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The Dynastic Seal and Ninurta's Seal: preliminary remarks on sealing by the local authorities of Emar

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

Masamichi Yamada
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Extract

It has been argued that the city elders constituted a certain institution of urban authorities in the Syro-Palestinian kingdoms in the Late Bronze Age, such as Alalaḫ, Ugarit and the Canaanite city-kingdoms of the Amarna period. While subordinate to the royal palace, as representatives of a city-community they were frequently involved in political, economic and legal affairs in the state administration. Now new sources on this issue have been provided from the eastern part of this region, i.e. Emar (Meskene-Qadime) on the Middle Euphrates.

The recently published texts from Emar and its vicinity reveal that it was a kingdom under vassalage of the Hittite empire from the 13th to the early 12th century B.C. The Emar dynasty in this period has been reconstructed as having the following five reigning kings for four generations: Iasi-Dagan, dIM(Ba'lu/Adad)-kabar, Zū-Aštarti, Pilsu-Dagan and Elli. Besides the kings, the city elders of Emar were also involved in real estate sales, legal agreements and religious ceremonies.

Their close association with the city god Ninurta in real estate sales is particularly noteworthy. They frequently sell houses, fields, etc., under their joint ownership. For example, Emar VI 126: 8–14 reads: “From Ninurta and the elders of Emar (dNIN.URTA ù LÙ.MEŠ.ši-bu-ut URU.e-mar.KI), the owners of the house, Ḫimaši-Dagan, son of Ilu-malik, has bought the house for 1,000 (shekels) of silver, the full price”. According to the stipulation concerning the payment of fines, one who should lay claim to the house is to pay 1,000 shekels of silver to “Ninurta” (1. 19) and the “city (URU.KI)” (1. 20), respectively. This suggests that the terms “elders” and “city” are interchangeable and thus it has been assumed that the elders were representatives of the city-community of Emar. On the other hand, it is interesting to note that, though only once, “Ninurta” is also paraphrased by the city of “Emar”.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 56 , 1994 , pp. 59 - 62
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1994 

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References

1 See most recently Reviv, H., The Elders in Ancient Israel. A Study of a Biblical Institution, Jerusalem, 1989, 137–47Google Scholar.

2 In the following discussion references to these texts are made according to the list of abbreviations appended below.

3 Zü-Aštarti and Pilsu-Dagan, both sons of dIM-kabar, belong to the same generation. Arnaud once maintained the existence of another king, Bisu-Dagan, (Emar VI 42: 11, 20)Google Scholar, in his: Les textes d'Emar et la chronologie de la fin du Bronze récent, Syria 52 (1975), 89 Google Scholar. However, this alleged king (to be read as m pi-sú-dKUR) is now identified with Pilsu-Dagan, as is also the case with pí-sí-d da-gan (ASJ 12-T 1:25); see Yamada, An Introduction to the Chronology of the Emar Texts: Absolute Chronology and Synchronisms, Orient (forthcoming; Japanese) with previous literature.

4 For references in Emar VI see Bunnens, G., Emar on the Euphrates in the 13th Century B.C.: Some Thoughts about Newly Published Cuneiform Texts, Abr-Nahrain 27 (1989), 29 and nn. 27 fGoogle Scholar.

5 Cf. e.g. “From Ninurta and the elders of the city (LÚ.MEŠ.ši-bu-ut URU.KI)” ( Emar VI 3: 24 f.Google Scholar).

6 Arnaud, Traditions urbaines et influences semi-nomades à Emar, à l'âge du Bronze récent, in: Margueron, J. (ed.), Le Moyen Euphrate, zone de contacts et d'échanges, Leyde, 1980, 253 and n. 37Google Scholar; Tsukimoto, , Kingship and Rural Community — On Recent Discussions about the Social History of Syria in the Late Bronze Age, Bulletin of the Ancient Orient Museum 5 (1983), 243–8 (Japanese)Google Scholar; Bunnens, , Abr-Nahrain 27, 29 fGoogle Scholar.

7 Bunnens argues that Ninurta and the elders should be regarded as different bodies, as the former is religious and the latter is civil (loc. cit.). Although this may be correct in a strict sense, practically it seems more likely, as already suggested by Tsukimoto, (Bulletin of the Ancient Orient Museum 5, 245)Google Scholar, that Ninurta was a figure central to the elders.

