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Commercial Activity in Sargonic Mesopotamia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

Benjamin R. Foster
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Extract

Records of commercial activity from Sargonic Mesopotamia offer a wealth of evidence to the student of ancient trade and business. In view of the richness of the documentation and the dearth of studies dealing with it, a broad survey of the problems and evidence seems called for in preference to a detailed study of a particular issue or group of texts. Questions that such a survey confronts are the nature and purpose of commerce in Sargonic Mesopotamia; who the people were who engaged in it and why; what the sources of their capital were; what commodities they dealt in, where and why; how their business was conducted, and what sort of records they kept. Documents and letters from various sites provide answers to some of these questions, even if they raise other problems of their own. This essay considers each of these questions in turn and the evidence the texts provide that helps to answer them.

Commerce in the Sargonic period is best defined by recourse to contemporaneous terminology: šám, that is, buying and selling of commodities. The purpose of this commerce was two-fold: to make a profit and to acquire goods not available locally in Mesopotamia. Most of the available documents are records of business transactions of a profitable sort. Of these two possible motives for commerce: personal or institutional profit and the necessity of importing foreign commodities, the profit motive was probably the more important in the Sargonic period. Evidence for this hypothesis will be offered below.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 39 , Issue 1 , Spring 1977 , pp. 31 - 43
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1977

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References

1 No previous study of this subject is known to me. Background information can be found in Mallowan, M. E. L., “The Mechanics of Trade in Western Asia” (Iran 3 (1965), 1–7)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Oppenheim, A. L., “Trade in the Ancient Near East” (V International Congress of Economic History (Moscow, 1970), 1–37)Google Scholar; Pettinato, G., “Il commercio con l'estero della Mesopotamia Meridionale nel 3. millennio av. Cr.” (Mesopotamia 7 (1973), 43–166)Google Scholar; Crawford, H. E. W., “Mesopotamia's Invisible Exports in the Third Millennium” (World Archaeology 5 (1973), 239–241)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kohl, Philip L., “Carved Chlorite Vessels: a Trade in Finished Commodities in the mid-Third Millennium” (Expedition 18 (1975), 18–31)Google Scholar. Note for example that the Sargonic period is not referred to in Leemans' brief sketch of the pre-Old Babylonian merchant, SD III, 40 ffGoogle Scholar. The text references cited below are illustrative only and are not intended to be exhaustive.

2 For discussion of this word and its graphic representations, see Krecher, J., ZA 63 (1974), 151 ffGoogle Scholar.

3 For the concept of state socialism, see Gelb, I. J., Studi in Onore di Edouardo Volterra (Rome, 1969), 1:146 f., 153Google Scholar; Struve, V. V., VDI 1948 No. 2, 22 ffGoogle Scholar. Additional literature on this question may be found in B. Foster, Umma in the Sargonic Period (forthcoming), Chapter I note 12; and Rostovtzeff, M., The Social and Economic History of the Hellenistic World (Oxford, 1967), 3:1327 note 25Google Scholar.

4 Diakonoff, who generally stresses the importance of the temple and state households in commerce before the Old Babylonian period, seems to grant this point, VDI 1968 No. 4, 9. State control of trade is often posited for the Ur III period, e.g. by Hallo, , JCS 17 (1963), 60Google Scholar.

5 First identified by Sollberger, , CT 50, 8Google Scholar.

6 CT 50 71. 5 ff.Google Scholar: enma Qurādum ana Ütah eqabbî, atta ÌR tašamma anāku 6 MU kiṣrīšu [ ].

7 CT 50 72.4: ÌR ulla âḫuz “I did not get the slave”.

8 CT 50 72Google Scholar.

9 CT 50 74Google Scholar, subscribed šūt KÙ.BABBAR Qurādum ilput [ū ], “those who credited Quradum's silver”. For lapātu (Sumerian TAG) in the sense “book to one's credit”, see Stephens, , RA 49 (1955), 134Google Scholar. For a parallel Sargonic use of Sumerian TAG, cf. MAD 4 98.5. For a similar text but unsubscribed, see TMH V 52Google Scholar.

10 In OAIC 52 he complains that bread (?) has not been given to soldiers (aga-uš). These aga-uš were presumably regular military personnel, cf. Lambert, M., Iranica Antiqua 6 (1966), 34 ff.Google Scholar; and BIN 8 144Google Scholar, in which they hold land allotments, probably of the šuku-type.

