from these new data and how do they add to the study of Tsouparopoulou? For one, they substantiate that dogs also play an important military role in Ur III society. W. Heimpel (1972-1975) and P. Mander (1994: 314^[21]) showed that they functioned also as guards, presumably at palaces, in various cities and towns. In addition, they were surely used for hunting. However, neither of these functions is explicitly recorded in the Ur III sources so far available. While the Puzriš-Dagan canine sources often are associated with military functions, they also provide additional data on canines to be treated by Tsouparopoulou (2012: 1 n. 2) at a later date. Thus, the new data, emanating as they do from sources devoid of archaeological context (as are all the Puzriš-Dagan texts!), nevertheless demonstrate all the more the importance of incorporating pertinent evidence regardless of when, where or even how this evidence was obtained. A policy that disregards essential data, excluded after some arbitrary date imposed by a patently political body and enforced by academic censorship, is objectionable to scholarship and should be rejected outright. Tsouparopoulou has provided an important contribution to our understanding of the use of canines in Ur III society based entirely on unprovenienced sources. One can only hope that her future contributions will not be marred by the exclusion of similar sources that have appeared after some politically imposed date.

Notes

Version: 26 October 2013  

@article{Owen2013Of,
	note = {[Online; accessed 2024-12-25]},
	address = {Oxford; Berlin; Los Angeles},
	author = {Owen,  David I.},
	journal = {Cuneiform Digital Library Bulletin},
	issn = {1540-8760},
	number = {2},
	year = {2013},
	publisher = {Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative},
	title = {Of {Dogs} and ({Kennel}){Men}},
	url = {https://cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/articles/cdlb/2013-2},
	volume = {2013},
}

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SN  - 1540-8760
T2  - Cuneiform Digital Library Bulletin
TI  - Of Dogs and (Kennel)Men
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VL  - 2013
Y2  - 2024/12/25/
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