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Some Remarks on the Iltani Archive from Tell al Rimah

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

Jesper Eidem
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Extract

The so-called “Iltani archive” is not only one of the few cuneiform archives we know which belonged to a woman, but also so far the only larger group of Old Babylonian texts from northern Mesopotamia which may essentially date to a period after the sack of Mari, when Babylon gained ascendancy in the north, and is therefore of considerable interest. In spite of the excellent editio princeps of the archive and admirable efforts of its reviewers, many difficulties of interpretation, even with regard to quite basic issues, persist, mainly because the letters in Iltani's archive are too short and cursive to permit a coherent reconstruction of its historical context. Building on previous analyses this paper discusses possible solutions to some of these difficulties, and although necessarily of a tentative character, the following brief remarks may hopefully further the understanding of this interesting archive and its setting.

With its more than 200 texts the Iltani archive is by far the largest group among the Old Babylonian texts found at Rimah. The archive consists of 151 letters, 50 administrative texts, 1 school text and a few fragments found in two rooms, VI and XIV, of the phase 3b palace.

As shown by her seal inscription Iltani was a daughter of Samu-Addu, king of Karana in the time of the “Assyrian interregnum” at Mari, and married to the diviner Aqba-Hammu, known from the Mari texts to have been a highly placed official under Aškur-Addu, king of Karana during the latter part of Zimri-Lim's reign, and presumably Iltani's brother. It is generally agreed that her archive must date mainly after the fall of Mari, at a time when Hammurapi of Babylon had extended his power over much of Upper Mesopotamia, and Aqba-Hammu ruled Karana as a vassal of Babylon. Zimri-Lim and Aškur-Addu are never mentioned in the texts, Aqba-Hammu, in one of his two extant seal inscriptions declared himself “servant of Hammurapi” and brought tribute to Babylon, local scribes in the Karana area used “southern” styles, and finally many of the letters in the archive generally show quite clearly that the Sinjar area now was linked with Southern Mesopotamia.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 51 , 1989 , pp. 67 - 78
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1989

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References

1 Published by Dalley, S. in Dalley, et al., The Old Babylonian Tablets from Tell al Rimah. The British School of Archaeology in Iraq 1976 (= OBTR), 31 ffGoogle Scholar. The most important reviews are the following (with sigla used in this paper in parentheses): (A) Anbar, , BiOr 35 (1978), 208–17Google Scholar; (B) Birot, , RA 72 (1978), 181–90Google Scholar, and RA 73 (1979), 187Google Scholar; (Ga) Gallery, , JNES 40 (1981), 343–9Google Scholar; (Gr) Groneberg, , ZA 69 (1979), 258–68Google Scholar; Pomponio, , OA 16 (1977), 332–6Google Scholar; (S) Sasson, , JAOS 100 (1980), 453–60Google Scholar.

2 I consider it most likely that the ancient name of Rimah was Qatara (see section 5 below).

3 Cf. Dalley, , JCS 25 (1973), 79 ffGoogle Scholar.

4 For the reading of some of these eponyms see Veenhof, , MARI 4, 197 and n. 28Google Scholar.

5 Ibid., n. 26. The correct sequence of months in the so-called “Šamši-Adad calendar” has now been established by Charpin, , MARI 4, 244 ff.Google Scholar, superseding my own attempt in Iraq 47 (1985), 85 fGoogle Scholar. See also Greengus, , JAOS 107 (1987), 222 ffGoogle Scholar.

6 Ibid., 196–8.

7 B, 186 f.

8 See Charpin, , FS Steve, 136Google Scholar; note that according to Charpin, ibid., 130 n. 13, the “2nd siege of Razama” was no real siege, and concerned another Razama south of the Jebel Sinjar. For the location of Šubat-Enlil ( = Tell Leilan) see now Charpin, , “šSubat-Enlil et le pays d'Apum”, MARI 5, 129 ffGoogle Scholar.

9 ARM 2, 43Google Scholar; in 1.13 f. read probably he-ra-am ( = hârum) / ša ba-ra-i šu-ṣí-ma-–“bring out a donkey for extispicy (in order to conclude an alliance) …”, instead of the mysterious and otherwise unattested army-commander from Mari, Ah-Ram (so ARMT 16/1, 55Google Scholar).

10 See B, 187 n. 6; the text mentioned there, which attests Aškur-Addu as king of Karana, has since been published as ARM 24, 280Google Scholar, dated to 17.iii ZL 12′. The very latest attestation of Aškur-Addu, however, is now ARMT 25, 119Google Scholar, dated 6 days later.

11 According to Birot, , Syria 55 (1978), 342 fCrossRefGoogle Scholar. Hatnurapi is not attested in any economic texts (but see now ARMT 23, An. I, dated to ZL 2′), while Aškur-Addu is mentioned in texts from ZL 10′–12′.

12 Gallery (345) suggests that seal 1 of Aqba-Hammu, which just gives his patronym and title of diviner, could well date to a time before he became ruler. It is known (only) from impressions on an envelope fragment and the envelope encasing the undelivered letter 94, containing a sharp reminder from Aqba-Hammu to a certain Dadu-rapi, who was supposed to assign workmen to Iltani. Also letter 31 sent from Napsuna-Addu, possibly a brother of Iltani, begins: abum ištu Babili ilia[mma], which could be a mention of their father Samu-Addu, who ruled Karana under Šamši-Adad. The latter example is not very convincing, as in spite of the copy's clear “a-”, one is tempted to read ṣa-bu-um instead of abum, and relate the text to the letters discussed below, section 4.