11 OAIC 3, 8, 9, 10, 11 (cloth).

12 OAIC 12, 14, 37, 49.

13 OAIC 17–19, 21, 33.

14 OAIC 21. Compare MDP 14 78Google Scholar, another transaction in the first person.

15 OAIC 33.

16 The “Ur-Šara Archive “is reconstructed and analysed in Foster, Umma in the Sargonic Period.

17 MAD 4 149Google Scholar (summary of holdings), 65 (purchase of house), 134 (list of copper implements), 21 (disbursement of barley).

18 MAD 4 41Google Scholar.

19 MAD 4 73Google Scholar. Compare ITT V 9314Google Scholar, gold given to the wives of various officials.

20 MAD 4 17Google Scholar. See Appendix for a treatment of this text.

21 In MAD 4 128 (year x + 23)Google Scholar her name appears in place of her husband's in a routine delivery of skins (cf. e.g. MAD 4 127, year 4Google Scholar).

22 Cf. CT 50 79Google Scholar, Eli, a dam-gàr ([È-l]i, cf. CT 50 80Google Scholar) pays silver to various women, who had probably invested with him in assignments similar to those of MAD 417. Eli himself probably wrote the tablet, as the script, though fairly neat, is uncommonly large in relation to the tablet and often intersects the rulings both above and below the line (collated).

23 ki níg-kasx (ŠID)-ak; CT 50 63Google Scholar. This and other funds are discussed in Umma in the Sargonic Period, Chapter II Part 3.

24 Serota (formerly Pinches) Collection 8 (unpub.). The Sargonic texts in the Serota Collection will be published jointly by the writer and I. J. Gelb.

25 BIN 8 213Google Scholar.

26 Contrast BIN 8 169Google Scholar, where silver and grain entrusted to another (an-da-tuku) are returned (ba-da-gur).

27 HSS 10 59, 66, 87, 88, 110, 120, 160, 175, 205Google Scholar.

28 For philological discussions of this word and its Semitic cognate, tamkāru, see Leemans, W. F., SD III, 4 note 24Google Scholar.

29 MCS 9 233Google Scholar; Nik II 35, 83Google Scholar; Frank, , SKT 43Google Scholar; MVN 3 40Google Scholar; Lambert, M., OrAn 13 (1974), 4Google Scholar; MDP 14 6, 24, 25 and many othersGoogle Scholar.

30 ITT II 3072 (to son)Google Scholar; 4460 (sheep, goats); ITT I 1431 (donkeys)Google Scholar; HSS 10 139 (grain)Google Scholar. Cf. MAD 1 334Google Scholar, where a dam-gàr receives grain for rations of slaves from Agade, and note in MAD 5 42Google Scholar: PN sagi dam-gàr ensí. In MDP 14 73Google Scholar a dam-gàr is assigned guruš.

31 CT 50 106, 107Google Scholar; ITT I 1300Google Scholar.

32 ITT I 1363Google Scholar; for the text type, see Umma in the Sargonic Period, Chapter II Part 2, Group 4.

33 RTC 96. iv. 9′ (dam-gàr's son on labour service); ITT II 4621Google Scholar (dam-gàr's son a fugitive); contrast ITT II 4705Google Scholar, where a dam-gàr's son is a nar-gal, “chief singer”.

34 ITT I 1370Google Scholar (delivery of a bronze object); ITT II 4399 (goats)Google Scholar; CT 50 133 (turtles)Google Scholar; HSS 10 42Google Scholar, “gift” of grain received by two dam-gàr. See also below, note 56. For darn-gàr seals, see Boehmer, R., Die Entwicklung der Glyptik während der Akkad-Zeit (Berlin, 1965), Nr. 584, and Abb. 383CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

35 Nit II 19. ii. 4, 10Google Scholar; Nik II 47. 8Google Scholar.

36 Umma in the Sargonic Period, Chapter II Part 3.

37 Nik II 78Google Scholar, summary of rental income in grain, silver, and livestock; MCS 9 244Google Scholar, account of grain from holders of fields and a withdrawal of silver from the fund of the balanced account. These texts are discussed in Umma in the Sargonic Period, Chapter II Part 3.

