Thy name is slave?

112 Pages·2010·1.77 MB·English

Verhandeling voorgelegd aan de Faculteit Letteren en Wijsbegeerte
Voor het behalen van de graad van:
Master in de Oosterse Talen en Culturen door:
LIESELOT VANDORPE

Academiejaar 2009-2010
Universiteit Gent

TThe hslavye o nnomaasmticone of Oilds Ba bsyllonaianv Siepp?ar.

Promotor: Dr. K. De Graef

2
TABLE OF CONTENT

List of Abbreviations 5
I. Introduction 6

A. Purpose 12
B. Status Quaestionis 13
C. Cultural Historical perspective 14
II. Slave documents 16

A. Inheritance and will documents 18
B. Purchase papers and silver loans 18
C. Donation 20
D. Litigation 20
E. Hire 20
F. Adoption/manumission 21
G. Dowry and wedding certificates 21
H. Others 22
III. Slave names unraveled 23

A. Slaves and their personal names 23
a. Male slave names 24
b. Female slave names 35
B. Ethnography and uniqueness of the slave name 50
C. Thy name is slave? 51
IV. Construction of slave names 53

A. Slave names according to Stamm 53
B. Sub-categories among Sipparian slaves 54
a. Wishes and prayers towards the master 54
b. Questions formulated to the master 55
c. Statements of trust towards the master 56
d. Praise for the master 56
e. Small categories of slave PN’s 57
1. Expression of Tenderness 57
2. Praise for physical defaults 57
3. Reference to the character and intellect of slaves 58
4. References to animals and plants 58
5. Names with geographical elements 58
6. Signs of imprisonment 58
C. Male namesn afodrī tfue male slaves 58
D. Theophoric elements in slave PN’s 59
E. Slaves and priestesses 61
F. Conclusion 63
V. On the meaning of mu.ni.im 65

A. What does the term mu.ni.im imply? 65
B. Slave names and the appearance of mu.ni.im 66
C. The corpus 67

3
a. Adoption-manumission 68
b. Donation 69
c. Dowry 69
d. Exchange 69
e. Inheritance 69
f. Hire 70
g. List 70
h. Litigation 70
i. Purchase 70
j. Silver loan 71
k. Wedding 71
D. Mu.ni.im versus name: the acceptance of a new name? 71
E. Mu.ni.im and other objects 72
F. Conclusion 72
VI. Conclusion 73

VII. Bibliography 75

VIII. Appendix 81

A. LNiasdt īotfu u sed s lave tab lets 81
B. Chronological overview of the slaves by gender and the appearannacdeī touf mu .ni.im and
87
Ḥammurabi 104
C. List of the tablets by genre and the appearance of mu.ni.im and 100
D. Slavaesb binu ttthue Codmexa škannu 109
E. The sign of a slave 108
F. The and

4
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Absol. Absolute/absolutes Nom. Nominative
Abstr. Abstract OB Old Babylonian
Acc. Accusative Obj. Object
Adj. Adjective, adjectival Perf. Perfectum
AHW Akkadisches Pl. Plural
Handworterbuch PN Personal name
CAD Chicago Assyrian Poss. Possessive
Dictionary Prec. Precative
Caus. Causative Pred. predicate, predicative
Cf. Comparer Prep. Preposition
CDA Concise Dictionary of Praet. Preterite
Akkadian Proh. Prohibitive
Cohort. Cohortative Pron. Pronoun, pronominal
Conj. Conjunction Ptc. Participle
Dat. Dative Sg. Singular
Denom. Denominative Sta. Abs. Status Absolutus
Det. Determinative Stat. Stative
Dir. Direct Stat. Contr. Status Constructus
Exempligratia
DN Divine name Subj. Subject
Eg. Subjunct. Subjunctive
Epith. Epithet Subst. Substantive
et cetera
Esp. Especially Vent. Ventive
Etc. Voc. Vocative
f. Feminine > goes to
Hypocor. Hypocoristic < comes from
Imp. Imperative
Incl. including
Indic. Indicative
Indir. Indirect
Inf. Infinitive
M. Masculine