8 See Yamada, “ARANA-documents” from Emar, , Orient 29 (1993), 139–46Google Scholar. Cf. the texts describing how “Ninurta” and the “elders” sold the plots of real estate which “Ninurta” had once confiscated (e.g. Emar VI 1, 11, 144, etc.Google Scholar).

9 Note also that a certain Mašruḫe is called the diviner of the “king and the city (LUGAL-ri ù URU!.KI)” (ASJ 12-T 7: 32); see Tsukimoto, , Bulletin of the Ancient Orient Museum 5, p. 247 Google Scholar.

10 For example, see Beyer, D., Notes préliminaires sur les empreintes de sceaux de Meskéné, in: Le Moyen Euphrate, 265–83Google Scholar; idem, Les empreintes de sceaux, in: D. Beyer (ed.), Meskéné – Emar. Dix ans de travaux 1972–1982, Paris, 1982, 61–8; idem, Quelques observations sur les sceaux-cylindres hittites et syro-hittites d'Emar, Hethitica 8 (1987), 29–44; idem, Quelques vestiges de l'imagerie émariote du Bronze Moyen, MARI 6 (1990), 93–102. Cf. also Arnaud, , Catalogue des textes cunéiformes trouvés au cours des trois premières campagnes à Meskéné qadimé Ouest (Chantiers A, C, E et trouvailles de surface), AAAS 25 (1975), 87–93 Google Scholar.

11 Dalley, and Teissier, , Iraq 54, 85, 102 Google Scholar. For the drawings of the seal impression see also Huehnergard, , RA 11, 14, 16 Google Scholar.

12 Beyer, , in: Le Moyen Euphrate, 267–70Google Scholar (wrongly identified with the Dynastic Seal as in Arnaud, , AAAS 25, 88 and n. 8Google Scholar); idem, MARI 6, 94 and n. 7, 95 Fig. 4, 96 Fig. 1 (Old Babylonian); Dalley, and Teissier, , Iraq 54, 85, 100 (late Old Babylonian or Syro-Mitannian)Google Scholar.

13 Beyer, , MARI 6, 94 n. 7Google Scholar; Dalley, and Teissier, , Iraq 54, 851 and n. 22 Google Scholar.

14 Republication: JCS 40-T 2 = ASJ 12-T 4; RA 11-1 1 f. = ASJ 13-T 25 f. I am grateful to Dr. Akio Tsukimoto (Rikkyô University) who graciously made available to me the data of the seal impressions on the tablets belonging to the Hirayama Collection.

15 According to the photograph in Arnaud, , SMEA 30, Pl. IGoogle Scholar. As for SMEA 30-T 2 (Iaṣi-Dagan, son of Pilsu-Dagan — S: sons of PN to PN2) and 4 (Elli — S: N&E to PN), no information on seal impressions is available.

16 With a possible (but not explicit) exception: Iraq 54-T 5 (52 × 55 × 21 mm); cf. Dalley, and Teissier, , Iraq 54, 86, 102 Google Scholar.

17 ASJ 12-T 1, 7, 8, 10, 16; ASJ 14-T; GsK-T 4; Iraq 54-T 5; JCS 40-T 2; RA 77-T 1, 2; SMEA 30-T 3; BLMJ-C 16-18, 23. Although BLMJ-HC 13 and ASJ 10-T D (Pilsu-Dagan — S: sons of PN to PN2) are also royal documents of Emar, due to their fragmentary state of preservation no data on the Dynastic Seal impression are available. But one can reasonably assume that it would have been impressed on these tablets, too; cf. also SMEA 30-T 2 and 4.

18 ASJ 12-T 2, 7; GsK-T 4; Iraq 54-T 4; SMEA 30-T 3; BLMJ-C 17 and probably also HC 13. Cf. Dalley, and Teissier, , Iraq 54, 87 Google Scholar.

19 Note that even if a king or prince is not directly involved in the transaction dealt with in the document, the Dynastic Seal is impressed when he appears as the first witness. Thus, as far as royal documents are concerned, the theory, based on an exceptional case in Iraq 54-T 4, that witnesses do not principally seal Syrian type tablets ( Dalley, and Teissier, , Iraq 54, 86 Google Scholar), is not acceptable. On the absence of the impression of the Dynastic Seal on GsK-T 6 see below.