38 Akkadian muštamkiru. For discussion of this word, with literature, see Oppenheim, A. L., Studies Presented to Hans Gustav Güterbock (Istanbul, 1973), 237Google Scholar; Klein, , JCS 23 (1970), 120Google Scholar; CAD s.v. kaeššu.

39 ITT II 4461Google Scholar, delivery of spices; ITT II 4380Google Scholar, delivery of a máš-[ ], gold, and alkali by two garaš; RTC 91. ii. 3 (etc.), receives an allowance (ki) of unskilled labor.

40 ITT I 1422Google Scholar, a quantity of copper delivered to the é-gal nam ga-raš-ak [x?] Má-gan.

41 OIP 14 150Google Scholar, disbursement of foods to the staff of a Sargonic state houshold at Adab, including a garaš; Nik II 41Google Scholar, issue of flour to a garaš (line 2 = Šeš -tur ga-raš [coll. M. Powell]).

42 Many texts in BIN 8, others unpublished. I hope to treat this archive in detail elsewhere.

43 Calculated from its monthly summary rosters, e.g., BIN 8 122, 123Google Scholar.

44 BIN 8 129, 137, 146, 165, 263Google Scholar.

45 BIN 8 188, 192, 194, 196, 203Google Scholar.

46 E.g. BIN 8 213, 392Google Scholar; OIP 14 160Google Scholar. Note that wool could be measured by the “silver weight”, (NA4 KÙ.BABBAR), OAIC 36.

47 BIN 8 168, 175Google Scholar (account of silver mentioning dam-gàr's); MAD I 43Google Scholar (purchase of animals, slaves, etc.).

48 BIN 8 180Google Scholar, official disbursements (kù zi-ga) of silver for slaves, dates, etc.; cf. MAD 1 25Google Scholar (purchase?); MAD 5 17Google Scholar (grain sold for silver to dam-gàr); MAD 1 328Google Scholar (oil and barley for silver).

49 BIN 8 174Google Scholar; MAD 1 208Google Scholar.

50 E.g. MAD 1 171Google Scholar (list of wool, grain, livestock, garments, silver); MAD 1 302, 303, 304Google Scholar (aromatics, eggs, silver). For possible purposes of such inventories, see below.

51 HSS 10 110Google Scholar; MAD 5 30, 86Google Scholar, and many others.

52 MAD 1 34, 125, 208, 302, 303Google Scholar; MAD 4 124Google Scholar; MAD 5 84, 88, 102, 108Google Scholar; MVN 3 81, 98Google Scholar; BIN 8 168Google Scholar; OAIC 35–37. Note for example MAD 5 102Google Scholar, where a group of people is described as bēlū KÙ.BABBAR, “owners of (the) silver”; and BIN 8 167Google Scholar, where silver changes hands at the conclusion of a case at law. It was also customary to give silver to the judge and the maškim of court proceedings, perhaps as “court costs”, cf. MAD 1 228, 242Google Scholar. For silver in hands of officials, cf. Nik II 56Google Scholar; OIP 14 197Google Scholar; ITT I 1070Google Scholar. For silver going from an official to a private person, see MDP 14 19Google Scholar, in which the ensi of Umma pays a woman silver in lieu of her income from a land allotment. MAD 5 9Google Scholar seems to be a payment in grain or silver to soldiers on a campaign (?) in Gutium (?).

53 MAD 1 32, 166Google Scholar; cf. the archive of Quradum, above, notes 4–7.

54 Private treaties: MAD 5 82Google Scholar; MDP 14 4 (sales of houses)Google Scholar; MAD 1 168 (sale of a field)Google Scholar; official transactions: Obelisk of Maništusu (Scheil, , MDP 2, 1 ff.Google Scholar); Sippar Stone (Gelb, , RSO 32 (1957), 83 ff.Google Scholar).

55 BIN 8 282 (rental of a garden)Google Scholar; OIP 14 78, 114 (rentals of fields)Google Scholar; cf. ITT I 1042, below, note 68Google Scholar.

56 OIP 14 111, 159Google Scholar: máš-da-ri-a offerings of silver byadam-gàr. This silver must have been his own, as he could hardly have offered state property to a deity in his own name.

57 MVN 3 60Google Scholar (barley to dam-gàr's); cf. MVN 3 25Google Scholar; MVN 3 80Google Scholar (grain used to buy silver to purchase a slave); MVN 3 81Google Scholar; MAD 5 88Google Scholar.