5
Slavery: ‘the state of being a slave’
A slave: ‘(especially in the past) a person who is
the legal property of another and is forced to
1
obey them ’.
I. INTRODUCTION
In many societies around the world, slavery was present in one or several forms. Unfortunately,
in some countries, it still is. In the contemporary Western world, there are only few human
practices that inspire us to feelings of profound outrage. Slavery is one of them. However, we
have to realize that this is a modern opinion. Looking at the institution of slavery in history, and
its position in ancient civilizations in particular, we can almost say that slavery predicates
civilization itself. As an institution, it was accepted in the ancient cultures of Greece and Rome
and played a central role in their economic systems. Therefore, these societies were defined as
‘slave societies’ by M.I. Finley (SHAW 1998: 77). In contrary to the classical cultures, which are
richly documented regarding this time, we are poorly informed about this phenomenon in
Mesopotamia.
We do know that slavery was an accepted institution in all major civilizations emerging in
communis opinio
Mesopotamia, and that a slave population was always present (JOANNÈS 2001: 306). However, the
is that, compared to the freeborn, they only made up a small and insignificant
2
population group (HARRIS 1975: 332). Therefore, this society can almost certainly be
designated as ‘a society of slaves’, as M.I Finley describes it (SHAW 1998: 77). The small number
of slaves might be explained by the absence of any interest in industrial production on the home
level, according to Oppenheim (OPPENHEIM 1964: 116). Another reason might simply be the lack
of preserved and/or written documents about slavery.

The earliest known written references come from the city states of Sumer in the form of legal
codes, dated to the 4th millennium BCE. The Sumerian cuneiform signs for a slave are ‘níta.kur’
3
(m) and ‘munus.kur’ (f) :

Níta.kur

< nita.kur

x
<nita .kur

1 Definition by the Oxford English Dictionary.
2 T h i s p r o n o u n c e m e n t i s m a d e o n the usually dated information we have concerning slaves and slavery in
Mesopotamia. A new study dealing with this topic can lead to new insights about the role of slaves in the
economy.
The emesal terminology of this word and the several stages of the development of the individual sign are
d3ocumented on the lexical lists MSL 14: 205-218a, 719, 789-790 and MSL 2: 14-16.Especially interesting is
M SL 14 line 215, where the word ‘Subaru’ is equalized with the word for slave. This would lead to the
assumption that the word ‘slave’ was derived from the ethnic designation to the Subarians. This is a discussion
intensively worked out by Gelb (1973, 23-31).

6
Munus.kur

< nu-nus.kur

4 5
Particularly interesting is the appearance of the sign ‘kur ’, which can be translated as
6
“underworld”, “mountainous land”, “East(ener)” and “East wind” . The interpretation of the
components of the signs, male/female + “mountainous land” can clearly be derived from the
signs themselves. Since the discussion of the sign by Thureau-Dangin, it has been generally
assumed that the sign “kur” stood for “mountain” as well as for “foreign country” (Thureau-
Dangin 1929: 272). Based on this assumption, Mendelsohn, among others, concludes that the
7
ancient Sumerians derived their slaves from foreign, mountainous areas .

‘These were the first ‘human chattels’, to be followed later by imported foreigners and finally
by natives who were reduced to the status of slavery because of debt’ (Mendelsohn 1949: 1).

Although the number of sources and documents which can be used for the study of slavery in
Mesopotamia is relatively small, the material is still too comprehensive to be studied completely.
Therefore, we decided geographically narrow the topic down to the city of Sippar and
chronologically to one major and well documented period of Mesopotamia: the Old Babylonian
(or OB) period (cf. cultural – historical perspective), dated according to the New Chronology
from 1911 up to 1499 BCE (Gasche et alii: 1998).

