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Late Achaemenid Texts from Dilbat*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

Matthew W. Stolper
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Extract

Writing in 1931, Eckhard Unger observed that published Neo-Babylonian texts written at or referring to Dilbat and dated by the Neo-Babylonian kings were scarce; those dated by the early Achaemenid kings, up to the end of the reign of Darius I, were more numerous; the latest unequivocally dated text from Dilbat was VAS 6, 331, dated by Bēl-šimânni, one of the Babylonian rebels against Xerxes; Seleucid and Parthian texts from Dilbat were unknown. In 1976 these observations still held, and Joachim Oelsner contemplated the possibility that the dearth of later texts from Dilbat was connected with Xerxes' suppression of the Babylonian revolts in the early years of his reign.

Oppert-Menant, Doc. jur. 276 ff. No. VI was problematic. Its publication in 1877 did not include a facsimile of the cuneiform text, but relied on a transliteration that is now antiquated and partly incomprehensible, accompanied by a largely unsuccessful effort at translation. It was plainly written at Dilbat on 7/IX/14 Darius, called “Kings of Lands”. Oppert ascribed it to Darius I, but the omission of “King of Babylon” from the royal title (or at least from the transliteration of the title) suggests to a modern reader that Darius II was intended. Oelsner judged properly that as long as the cuneiform text was not available there was no way to assign the text confidently to the reign of one Darius or the other.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 54 , 1992 , pp. 119 - 139
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1992 

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Footnotes

*

My work on these and other Achaemenid Babylonian texts has been supported in part by a Summer Stipend and subsequent Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and by a Grant-in-Aid from the American Council of Learned Societies. I am indebted to L. T. Geraty and William Shea for permission to publish a text from the Horn Archaeological Museum, Andrews University; to C. B. F. Walker and Erle V. Leichty for help with texts in the collections of the British Museum, and to the Trustees of the British Museum for permission to publish them; to Roger Moorey for access to the collections of the Ashmolean Museum and to Francis Joannes for sharing information on the late Babylonian texts in the Ashmolean; to Marc van de Mieroop, Kenneth Lohf and Rudolph Ellenbogen for making a text from the collection of the Butler Library at Columbia University available to me and for permission to publish it; to John Pedley for permission to publish a text in the Kelsey Museum; to the Institut für Assyriologie und Hethitologie of the Ludwig-Maximilian Universität, Munich, for hospitality and resources when early drafts of these remarks were being prepared; to Martha T. Roth, Erica Reiner, and John A. Brinkman for comments and criticism. Responsibility for errors is mine.

Abbreviations are those of the Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago (CAD), with the following additions and exceptions: AUAM = tablets in the collection of the Horn Archaeological Museum, Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan; Entrepreneurs and Empire = Matthew W. Stolper, Entrepreneurs and Empire (Leiden: Nederlands Historisch-Archaeologisch Instituut te Istanbul, 1985).

Babylonian dates are cited in this form: day (in Arabic numerals)/month (in roman numerals)/regnal year (in Arabic numerals) king's name; month VIb = intercalary Ulūlu; month XIIb = intercalary Addaru. Personal names are sometimes cited in this form: name/patronym.

References

page 119 note 1 “Topographie der Stadt Dilbat”, ArOr 3 (1931), 26 Google Scholar.

page 119 note 2 “Zwischen Xerxes und Alexander: babylonische Rechtsurkunden und Wirtschaftstexte aus der späten Achämenidenzeit”, WO 8 (1976), 311 Google Scholar.

page 119 note 3 “Zwischen Xerxes und Alexander”, 311 n. 5. Oppert had already raised the possibility that the text came from the reign of Darius II, but his reasons for doing so (a reading ma-ni-ni where the text actually has the name Bēl-ibni, with a conjecture that the text might contain a supposed Iranian loanword, manu, “seigneur”) no longer merit serious consideration.

page 119 note 4 On Benin's copies, see “The Governor of Babylon and Across-the-River in 486 B.C.”, JNES 48 (1989), 283 Google Scholar. Bertin's copy of Oppert-Ménant, , Doc. jur., 276 ffGoogle Scholar. No. VI is on his plate 2312.

page 120 note 5 See Thompson, J. Fawcett, “The Rich Manuscripts”, The British Museum Quarterly 27 (1963), 20 fCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

page 120 note 6 See my summary remarks in “The Kasr Archive”, AJA 92 (1988), 587 f.CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and “The Kasr Archive”, in Achaemenid History IV: Centre and Periphery, ed. Sancisi-Weerdenburg, H. and Kuhrt, A. (Leiden: Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten, 1990), 195–205 Google Scholar.