58 See above, note 55.

59 MAD 1 17, 105 (?), 110, 148 (records of interest)Google Scholar; 275, 321; MAD 5 74, 77, 78Google Scholar; OAIC 32 (with loan of a lamb).

60 MAD 5 88Google Scholar, barley and silver; MAD 5 3Google Scholar, silver and barley used to buy a house. For silver valued in grain (še-bi), cf. OIP 14 168Google Scholar.

61 ITT I 1075, 1076Google Scholar; cf. MAD 1 18Google Scholar (barley to a dam-gàr).

62 MVN 3 62Google Scholar; BIN 8 175Google Scholar.

63 For the market, see below. The Leningrad “Larsa Project” has concluded that the city dwellers in the OB period purchased some food for cash, Diakonoff, I. M., Drevnij Vostok, Goroda i Torgovlja (Yerevan, 1973), 47 fGoogle Scholar.

64 MAD 1 279, 300, 328Google Scholar.

65 MAD 1 291 (loan), 304 (?)Google Scholar; 37 and 300 (sales of aromatics).

66 MAD 1 318Google Scholar; OAIC 4 (sale of a log); cf. OAIC 33, a shipment of logs valued in gold.

67 Cf. ITT V 6748Google Scholar, importation of textiles from Ebla (possibly Ur III); ITT II 5804Google Scholar, capital and loss of garments valued in silver.

68 MVN 3 100Google Scholar; Nik II 54Google Scholar. ITT I 1042Google Scholar may be a record of field rents received in silver and donkeys.

69 ITT I 1452Google Scholar (asses to a dam-gàr). Perhaps the over 700(?) asses returned to Lagaš from Gutium (ITT II 5790Google Scholar) were a military pack train.

70 BIN 8 180, 181Google Scholar; MVN 3 77Google Scholar. Note especially MAD 1 269Google Scholar, an account of barley and silver used to buy cattle in Gutium; ITT II 4443Google Scholar where a dam-gàr receives various animals; ITT I 2926Google Scholar, account of oxen níg-šám-bi nu-ak (not sold, of no commercial value?). For sale of pigs, HSS 10 105, 106, 107Google Scholar.

71 ITT II 5845Google Scholar.

72 ITT V 6691Google Scholar; cf. ITT II 4563Google Scholar.

73 ITT I 1047Google Scholar.

74 MVN 3 93Google Scholar; cf. MVN 3 57Google Scholar (sale of a sheep in Agade); ITT I 1413Google Scholar, delivery of sheep by a dam-gàr; MDP 14 16Google Scholar.

75 OIP 14 134Google Scholar; ITT 2978 (animals uru-ta è-a). Cf. below, note 120.

76 ITT II 4396Google Scholar.

77 ITT I 1156Google Scholar (shipment of fatted sheep to Nippur).

78 VDI 1968 No. 4, 7; VDI 1973 No. 4, 14, 17 and elsewhere.

79 CRRAI 18 (1972), 84 and elsewhereGoogle Scholar.

80 Gosudarstvennoe hozjajstvo drevnego Šumera (Moscow-Leningrad, 1956), 276 fGoogle Scholar. and elsewhere.

81 BIN 8 173, 177, 178(?)Google Scholar; CT 50 78Google Scholar; ITT I 1040, 1041Google Scholar; ITT II 2917, 4516, 4518, 4576, 4578, 4588, 5772, 5798 (valuation of slaves)Google Scholar; RTC 79, 80 (an entire family), 81Google Scholar; MAD 1 33, 43 (with other goods)Google Scholar; 140, 225; MAD 5 101?Google Scholar; MVN 3 81, 102Google Scholar; Nik II 68Google Scholar and many others. Witnessed sale contracts of the Sargonic period have been edited by Edzard, D. O., ABAW NF 67Google Scholar; and Krecher, J., ZA 63 (1974), 145 ffGoogle Scholar. A particularly interesting example from Gasur is purchase by a dam-gàr of a Lullubi slave for grain measured by the Agade gur, HSS 10 99Google Scholar.