8
The ancient city of Sippar is located in Iraq, more or less in the middle of an ancient
watercourse connecting the two rivers defining Mesopotamia: the Tigris and Euphrates. It is
situated approximately 30 km South-East of Iraq’s modern capital Baghdad (CHARPIN, D; SAUVAGE,
M. 2001: 783, cf. figure 1). The city was known as the main cult centre of the sun deity Šamaš and
his partner Aja, worshipped at the Ebabbar temple, which probably was the cities’ eye-catching
gagûm9 nadītu10
landmark during OB times (HARRIS 1975: 142). Another institution, highly influencing its
economic and social life, was the : the place where the priestesses lived (HARRIS
1975: 188-189). Together with the few existing wealthy families, they represented the main
actors in the recorded city activities.
4 The sign ‘kur’ has been interpreted by Lambert as a nobler term more noble as ‘sal’ or at least referring to a
p r i v i l e g e d s t a t u s ( L a m b e r t 1 9 5 3 : 2 00). Compared with later research, I consider this interpretation as not
acceptable.
5 Translation is bases on the ePSD: Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary. (cf.: http://psd.museum.upenn.edu/ ,
search under KUR.)
6 In Akkadian, it can be translated with the words: erṣetu, mātu and šadû.
7 In the earliest periods, attestations where found for female slaves only, leading to the theory that captured male
slaves were slaughtered (Gelb 1973: 5). But Vaiman proved by using Uruk texts that the word for the male
counterparts of the SAL.KUR, was the sign KUR only. (Vaiman 1976: 24-26; summarized by Uchitel 1984:
361-362).
8 The name of the city, Sippar, by some authors interpreted as Sippir, is a reference to its etymology: the
Sumerian s ign ‘zimbir’. This can be translated as ‘bird city’ (Edzard 1970: 18-22).
9 For a brief explanation and reference to the texts concerning the institution/living quarter: see CAD G sub
gagû).
10 A nadītu priestess is a woman of the upper class who is dedicated to a god and who is forbidden to have
children. As a woman she is allowed to fulfill what is seen as strictly ‘male activities’ by the Mesopotamian
society. She plays an important role in trade and is a very active business woman. She tries to enlarge the fortune
of her family and herself. Her inheritance is usually given to a family member, a niece, who is educated to
continue her role (cf. CAD N1 sub nadītu; HARRIS 1975: 305-311, 315-323).

7
Figure 1: Territorial states in the early second millennium (Van De Mieroop 2004:106)

The choice to exclusively research this city is first of all based on the abundant number of clay
tablets dealing with the phenomenon of slavery. This enables the development of an in-depth
view on the topic, which can be checked with other OB centers in the future. Another important
reason is the availability of data for this city, built up during years of study of the Assyriological
department of the University of Ghent. For this dissertation, prof. M. Tanret allowed me to use
th
the database. The data in the used version had last been updated 5 of April 2010.

Chronologically, this research is limited to the Old Babylonian period. An important question
towards slavery in this period is how one can become enslaved. This question is closely related
to the problem of slaveholders acquiring slaves. In this dissertation I cannot extensively deal
with this question, but I will sketch a generalized pattern based on the little available studies.
‘The means by which persons were enslaved are legion and include many that were peculiar to
certain societies’ (Patterson 1982: 105). In his study of worldwide slavery among different
world culture s, Patterson defined eight types of ways to get into enslavement:

1. Capture in warfare

2. Kidnapping

3. Tribute and tax payment

4. Debt

5. Punishment for crimes

6. Abandonment and sale of children

7. Self-enslavement
8. Birth

8
The first seven groups involve people who were born free and subsequently were reduced to the
lowest status in the society, that of slavery. Since in most cases, marriage is allowed between
slaves and in certain circumstances even between slaves and free people (Patterson 1982: 131,
166, 187), the children of those slaves were in most situations given the social status of their
wilid bītim
parents. This phenomenon definitely existed in Mesopotamia during the Old Babylonian period,
11
leading to a special group of slaves: the or house born slaves .
Despite the fact that the Sippar texts don’t tell us exactly how people were enslaved, we do learn
that slaves were obtained from numerous sources. If we apply the eight groups of Patterson to
wilid bītim
slavery during the OB period, we can distinguish only five of his groups. Besides the above
mentioned , the slave population existed of prisoners of war, but only for a minor part.
Another reason people could end up with having the lowest social status, was by being sold as a
child, in many occasions out of economical necessity, sometimes leading to self-enslavement of
their parents. But the basic supply source of slavery is debts, which functioned as a direct cause
(SIEGEL 1947: 11-12, MENDELSOHN 1949: 23). The insolvency could be the result of many causes
where the individual was powerless: war, draught, pestilence, etc. But one of the main factors
was ‘unquestionably the exorbitant interest rate charged on loans’ (MENDELSOHN 1949: 24).
12
The importation of foreign slaves was a phenomenon that began during the reign of king Abi-
Ešuḥ, in the latter half of the Old-Babylonian period. There was a general preference for slaves
from Subartu: meaning ‘north’ or ‘upland’, referring to, according to Finkelstein, an area
spreading from the borders of Elam to the Amanus in Northwest Syria (FINKELSTEIN 1962: 77).
Slaves have a complete absence of freedom and are regarded as ‘owned property’. Thus, they are
equally treated as a field or a house, although they do possess some legal rights to protect
themselves from their master (OPPENHEIM 1964: 116).

