Making Sumer Great Again: New Insight into How the Sumerians Made the Amorites Pay for the Wall to Hold Back the Amorites (2016)

Occasional Publications of the Museum of the Sealand, no. 53 267 Making Sumer Great Again: New Insight into How the Sumerians Made the Amorites Pay for the Wall to Hold Back the Amorites Steven J. Garfinkle (Bellingham, WA), Seth Richardson (Chicago, IL), Gina Konstantopoulos (New York, NY), C. Jay Crisostomo (Ann Arbor, MI)* Among the texts in a private collection donated lands corroborate this narrative.4 L ate in the dynas- to the Museum of the Sealand is a receipt that in- ty, Šu-Suen struggled with a declining economic and cludes a newly discovered royal year name for Šu- strategic situation, exacerbated by a porous frontier Suen, a king of Ur in the 21st century BC. P rofessor as he sought to restore greatness to Sumer and Akkad, Joseph King prepared the original transliteration of and keep out foreign influence. Some of these efforts the cuneiform inscription, and we are indebted to now become clearer as a result of our full analysis of his work. R oyal year names from the Third Dynasty the text presented below. of Ur (2112–2004 BC) are crucial to our reconstruc- tions of the early history of ancient Mesopotamia.1 In MOS 22 this case we have striking new evidence for a well- Obverse: known event: the building of the wall to hold back 1. 160 gukkal the Amorites and protect the heartland of Sumer. 2 2. 15 maš-gal Luckily, this new text helps us explain how Šu-Suen 3. 10 la₂ 1 dusu₂-munus managed the costs of this great undertaking by forc- 4. 4 dusu₂ nita amar-ga ing the Amorites themselves to pay for it. 5. nam-ra-ak kur Mar-tu Following patterns established by earlier kings Reverse: in the dynasty, these rulers claimed tribute from the 6. ki Lu₂-ša-lim-ta lands beyond their frontier. 3 O n this occasion, the 7. Ur-ku₃-nun-na i₃-dab₅ wall to hold back the Amorites was funded with trib- 8. iti ezem-dŠul-gi ute extracted from the land of the Amorites. O ther 9. mu-us₂-sa dŠu-dSuen lugal Uri₂ki-ma-ke₄/ texts from this era that record booty from the Amorite lugal an-ub-da limmu₂-ba/ mu bad₃ Mar-tu Mu-ri-iq Ti-id-ni-im/ u₃ nam-gal ki-en-gi gi₄-de₃-še₃/ gun₂ kur Mar-tu mu-un-dab₅ * The authors wish to thank the editors at OPMS, and Tyler Biss- Translation: chop. Leslie Schramer also provided special assistance. 1 Ur-kununna received 160 fat-tailed sheep, 15 billy Lists of the year names for the early dynasties in Mesopotamia can be found at the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative: http:// goats, 9 female donkeys, and 4 young male donkeys cdli.ox.ac.uk/wiki/doku.php?id=dynasties_of_sargon_ur-baba_and_ from Lu-šalim as booty from the land of the Amorites. ur-nammu. Month: Festival of Šulgi. 2 For the most extensive recent discussion of wall building during this period, see Michalowski 2011: 123–69. We note, in connection Year: Year after the year that Šu-Suen, king of Ur, with our discussion, that he takes a skeptical view of whether the king of the four quarters, received the tribute of the wall, as a continuous constructed object, was feasible in terms of Amorite land in order to build the wall to hold back labor and material cost. In his summary, Michalowski (167–69) also suggests that the building of these frontier fortifications con- the Amorites and make Sumer great again. tributed to the formation and consolidation of hostile polities on the other side of the wall. 3 For discussions of the frontier policies of the kings of Ur, see Mich- alowski 1975, 1978, and 2011, Steinkeller 1991, Maeda 1992, and Garfinkle 2014; and for the campaigns of Šu-Suen, see Frayne 1997. 4 See Garfinkle 2014. [OPMS 53 (2016): 267–68. © OPMS. All rights reserved] 268 April 2016 Commentary: up to the leadership of previous generations and to restore greatness to his community. Since both of the individuals mentioned in this text are well known from the Drehem corpus, we can Bibliography: surmise that this delivery, like so many others, was Englund, Robert K. 1991. “Hard Work — Where Will It Get You? recorded at this famous center built for the collec- Labor Management in Ur III Mesopotamia.” JNES 50/4: 255– tion and distribution of royal tribute under the Third 80. Dynasty of Ur. T he two men mentioned are also at- Frayne, Douglas. 1997. The Ur III Period. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. tested as having been active in Drehem late into the Garfinkle, Steven J. 2013. “The Third Dynasty of Ur and the Limits reign of Šu-Suen, which accords well with our inter- of State Power in Early Mesopotamia.” In From the 21st Centu- pretation of the text.5 One of the most remarkable as- ry BC to the 21st Century AD, Proceedings of the International Conference on Neo-Sumerian Studies Held in Madrid, 22–24 pects of this text, along with the new year name, is the July, 2010, edited by Steven J. Garfinkle and Manuel Molina, dating of the text to the second half of the reign of Šu- pp. 153–67. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns. Suen. Previously, the latest known text that recorded Garfinkle, Steven J. 2014. “The Economy of Warfare in Southern Iraq at the End of the Third Millennium BC.” In Krieg und the delivery of booty from the Amorites (Sumerian Frieden im Alten Vorderasien, Proceedings of the 52e Rencon- nam-ra-ak kur Mar-tu) was dated to the fifth year of tre Assyriologique Internationale, edited by Hans Neumann et the reign of Amar-Suen, Šu-Suen’s predecessor.6 al., pp. 353–62. Alter Orient und Altes Testament Band 401. T he new year name likely dates to the period Münster: Ugarit-Verlag. Heimpel, Wolfgang. 2009. Workers and Construction Work at Garša- during which the wall to hold back the Amorites was na. CUSAS 5. Bethesda, MD: CDL Press. being constructed, and we consider the most likely Maeda, Tohru. 1992. “The Defense Zone During the Rule of the Ur candidate to be the sixth year of his reign. R enewed III Dynasty.” ASJ 14: 156–58. Michalowski, Piotr. 1975. “The Bride of Simanum.” JAOS 95: 716–19. study of the vast corpus of texts from this era will Michalowski, Piotr. 1978. “Foreign Tribute to Sumer in Ur III hopefully discover additional evidence both for this Times.” ZA 68: 34–49. year name and for the process of collecting tribute for Michalowski, Piotr. 2011. The Correspondence of the Kings of Ur, the construction of the wall. U nder the circumstanc- An Epistolary History of an Ancient Mesopotamian Kingdom. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns. es, it is hardly surpising that Šu-Suen sought funding Molina, Manuel. 2008. “The Corpus of Neo-Sumerian Texts: An for the wall from the Amorites themselves given that Overview.” In The Growth of an Early State in Mesopotamia: his failure to shore up the patronage system he had Studies in Ur III Administration, edited by Steven J. Garfinkle and J. Cale Johnson, pp. 19–54. Biblioteca del Próximo Oriente inherited left his kingdom foundering on the edge of Antiguo 5. Madrid: CSIC. ruin. M oreover, the failure of the wall to achieve its Sallaberger, Walther and Westenholz, Aage. 1999. Akkade-Zeit und goals, combined with likely labor and fiscal problems, Ur III-Zeit. Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. doomed the enterprise.7 P ending additional exem- Sharlach, Tonia. 2005. “Diplomacy and Rituals of Politics at the Ur III Court.” JCS 57: 17–29. plars of this year name, as well as additional analy- Steinkeller, Piotr. 1991. “The Administrative and Economic Organi- sis, we tentatively conclude that this text helps us to zation of the Ur III State: The Core and the Periphery.” In The Organization of Power: Aspects of Bureaucracy in the Ancient better understand the desperation of Šu-Suen to live Near East, edited by McGuire Gibson and Robert D. Biggs, pp. 15–33. 2nd edition. Chicago: The Oriental Institute of the Uni- versity of Chicago. 5 For Ur-kununna, see, for example, BIN 3 247, MVN 13 485, SAT 3 1719 (receipts of animals by Ur-kununna dated to Šu-Suen 6). He also received booty (nam-ra-ak) in Drehem in two texts dated BOOK REVIEWS to Amar-Suen 3: AUCT 1 28 and AUCT 2 284. Lu-šalim frequently appears in lists of men dedicating animals at Drehem; see, for ex- ample, PDT 1 522. Ur-kununna and Lu-šalim appeared together F. THUREAU-DANGIN IV — Texts from the Palace and Temple on numerous Drehem texts from late in Šu-Suen’s reign; see, for Archives of the City of Agade. University of Pyongyang Press, example BIN 3 342. 2015. Pp. ccxiii + 934 + 715 pls. + 24 tables. ₩670,495. 6 In fact, very few texts record the delivery of booty during Šu- (cloth). Suen’s reign, and none have previously been dated after his third One may deplore that such an important work has had the year. See Garfinkle 2014: 361–62. limited print run of five copies, all but one of which are depos- 7 The current evidence suggests that the kingdom’s privileged cit- ited in the vaults of the Zurich Cantonal Bank. Fortunately, this izens likely sought to avoid this kind of work, preferring to see it reviewer has had ample opportunity to pore over the contents of done by workmen (Sumerian: guruš) and foreigners. There is little this groundbreaking work under supervision, and must declare it question that the logistical claims made by leaders like Šu-Suen a triumph for Assyriology. The particular revelation that Sargon were exaggerated. The administrative texts often point to the re- was actually born in Kenya finally brings resolution to the political ality behind these grand words. As Englund (1991: 279–80) noted fiction that there were ever people called “Akkadians.” Further, the of labor accounts, “The posting of a balance usually resulted in a unique Emesal lament bemoaning Sargon’s claim that he would be debit, since the expected labor performance was in all likelihood dating Enheduanna if she wasn’t his daughter is almost certainly simply beyond the capacities of the normal worker.” the famous priestess’ first known composition in this dialect. The