20 Since no text (with information on the seal impressions) from the reigns of Iaṣi-Dagan and dIM-kabar is made available to us here, at present it cannot be determined if the Dynastic Seal was used also in that period. See below n. 22.

21 As already suggested by Beckman, , JCS 40, 67 n. 17Google Scholar.

22 ME 21(= TSABR 13) according to Teissier following Beyer, (Iraq 54, 86 and n. 27)Google Scholar. Note that the “seal of dIM-kabar” is also mentioned in TSABR 86: 40

23 Emar VI 194: 11; see Yamada, Division of a Field and Ninurta's Seal: An Aspect of the Hittite Administration in Emar, , UF 25 Google Scholar (forthcoming). The “seal of the king” is also mentioned in Emar VI 202: 17 Google Scholar.

24 Emar VI 123: 9 Google Scholar; 194: 14; 202: 18; TSABR 95: 9. All but Emar VI 202: 18 Google Scholar are undoubtedly concerned with real estate transactions.

25 Li-LUGAL (GsK-T 6: 1, 36) is to be identified with Li-LUGAL in Emar VI 149: 26 Google Scholar (reading l[i-L]UGAL DUMU i[r-ib-d-IM]); Limšarra, in Emar VI 153: 22 Google Scholar (reading [li-im-š]ar-ra; cf. Tsukimoto, , ASJ 12, 183 Google Scholar); ASJ 12-T 2 rev.: 9′ (reading li-im-šar!-ra; cf. Arnaud, , SMEA 30, 230 Google Scholar); and Limi-LUGAL in Emar VI 150: 25 Google Scholar (reading ig-mil-⌈d⌉[da-gan li]-mi-LUGAL); TSABR 16: 34; 17: 29; 18: 20; 87: 1, 26, 38. Note further that in TSABR 87 a certain Pilsu-Dagan is appointed by Limi-LUGAL, son of Irib-dIM, as a priest of the same Nergal temple which is dealt with in GsK-T 6.

26 See Yamada, , UF 25 (forthcoming)Google Scholar.

27 In view of Arnaud's preliminary remarks on seal impressions on Emar VI 1–39, 41–67 Google Scholar (AAAS 25, 88–93), the Dynastic Seal (= “sceau-cylindre anépigraphe”?) and Ninurta's Seal (= “sceau-cylindre dynastique”; see above n. 12) seem generally to be impressed according to the patterns observed above (see nos. 1–4, 6, 8–14, 17, 20, 41[ = Emar III 42 Google Scholar]). But particularly noteworthy is the unexpected impression of Seal, Ninurta's on Emar VI 17 Google Scholar, a royal document of Zū-Aštarti, which describes the failure of a revolt in the city of Emar and the appointment of a certain Kunazu as a religious official (AAAS 25, 90). It is not certain how the urban authorities are concerned with this document, although Ninurta is mentioned in the curse formula (1. 34).

28 The elders and Ba'laka; see Mayer, W., Der antike Name von Tall Munbāqa, die Schreiber und die chronologische Einordnung der Tafelfunde: Die Tontafelfunde von Tall Munbāqa 1988, MDOG 122 (1990), 47 f., 54Google Scholar. Ba'laka's seal impression has been published by Mayer-Opificius, R., Zu den Siegelabrollungen auf den Tafeln von Munbāqa 1984, insbesondere zur Abrollung auf T 13, MDOG 118 (1986), 132–5Google Scholar.

29 The “Brothers (LÚ.MEŠ.aḫ-ḫi(-ia))” and Dagan; see Dornemann, R. H., Tell Hadidi: A Millennium of Bronze Age City Occupation, in: Freedman, D. N. (ed.), Excavation Reports from the Tabqa Dam Project — Euphrates Valley, Syria (AASOR 44), Cambridge, MA, 1979, 146 Google Scholar; idem, Tell Hadidi: An Important Center of the Mitannian Period and Earlier, in: Le Moyen Euphrate, 219 f.

30 See Yamada, , The Northern Border of the Land of Aštata, ASJ 16 (1994), 261–8Google Scholar.