If persons were enslaved, was manumission possible under certain circumstances? Looking at
the way slaves were legally and socio-economically defined, ‘there was no obvious way in which
they could have been released from their condition’ (Patterson 1982: 209). Was there a specific
group of slaves that was privileged when it comes to manumission? This question also involves
the anthropological theory of gift exchange. It would lead us too far to discuss this topic in debt,
but a summary can be found in the work of Patterson (1982: 210-214).
As there are various ways of enslavement, various modes of release were possible and most
societies employed several of them. Patterson remarks that ‘manumission was not itself a
constant: in a given society what a slave achieved through manumission varied. Some slaves
achieved full manumission at once, other attained it over time, still others remained for the rest
of their lives in a twilight state of semi-manumission’ (PATTERSON 1982: 219). The possibilities of
release depended on the motivation and on how close the slave and master wanted to stay
together after the release. According to Patterson, there were basically seven modes of release
throughout the slaveholding world (PATTERSON 1982: 219):

1. Postmortem

2. Cohabitation

3. Adoption

4. Political

5. Collusive litigation

6. Sacral
11 These grou7p .of Psluavreesl yw caos nutsruaaclltyu raelg arded as a special status and in many cases, these children were set free
a t l a t e r a g e , i n m a n y c a s e s b y a d o p t i on (STOL 2004: 811).
12
Details concerning the traffic and sources of foreign slaves are largely discussed by Leemans (LEEMANS:
1960 and 1968).

9
According to Mendelsohn, the only option for Near Eastern slaves to regain freedom was by
13
‘adoption, unconditional manumission or by buying himself free with his peculium ’
(MENDELSOHN 1949: 42, 46). It is highly remarkable that manumission is indicated as the one
way to release slaves beside adoption. Based on the studied tablets, we found out that these two
genres are so closely linked that it’s hard to distinguish them. Another way to release slaves,
according to Mendelsohn, is the dedication to a temple (Mendelsohn 1949: 46). In his point of
view, the slaves who are eligible for manumission are mostly house slaves or slaves that were
purchased at a tender age and stood in close contact with their masters.
The Codex Ḥammurabi mentions three legal means for a slave to become manumitted in § 117,
171 and 280 (cf. supplement D). The first paragraph deals with women and children who are
sold or handed over as pledges to creditors when the loan no longer can be paid. These people
14
are freed after three years of service, regardless of the amount of the debt . The next law deals
with the manumission of a slave concubine and her children as soon as her master passes away.
The last reference mentions a native Babylonian slave, bought in a foreign country, who later
returned to Babylon. At the moment of his re-arrival at Babylon, he was unconditionally freed.
gagûm nadiātu
Slaves can be owned by an official institution, for example the temple or the . The ,
the priestesses dedicated to a god, play an important role in slavery. They appear in many
gagû1m5
documents related to slaves. In general, slaves seem to have fulfilled many tasks in the temple .
nadītu
Slaves where a popular gift among families (usually the father) when a girl entered the
(HARRIS 1975: 335). They also formed the regular income for the , as she would rent her
slaves to others on an annual or a monthly basis (cf. hire contracts).
In many other cases they are owned by private individuals who don’t belong to a religious or
official institution. It may be assumed that slaves were largely employed in the various menial
household tasks, although occasionally they may have had a specific occupation. Certain families
concentrated their wealth in purchasing slaves as an investment. A normal family would have
one up to four slaves, while rich ones could have up to 10 (STOLw 2a0r0d4u:) 810).

amtu
Adults form the largest group of slaves, both male (= sag.ìr or and female (= sag.géme or
. Cf. overview of the signs for slave given below). Sometimes a baby or a child is mentioned.
At times, humane treatment is demonstrated by allowing a slave girl, when sold, to keep her
tirḥatu
children with her. If the slaves were not married, the private slave-owner might marry them off
and receive, in the case of a female slave, the or the dowry, from her husband.

