Babylonian Slaves: 10 (2024-05-26)

Created by: Englund, Robert K.

Slave accounts of the Late Uruk period (ca. 3350-3000 BC)

This sign combination SAL KUR, originally representing female and male slave, respectively, in time came to designate only female slaves, Sumerian geme2. The KUR component of this sign (Sumerian: ‟mountain”) in texts dating to ca. 2600 BC occupied the triangular space bound by wedges of the sign SAL; two centuries later, KUR exploded to mark the three corners of that triangle, in subsequent periods returning to a space immediately following (or rather, in original orientation, below) the SAL sign. KUR as ‟mountain” has been taken by most specialists to refer to the homeland of the great majority of the non-native slave populations in ancient Mesopotamia, namely the Zagros range and associated highland regions of ancient Iran. CDLI entry: P001684

credit: Englund, Robert K.