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GUDEA'S IRANIAN SLAVES: AN ANATOMY OF TRANSREGIONAL FORCED MOBILITY

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 November 2022

Vitali Bartash
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Abstract

Through philological and historical analysis focused on Gudea's slave dossier, this article elucidates the causes and mechanisms that brought Iranian slaves to early southern Mesopotamia. The slave dossier documents a brief but intensive influx of Elamite slaves to Lagash on the lower Tigris during the reign of Gudea, ca. 2130–2110 B.C., who fought the powerful polity of Anshan in Fars. The author argues that consequent political instability and economic inequality in Elam fuelled three mechanisms of slave relocation. First, royal troops brought captives. Second, the palace bought foreigners from abroad and locally. Third, royals received Iranians as gifts or tribute (“kids led by one's side”) from locals and Iranian states in areas where Gudea campaigned. Finally, locals gave their Iranian slaves back to the palace as gifts. On a theoretical level, the study distils four elements shared by all forms of slave mobility: the giver and the receiver, the economic and political relations between them that cause slave transfer, the physical and social spaces between which the transfer occurs, and the slaves and their demographic characteristics.

مركز بون لدراسات التبعية والرق ، جامعة بون

من خلال التحاليل اللغوية والتاريخية المركزة التي أجريت على ارشيف عبيد جوديا يوضح هذا البحث الأسباب والسبل التي تمت بواسطتها جلب العبيد الإيرانيين الى الجنوب المبكر لوادي الرافدين . يوثق ملف العبيد تدفقًا قصيرًا ولكنه مكثف للعبيد العيلاميين إلى لكش على الجزء الأسفل من نهر دجلة خلال فترة حكم جوديا خلال الفترة 2130–2110 ق .م . الذين حاربوا نظام الحكم القوي في آنشان في فارس . يجادل المؤلف بأن عدم الاستقرار السياسي اللاحق والتفاوت الاقتصادي في عيلام غذى ثلاث آليات لإعادة توطين العبيد . الأولى هي ان القوات الملكية جلبت أسرى . الثانية هي أن القصر الملكي جلبت أجانب من خارج البلد ومن داخله . ثالثًا ، تلقى أفراد العائلة المالكة العيلاميين كهدايا أو جزية من الأهالي أو الدويلات الإيرانية التي غزاها جوديا (“kids led by one's side”). لم يكن هذا هو الحد من تنقل العبيد، حيث ان القصر الملكي وزع هؤلاء الأجانب على العوائل الملكية الأخرى أو قدمهم كهدايا مؤقتة الى اتباعهم .

على المستوى النظري ، تلخص الدراسة أربعة عناصر تشترك فيها جميع أشكال تنقل الرقيق : المانح والمستلم ، والعلاقات الاقتصادية والسياسية بينهما التي تتسبب في نقل العبيد ، والمساحات المادية والاجتماعية التي يحصل فيها النقل ، والعبيد وخصائصهم الديموغرافية .

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 84 , December 2022 , pp. 25 - 42
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 2022

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