13 OBTR, xiii. A detailed plan of room VI can be found in Iraq 30 (1968), Pl. XXXIV, facing 124Google Scholar.

14 For details about the various individuals in the archive see in general S, 456 ff. For Aqba-Hammu and his status see the section 4 of this paper.

15 See B, 183; according to Durand, /Charpin, , RA 80 (1986), 71Google Scholar, Mutu-Hadkim originally served the “Assyrians” in Ekallatum, but attached himself to Hammurabi in ZL 2′. I cannot agree with Sasson, who thinks that he may have been “a merchant working for Aqba-Hammu's household, travelling on his behalf, and responsible over the human resources available to the crown” (S, 456b). The general impression is rather that he had a home base in Babylon (cf. 132 and 161), but that he was Aqba-Hammu's immediate superior, perhaps a kind of governor for much of Hammurapi's northern territories, hence his influence felt in several towns here, including Andarig, Karana, and Šubat-Enlil.

16 Only known as sender of the letters 118 and 119. Note that his connection in 119 with Mutu-Hadkim and Amat-Šamaš (1.21 read probably mí[GE]MÉ!–dUTU), fits well with his residence in Kisurra.

17 See below, section 4.

18 See most recently the remarks by Durand, in Lévy, E. (ed.), Le système palatial en Orient, en Grèce et à Rome, Strasbourg 1987, 45 f. and n. 23 and 81 ffGoogle Scholar.

19 See Curtis, J. (ed.), Fifty Years of Mesopotamian Discovery. London 1982, 82 ff.Google Scholar; and Veenhof, , MARI 4, 196 and 202 n. 52Google Scholar.

20 For Kuwari's archive see Læssøe, , Sh T, 25 ffGoogle Scholar. The Shemshara Tablets, vol. 1, The Administrative Texts (in preparation) will contain a fuller discussion of these problems.

21 See OBTR, 31 ff., and notes to the individual texts.

22 MARI 4, 457 n. 20Google Scholar; see also idem, RA 79 ( 1985), 86.

23 Cf. A, 212a.

24 Ll. 23–7, LÚ.TUR šu-ú u 4-um wa-ša-bi-šu / [š an-ni-ke-em i-ta-ar-ku / [ba]-lum ša-[l]-ka-ma ] a-na KÁ DINGIR.RAkia-na øe-er / be-li-[š]u [i]t-ta-al-la-ak.

25 S, 458–9. Dalley, also, in Mari and Karana, 104Google Scholar, refers to her as Iltani's sister. For earlier suggestions see Sasson, , JCS 25 (1973), 61 fGoogle Scholar. and JNESS 2 (1973), 340f.Google Scholar; Batto, , Studies, 61 ffGoogle Scholar. (cf. Dalley, , BiOr 33 (1976), 201Google Scholar). See also the remarks by Lafont, “Les Filles du Roi de Mari”, in Durand, J.-M. (ed.), La Femme dans le Proche-Orient Antique, (XXXIII RAI; ERC 1987), 121Google Scholar, which, however, do not consider the most recent theories about this lady.

26 It might be noted in passing, that if this theory is correct, we have the names of five possible female members of Iltani's and Aqba-Hammu's families (Belassunu A and B, Iltani herself, Lamassani, and Amat-Šamaš), all Akkadian, while all names of known/assumed male members are Amorite. This curious fact is most probably due to several coinciding factors, but shows well how difficult it may be to evaluate the ethno-linguistic situation from onomastic material.

27 For šumam zakārum with a DN as subject see Kraus, , RA 65 (1970), 99 ff.Google Scholar; and AHw, 1503b, sub I/1/d.

28 Cf. Mari and Karana, 22: “Tell al Rimah was probably ancient Karanā”.

29 Rekonstruktion der Reiserouten zur Zeit der altassyrischen Handelsniederlassungen, BTAVD, B 83, 1987, 3Google Scholar: “Nach der Durchführung der Grabung in Tall ar-Rimah und der daraus mit einiger Wahrscheinlichkeit resultierenden Erkenntnis, daß dieser Ort mit Qaṭarā … gleichgesetzt werden kann …”. Nashef refers to several forthcoming studies on the OA place names (cf. ibid. VIII n. 2 and 67 n. 45).

30 Besides the literature already cited see remarks in the various reviews of OBTR, and the references given in RGTC 3 and 5, s.v. “Karanā” and “Qaṭarā”.

31 Reading 11. 8–9: [aš-ra]-nu-um / la tu-la-ap-pa-ti.

32 Reading eš 15-ta-al (1. 8). Accordingly my interpretation differs from that given by Dalley, (cf. Man and Karana, 42–3, and 172)Google Scholar. Obviously Aqba-Hammu was not himself at Karana when this text was written.

33 The letters seem to refer to the same political situation (cf. B, 184 f.), which may be the dramatic events recorded for ZL 3′ (see Charpin, , MARI 5, 135 f.)Google Scholar.

34 Mari texts indicate that Qaṭara, at least for some time, was occupied by Ešnunneans, and this may not only explain Riš-Adad's strange statement, but also support the theory that Rimah was Qaṭara. The real Karana then should probably be sought west of Rimah (for some possible candidates see e.g. the remarks by Oates, D., MARI 4, 589Google Scholar). Besides S. 115–72–32, see now A. 654, quoted by Durand in MARI 5, 203Google Scholar (Both from the time of ZL?). The latter text provides important clues for a location of Qatara, and Durand refers to a discussion of this problem in the forthcoming Problèmes concernant les Hurrites II/2.