82 BIN 8 286Google Scholar; for balanced accounts, see Fossey, C., JSOR 14 (1930), 51 ffGoogle Scholar.

83 Cf. Nik II 57Google Scholar, inventory of 8470 minas of state-owned copper uru-a “in the city (account)”. For private dealings in metals, cf. MAD 4 65, 73, 134Google Scholar; BIN 8 310Google Scholar; OAIC 7. Some Sargonic texts having to do with metal-working have been discussed by Limet, H., JESHO 15 (1972), 3 ffGoogle Scholar. For further discussion and additional literature, see Umma in the Sargonic Period, Chapter II Part 2 Group 6c.

84 See above, note 66.

85 A post-Sargonic text edited by Sauren, H., AIPHOS 20 (1968), 388 f.Google Scholar, under the tide “Une Caravane sumérienne” contributes nothing in this respect. Sauren's interpretation of it depends on an antiquity dealer's unreliable assertion that the tablet was found in Luristan, and an emendation of the document (p. 392) to include a non-existent lugal kaskal(a). Kaskal is a category of personnel; cf. Nik II 14 iii.1Google Scholar.

86 See for example ECTJ 51; for later periods UET III 757, 761, 768, 776, 1498 (Ur III)Google Scholar; Sumer 9 (1953), 21 ffGoogle Scholar. (Kassite period); ITT V 9276Google Scholar, which mentions rare stones, is unfortunately badly broken.

87 This way of acquiring foreign goods is well documented in the Amarna letters (Edzard, D. O., JESHO 3 (1960), 38 ff.Google Scholar) and is still found in the records of the Neo-Assyrian kings, who distinguish between tribute (biltu, mandattu) and “gifts” to the king (namurātu, kadrû); cf. OIP 2 33.iii.36 (Sennacherib); and for namurātu, Golovleva, , VDI 1975 No. 3, 3 ffGoogle Scholar.

88 Importation of building stone, for example, was a royal undertaking impracticable commercially. Thus Maništusu caused stone to be brought from Iran, but one finds no archival records of such stone (Hirsch, H., AJO 20 (1963), 69 f.Google Scholar). Gold is exchanged for silver in ITT V 9377Google Scholar; for a merchant's account of copper and bronze, cf. RTC 100.

89 Nik II 19, cf. ii. 12Google Scholar: lú-hun-gádam-gàr-ne; cf. ITT II 2915Google Scholar, another passenger list.

90 BIN 8 267, 276, 280Google Scholar; cf. RTC 102; ITT V 9296(?)Google Scholar.

91 For the metrology of commercial texts, see below.

92 HSS 10 177, 181 (accounts of swine)Google Scholar; HSS 10 168, 169Google Scholar, large shipments of ì-šah to Assur, Agade.

93 There are over a hundred published Lagaš texts recording fish, often in enormous quantities (e.g., RTC 129, nearly 60,000). For drying and salting of fish at Sargonic Lagaš and Uruk, see Crawford, , “Invisible Exports”, 233 fGoogle Scholar.

94 Umma in the Sargonic Period, Chapter II Part 2 Group 3g. For oil from Umma found at other cities, cf. Nakahara, Sumerian Tablets Kyoto i (KI.AN); BIN 8 333 (Zabala)Google Scholar; Nik II 48 (Der, Bad-Rabilum)Google Scholar; BIN 8 298 (Kar-sig4)Google Scholar.

95 Above, notes 72, 73.

96 Above, note 53.

97 Above, note 73.

98 Cf. RTC 84, a letter found at Girsu concerning the property of Ur-nu, a dam-gàr, brought from Umma; above, note 72.

99 MAD 1 269Google Scholar.

100 CT 50 72Google Scholar.

101 For connections between Umma, Sabum, and Susa, see Umma in the Sargonic Period, Chapter III. For Sabum, and Gasur, , see HSS 10 201Google Scholar. Sabum was the site of a fortress constructed by the ensi of Umma on behalf of Rimuš; for discussion, see Umma in the Sargonic Period, Chapter III.

102 MDP 14 19Google Scholar. Note MDP 14, 13Google Scholar, a business record from the Susa region of silver received in Surgul; MDP 14 22Google Scholar, a duplicate record (gaba-ru) of quantities of grain on hand in various cities in Umma province and to the east of it.

103 Evidence is collected in Umma in the Sargonic Period, Chapter IV notes 140, 141.

104 For Umma in the “Gutian Period” see Hallo, RlA s.v. “Gutium”, although the “mu-iti” texts do not belong to the Gutian period.