page 121 note 7 In FuB 14, 11 No. 1 (Bīt Bārê, 12/I/9 Darius II) Urašnāṣir is the recipient of rent to be paid for land belonging to Bēlšunu. In Stevenson, , Assyrian and Babylonian Contracts (New York, 1902), 198 No. 41Google Scholar (—/—/14? Darius II), Uraš-nāṣir is designated as the recipient of a debt of barley; Bēlšunu is named in the preceding damaged context, perhaps as the proprietor of the property for which the barley was due as rent. In YBC 11586 (place lost, reign of Darius II), Uraš-nāṣir is the tenant and sublessor of a property described as a crown grant (nidinti šarri, see below, p. 126) to Bēlšunu. In BM 116622 (Bīt Bārê, 28/—/13 Darius II), Uraš-nāṣir is named as co-tenant and co-sublessor with Guzija, the latter called “servant” of Bēlšunu. Uraš-nāṣir also figures in Moore, Michigan Coll. 49 (—/—/— Darius II); FuB 14, 23 No. 13 (—/—/6 Darius II); BM 30124 (partially in Grotefend, , Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes 1, pl. after 254, bGoogle Scholar; Ḫanašatu, 17/VI/10 Darius II); RA 16, 112 (24!/XIIb?/14? Darius II); Moore, Michigan Coll. 43 (Babylon, 15/IV/14 Darius II); Moore, Michigan Coll. 45 (Bīt Gir(?)-da(?), 23/III/15 Darius II); YBC 11532 (Karri-Nabû, 19/XII/16 Darius II); Dar. 364 (Karri-Nabû, 22/XII/16! Darius II); FuB 14, 25 No. 16 (—/—/(16) Darius II); YBC 11537 (Ḫalpattu, —/—/3+ Artaxerxes II); and perhaps OECT 10, 140 Google Scholar (Bīt Bāre, 11/XII/14 Darius II) (all collated except RA 16, 112 Google Scholar).

page 123 note 8 See my comments in “Bēlšunu the Satrap”, in Language, Literature and History (Studies Reiner), ed. Rochberg-Halton, F., AOS 67 (1987), p. 398 Google Scholar. The fragment does not resemble the texts in the Louvre collection that can be confidently attributed to the Kasr archive. The reverse is unburnt, the obverse only lightly burnt. The text is of a type that is without parallel among the available Kasr texts. Apart from the references to Bēlšunu, the governor of Babylon, there are no clear connections with known texts from the Kasr. If this fragment was ever kept with the other known Kasr texts, it was intrusive, a record of the governor's official behaviour housed among records of his ostensibly private business interests.

page 125 note 9 Thompson, , A Catalogue of the Late Babylonian Tablets in the Bodleian Library, Oxford (London: Luzac, 1927), 28 Google Scholar. Collated 1985.

page 126 note 10 The CAD's rendering of BE 9, 99:1 Google Scholar, evidently followed by van der Spek, , Grondbezit in het Seleucidische Rijk (Leiden: Vrije Universiteit Uitgeverij, 1986), 104 Google Scholar, is misleading. “Royal grant” does not qualify “bow fief” in the context. The two items are parallel entries in a list of the various juridical statuses of the rented property: bīt qašti nidintu šarri maḫīri kaspi bīt maškani, “bow fief, crown grant, purchased property (or) pledged property”.

page 126 note 11 Tiriadāta, entitled ustarbaru, Eilers, Beamtennamen, pi. 3, BM 54205: 2 f., cf. 7; Bēl-bullissu, entitled ustarbaru, with an Iranian patronym, BE 9, 102:7 Google Scholar; Bamma', OECT 10, 192:3 Google Scholar (the grant is managed by a man named Bagaḫaja [= Bagoas], lines 4 and 7); Umarzanu, entitled parastamu, VAT 15610:6f.(?), 15620:4f.; Arrennu, VAT 15619:4; Issipitamma, YBC 11562:4. In YBC 11586, the beneficiary of the grant is Bēlšunu, named without patronym or title, but unlikely to be anyone but the governor of that name.

page 126 note 12 BE 9, 99 Google Scholar (zaqpi bīt gapni, “vineyard”); VAT 15610 and 15619, BRM 1, 88 Google Scholar (zaqpu u pī šulpu, “palm grove and grain field”); BE 9, 102 Google Scholar (pī šulpu, “grain field”); YBC 11586 (mērešu, “cultivated field”).

