Source: http://cdli.ucla.edu/Pubs/cdlj/2002/cdlj2002_002.html
Timestamp: 2017-07-23 22:49:02
Document Index: 791474431

Matched Legal Cases: ['§1', '§2', '§3', '§4', '§5', '§6', '§7', '§8', '§9', '§10', '§11', '§12', '§13']

CDLJ 2002:2
Cuneiform Digital Library Journal 2002:2 ISSN 1540-8779 © Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative CDLI Home
Get Acrobat Reader A Previously Unpublished Lawsuit from Ur III Adab Magnus Widell < magnus.widell@lycos.com > IHAC, Northeast Normal University, Changchun Keywords
Adab, legal, lawsuit, Ur III, neo-Sumerian §1. The cuneiform clay tablet presented
for the first time in this article is kept in the California Museum of Ancient
Art, Los Angeles. The text was given to the museum in 1985 by Russ and Ivonne
Kino.[1]	§2. I would like to thank the museum for
making the text available to the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative, and R. K. Englund for sending me all necessary details
about the text. This article was written as part of a research project
generously funded by the History Department at Northeast Normal University in
Changchun, China.	General
§3. While the city of Adab no doubt was
very important during the Ur III period,[2] less than fifty
texts have so far been published from the site.[3] The present
text is an important and welcome addition to this limited number of available
Ur III tablets from Adab. Moreover, a number of unusual and highly interesting
features (see below) certainly justify a more thorough analysis of the text. As
so often is the case with Ur III administrative and economic texts, the text
under review here may be understood in rather divergent ways. It should be
emphasized that the present interpretation should by no means be considered
§4. Since the text does not have a month
name, the attribution to Adab has been based on the overall appearance and
structure of the text (see e.g. SDU 67-72)[4] and on the fact that the lawsuit took place in front of the Adab
governor Ḫabalukke (ḫa-ba-lu5-ke4, line 6). A further indication for an Adab
provenience is the theophoric element Ašgi in
lu2-daš7-gi4 (line 9). This element was popular in the personal names in Adab
(hence the city’s earlier governor, and the father of Ḫabalukke[5], ur-daš7-gi4 or puzur4-daš7-gi4 in UET 3,
14/SDU 68; MVN 3, 268/SDU 73)
and was always written daš7-gi4.[6] Note also
the Ašgi temple e2-u4-gim-x-x that was situated in either Adab or Keš (A. George, House Most High, 153). The e2-maḫ “Exalted house”, which is an element in the personal
name ur-e2-mah in line 7, was (together with the e2-sar “House of vegetation?”) the main temple
in Adab (Adab, 99). Emah as an element in personal names is also attested in e2-maḫ-ki-du10 who worked as a scribe in Adab
(UET 3, 14/SDU 68). It should, however, be noted that this temple
name is rather common and can be found in several other Ur III cities (see House
Most High, 119-120) and the personal
name Ur-Emah is common in the Ur III state.
§5. Due to the lack of textual material
from Adab, we know very little about the governor Ḫabalukke. Nevertheless, we have every reason to assume
that he was one of the most influential individuals in central (and possibly
also northern) Babylonia during the Ur III period. We know that he acted as
governor for at least 30 years,[7] from Shulgi 33/iv (seal
inscription of SAT 2, 79) until
Shu-Suen 5/iii (SAT 3, 1592; MVN
3, 268). Not only was Ḫabalukke in control of Adab for a very long period of
time,[8] but he must also have been of considerable age when
he finally retired. In our first attestation of Ḫabalukke
from Shulgi 33 we learn that he had a son called lu2-me-lam who was
old (and important) enough to receive very large amounts of barley as the
regular delivery of the goddess Ninsun (see also OrSP 47-49, 186, from Shulgi 35). While it is reasonable to
assume that Lu-melam, due to his father’s influence, indeed would enjoy rapid
success within the state administration, we can hardly reckon that Ḫabalukke was much younger than 40 at this point.
§6 The tablet CMAA 015-C0019 measures 79 x 48 mm and is
21 mm thick. For the date of the text, see the comment below.
§7. CMAA 015-C0019
1) 1(diš) an-na-ḫi-li
mu-ni-im
1) One (man), his name is Ana-ḫili,
2) IR11 puzur4-ma-ma-kam
2) he is the servant of Puzur-Mama.
3) ur-dnin-mug šeš ama an-na-ḫi-li
3) Ur-Ninmug, the maternal uncle of Ana-ḫili,
4) ugu2 an-na-ḫi-li
4) on account of Ana-ḫili,
5) di-bi i3-[gar]ar
5) he (i.e. Ur-Ninmug) brought a legal
6) igi ha-ba-lu5-ke4 ensi2 adabki-ba
6) Before: Habalukke,
the governor of the city of Adab.
7) igi ur-e2-maḫ dumu x-x-x
7) Before: Ur-Emah, the son
8) igi ba-du-du dam-gar3
8) Before: Badudu, the merchant.
9) 1(diš) [l]u2-daš7-gi4 dumu bi2-bi2
9) One (man): Lu-Ašgi, the
son of Bibi.
10) 1(diš) i-ti-dam
10) One (man): Itidam, the DIM4.
11) 1(diš) ma-ga-ru-um
11) One (man): Magarum.
12) 1(diš) GAL3-di dub-sar
12) One (man): GAL-di, the scribe.