105 Two men from Dilmun appear in NBC 11447 (unpub.); CT 50 55Google Scholar; Serota 18 (unpub.).

106 A messenger (ra-gaba) from Magan draws beer at Umma in MCS 9 245Google Scholar. Copper from Magan is mentioned in ITT II 2864, and above, n. 40Google Scholar.

107 Scheil, V., RA 22 (1925), 55 f.Google Scholar; BIN 8 298Google Scholar. In CT 50 76Google Scholar a man from Meluhha receives an advance of silver. A Sargonic seal belonging to a Meluhha interpreter has survived; Boehmer, Glyptik, Abb. 557.

108 Hirsch, H., AfO 20 (1963), 37 fGoogle Scholar.

109 Ibid., 18.

110 The abundant literature on this problem has been collected by Komoróczy, G., “Himi o torgovle Til'muna” (Drevnij Vostok 2 (Yerevan, 1976), esp. notes 43, 44, and 76)Google Scholar.

111 ITT V 6748Google Scholar (date uncertain); recent discovery of thousands of commercial records at Ebla (= Tell Mardikh in Syria) shows an extensive trade was carried on between North Syria and Mesopotamia (G. Pettinato).

112 MAD 4 42 (private)Google Scholar; CT 50 60Google Scholar; Nik II 69Google Scholar; Nik II 45 (royal)Google Scholar; CT 50 63Google Scholar (commercial, with unpublished parallels).

113 Cf. Hallo, W. W., HUCA 30 (1959), 105Google Scholar with note 6; CAD K, 247a. For a brief list of Sargonic prices, see Limet, H., JESHO 15 (1972), 31 ffGoogle Scholar.

114 MDP 14 41Google Scholar [KI].LAM; cf. Landsberger, B., MSL 1, 26, 124 fGoogle Scholar.

115 Cf. ITT II 5804Google Scholar, capital (sag-níg-ga) and loss (ì-bí-za) of garments valued in silver; RTC 176 (wool).

116 BIN 8 282Google Scholar; MAD 5 85Google Scholar (níg-é). For níg-gál-la, “property on hand,” see Nik II 82Google Scholar, ITT I 1183, 1395Google Scholar; BIN 8 229Google Scholar; MSL 13, 116Google Scholar.

117 Polanyi, K., Trade and Market in the Early Empires: Economics in History and Theory (Glencoe, Illinois, 1957), 14Google Scholar.

118 For discussion, see Jacobsen, T., “On the Textile Industry at Ur under Ibbi-Sin” (in Moran, W. L., ed., Towards the Image of Tammuz (Cambridge, Mass., 1970), note 7)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; CAD s.v. babtum. Lexical equivalents can be found in MSL 13, 182Google Scholar. Note in BIN 3 500Google Scholar (Ur III, Drehem) cattle are disbursed (zi-ga) or “in transit(?)” (sila-a sig7-a). For a different interpretation, see Hallo, , BIN 3, 11Google Scholar.

119 Comparable texts are BIN 8 221Google Scholar (investment of four quantities of grain); HSS 10 106Google Scholar.

120 uru-ta: OIP 14 124Google Scholar; cf. é-ta è-a: ITT II 5884Google Scholar; BIN 8 124, 165, 206Google Scholar (grain? to a dam-gàr), 271 (gá-nun-na ba-sar, “entered on the storehouse account”).

121 For documentation, Umma in the Sargonic Period, Chapter III notes 466 and 467.

122 Documentation will be found in Umma in the Sargonic Period, Chapter III Part 3.

123 MVN 3 19Google Scholar (shipment of flour to Nippur); BIN 8 143, 165, 208, 233Google Scholar (with gur-mah), 236, 244, 245, 255; note for example the unusual use of this unit at Gasur, in a text in which a dam-gàr appears: HSS 10 125 line 4 rev.Google Scholar: [dam-g] àr; cf. BIN 8 124Google Scholar. For interesting uses of this unit within administrative contexts, see for example BIN 8 230Google Scholar; ITT II 4529Google Scholar (3 different gur in one text); ITT II 4560Google Scholar. Note also the use of a standard weight (na4 si-sá) in ITT II 5799Google Scholar.

124 OAIC 31.