1 3
According the Mendelsohn, ‘the privilege of accumulating a peculium was granted to the Babylonian
slave from early times’ (MENDELSOHN 1949: 66). Some documents of the Old Babylonian period show
evidence of slaves who bought themselves free. The money of these slaves need not, however, have been
their own, but could have been given them by their family for redemption. According to the CH (§ 176),
the money given to a slave was a ‘concession grated by the master to his slave, who could enjoy it during
his lifetime, but legally and ultimately it belonged to his master (MENDELSOHN 1949: 67). We know from
later period that slaves played an active part in the economic life and that they are engaged in eg. business
transactions, mainly by property given or rented out by their master.
14
The question is, as mentioned in chapter 3.1, how far these law match with real-life situations. While
we have numerous documents attesting the practice of selling or handing over wgoamgaûnm a nd children to
creditors, documents dealing with the manumission after the tree year period of servitude are absent.
15
An overview is presented by Harris (HARRIS 1975: 335). It is believed that the maintained an
important labour force for slaves, who were probably largely enggaaggeûdm in cloister industries. However,
with the information we have at the moment, we cannot prove this idea. In all the studies’ documents
concerning slaves, we cannot find anyone indicated as a slave of the .

10
16
Sag.ìr

11
< sag.ir

Sag.géme

Since we can presume that racial features didn’t play a role in the group of slaves we can wonder
abbutu17
whether there were ways to distinguish the enslaved people from the free people. Slaves were
sub šakānum)
physicgaullllyu bduismtinguished from the free population by the , a characteristic hairdo or lock
aobf bhuatiru (cf. CAD A abbutu). This lock was placed upon the head ( or shaven into the
hair ( ). When a slave was manummited, his lock was removed (CT 4 42a). Shaving the
to a free person was, at the other hand, a punishment for adoptees who refused to
recognize his/her parents (STOL 2004: 810). The guidelines are recorded in the Codex
maškannu kannu sub sub
Ḥammurabi § 226-§ 227 (cf. supplement D). In some cases, the slaves can be recognized by
maškannu kannu
wearing a or , a fetter (cf. CAD M1 maškannu 5; cf. CAD K kannu Ba).
Stol only interprets the as a fetter made of copper and explains as a ‘footblock’
made of wood (STOL 2004: 811).
Another possibility for the Babylonian people to identify someone as a slave was based on
his/her name. (STOL 2004: 810).

Not all slaves were treated well, nor were all slaves happy with their fate. Evidently, some
18
decided to run away . The runaway of slaves are the only documents created in the OB period
concerning ‘flight’ (SCHNELL 2001: 56). Under no circumstance, the owner of the slave could
decide about the fate of his runaway slave. His/Her punishment had to be decided by the law
court or the king (STOL 2004: 810)
Studying the slave population in the city of Sippar, some general tendencies can be discovered.
Slavery was not prominent in the pre-Samsu-Iluna (cf. supra) era. It existed only on a small scale
in the private sector. According to Harris, it was the ‘institutions’ of Sippar which employed large
numbers of slaves in their workshops (HARRIS 1976: 145). We have to add to this remark that it
is hard to prove this remark according to the studies Sippar texts.
The influx of foreign slaves during the late reign of Samsi-iluna and the following king Abi-Ešuḥ,
might reflect the changing relationships between the owners and the slaves. The contact
between owners and slaves became more impersonal (HARRIS 1976: 146). This idea has been
confirmed by the research of Van Koppen, who mentiones the change of phrasing in the OB slave
sale contracts (Van Koppen 2004 10).

11 76 A d i s c u s s i o n a b o u t t h e i n t e r p r e t a t i on of this word and the possible meanings, is included in this dissertation as
su pInp lseumpepnlte Dm.e nt E some explanation is given about these signs.
18 This problem is one of the topics discussed in Rengers book dealing with ‘Flucht’ during the OB period
(RENGER 1972).

11