page 126 note 13 bītu abta, “ruined building”, Eilers, Beamtennamen, pl. 3 BM 54205; kišubbû, “vacant lot”, Kelsey 89490.

page 126 note 14 FuB 14, 29 No. 21Google Scholar, and VAT 15620 (paqdu, “bailiff”), OECT 10, 192 Google Scholar (rab bīti, “major domo”), YBC 11562 (ardu, “servant”).

page 127 note 15 Mendelsohn, , Catalogue of the Babylonian Tablets in the Libraries of Columbia University (New York: Columbia University Libraries, 1943), 79 Google Scholar.

page 132 note 16 Leichty, , Catalogue of the Babylonian Tablets in the British Museum, VI: Tablets from Sippar, 1 (London: British Museum Publications, 1986), 23 Google Scholar.

page 134 note 17 See “The šaknu of Nippur”, JCS 40(1988), 131 and 137 fGoogle Scholar.

page 134 note 18 Cardascia, , Murašû, 30 Google Scholar.

page 134 note 19 Ehrenkranz, Markus, Beiträge zur Geschichte der Bodenpacht in neubabylonischer Zeit (Dissertation, Berlin, 1936), 20 Google Scholar; Joannès, , Textes économiques, 156 Google Scholar.

page 134 note 20 As Cocquerillat observes with regard to Old Babylonian assessments of the same sort (“Aperçus sur la phéniculture en Babylonie à l'époque de la Ière dynastie de Babylone”, JESHO 10 [1967], 188 n. 1Google Scholar). Some exceptions among promissory notes from northern cities: CT 4, 34d (Babylon, month IX), BM 30124 (Ḫanašatu, perhaps near Babylon or Dilbat, month IX), VAS 3, 193, 194, and 216 Google Scholar (all from the vicinity of Borsippa, month VII), OECT 10, 185 Google Scholar (Hursagkalama, month IV), 229 (Hursagkalama, month III), BM 79208 (Sippar, month VII).

page 134 note 21 The CAD's interpretation of the hapax legomenon elletu in a similar context (Strassmaier, Actes du 8e Congrès Internationale No. 25:6, from the Kasr, see CAD, elâtu A meaning 4c) as a corresponding “upward adjustment” rests on a faulty arithmetic assumption, namely that this Achaemenid text uses the Old Babylonian ratio often qû per sūtu (i.e., 2 SÌLA: 1 PI =2: 60∷ 1 BÁN: 1 GUR = 10:300), rather than the normal Neo-Babylonian six qû per sūtu. If normal Neo-Babylonian metrology is assumed, the interpretation of elletu as the upward adjustment indicated by the use of a 1 pānu—2 qû measure in lieu of a 1 pānu measure would hold only if 1 (BÁN) in line 6 indicates a unit of 10 qû, not a normal sūtu of six qû (i.e., 2 qû:1 pānu = 2:36 ∷ 1 BÁN:1 GUR = 10:180). Hence, both elletu and ipištu are better understood as accessory payments, but the nuance of each term is still elusive.

page 134 note 22 Leichty, , Catalogue … Sippar, 1, 40 Google Scholar.

page 136 note 23 For exceptions, written URU.Dil-bat.KI and URU.Dil-bat, see Zadok, Ran, Geographical Names According to New- and Late Babylonian Sources, Répertoire Géographique des Textes Cunéiformes 8 (Wiesbaden: Dr. Ludwig Reichert, 1985), 118 Google Scholar.

page 136 note 24 See Reade apud Leichty, , Catalogue … Sippar, 1, xxiii, xxv, xxvii, and xxxii Google Scholar.

page 136 note 25 Leichty, , Catalogue … Sippar, 1, 23 Google Scholar.

page 139 note 26 See the partial genealogy in Wiseman, , “Some Egyptians in Babylonia”, Iraq 28 (1966), 158 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Zadok, , “On Some Foreign Population Groups in First-Millennium Babylonia”, Tel Aviv 6 (1979), 173 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, with prior literature.

page 139 note 1 Leichty, , Catalogue … Sippar, 1, 23 Google Scholar.

page 139 note 2 Leichty, , Catalogue … Sippar, 1, 26 Google Scholar.

page 139 note 3 Leichty, , Catalogue … Sippar, 1, 103 Google Scholar.

page 139 note 4 Leichty, et al., Catalogue of the Babylonian Tablets in the British Museum, VIII: Tablets from Sippar, 3 (1989), 181 Google Scholar.