13) 1(diš) KA-NI-NI [dumu] ma2-laḫ4-ku3-zu
13) One (man): KA-NI-NI, [the son] of Malaḫ-kuzu.
14) [1(diš)] ˹nam-ḫa˺-ni dumu sanga-bi-ta 14) [One (man):] Namḫani, the
son/apprentice of (lit. from)
its chief temple administrator.
15) [1(diš) e2?]-˹lu2˺-ti
dumu sanga-bi-ta 15) [One (man): E?]-lu-ti,
the son/apprentice of (lit. from)
16) [1(diš) x]-x-GAR maškim ensi2 16) [One (man): x]-x-GAR, the enforcer (of) the governor.
17) [lu2]-inim-ma-bi-me 17) They are its (i.e. the lawsuit’s) witnesses.
18) igi-bi-˹še3 nam-IR11˺ 18) Before them (i.e. the witnesses), the servant status (of
Ana-hili)
19) i3-in-[gi]-˹in˺ 19) he (i.e. Ur-Ninmug) has made (legally) firm.
20) (blank space) 20) (blank space)
21) mu ur-bi2-lumki ki-maški ba-ḫul-a 21) In the year: “The city of Urbilum (and) the city of
Kimaš were destroyed”.
§8. To line 4. The literal meaning of ugu2
(Akk. eli) is “above, over” but also, by extension, “on account of” (see CAD E, 89). From the context of the text, it seems clear that Ur-Ninmug is acting on behalf of his nephew (his sister’s son) Ana-ḫili. This suggests that the servants (IR11) in the Ur III period were not completely incorporated into the legal system and therefore were represented by juridical custodians. The important fact that the custodian in our text is a relative of Ana-ḫili (rather than his owner Puzur-Mama) shows that the
choice of legal representation most likely was made by the servants themselves.
§9. To line 5. Seemingly a local Adab variant of the otherwise common expression inim--gar(ar), “to bring a legal complaint” (CAD R, 62-67). For di-bi denoting “word”, “matter”, “agreement” as well as “legal case” and “lawsuit” see AHw p. 168 and CAD D pp. 132-33.
§10. To line 10. The DIM4 is not written in ligature. For the profession DIM4 (written in ligature) mentioned together with šabra administrators, see OrSP 47-49, 134. DIM4 corresponds to
the Akkadian verb sanaaqum, which CAD (S,
133ff.) translates: “to arrive at a locality”, “to check, supervise”, “to
transfer”, “to proceed against” or “to approach an authority with a claim, a
complaint”. It is therefore possible that the profession should be associated
with some sort of transport or messenger services, some controlling/supervising
duties or - seemingly suitable for our lawsuit - some kind of prosecuting
§11. To line 11. A witness called Magarum (son of Ur-LI) can be found in the approximately (see below and SDU 257) contemporary sale document UET 3, 46/SDU 70 from Adab. While the name Magarum indeed seems to have been extremely rare in the Ur III period, it may well have been more common in Adab and we cannot be certain that the two witnesses refer to the same
§12. To lines 14-15. In MVN 17, 3 (col.
ii) and ITT 2, 3536, we find, among various temple personnel, dumu sanga listed immediately after sanga. This shows that the expression was used to denote a title or profession, i.e. “apprentice of the sanga” (AAS
217: “novice” sanga). However, other texts (hence the scribe Ur-Baba on the
tablet/case and on seal inscription of MVN 6, 162) show that the expression could simply refer to the profession of an individual’s father (in which case we, of course, have to consider Namḫani and E?-lu-ti brothers). Since the other witnesses in the texts are identified both with their patronyms (lines 7, 9, 13) and by means of their professions (lines 6, 8, 10, 12, 16), it is difficult to say how we should understand the lines. The expression is usually followed by a divine name or, in some cases, a location (e.g. dNin-šubur or URUxKAR2ki). The absence of either in our text may perhaps imply that the text was written and archived within the jurisdiction of a specific temple and that the particular deity of the sanga and temple therefore was considered obvious and unnecessary to write down.
§13. To line 21. The year name on this
tablet is unique and may be the result of a novice scribe in Adab. However, a
few year names in the Ur III state (i.e. Shulgi 9 and 36) were only used in
particular cities in the state (see M. Sigrist and P. Damerow, Mesopotamian
Year Names, in the web pages of the
CDLI http://cdli.ucla.edu/), and it is possible that the year name in
our text represents such a local and until now unknown year formula used only
in Adab. Both Shulgi (year 45) and Amar-Suen (year 2) claim to have destroyed
the city of Urbilum, and Habalukke, our only other certain point of reference,
was the governor of Adab from at least Shulgi 33 to Shu-Suen 5 (see above under
General description). However,
only Shulgi claims to have destroyed the city of Kimaš (Shulgi 46 and 48) and since the use of regionally
specific year names otherwise seems to be confined to his reign,[9] it seems likely that the year name in our text refers to any one of
the years Shulgi 45, 46 or 48. The year formula for Shulgi 45 is securely
attested in Adab (MVN 3, nos. 209,
211, 212) and does not appear different from that known in other cities in the
state. Two texts (UET 3, 15/SDU
69 and UET 3, 18/SDU 72),
which are recorded as found in Ur but probably were written in Adab (see SDU
5), show that the year formulae for Shulgi 46[10] and Amar-Suen 2 followed the standard Ur III convention. With this in
mind, it appears plausible that the year formula in our text was used for
Shulgi’s 48th year.
Version: 27 September 2002