Entrepreneurs and Empire: The Murašû Archive, the Murašû Firm, and Persian Rule in Babylonia

340 Pages·1985·20.504 MB·English

by  Stolper, M. W.

ENTREPRENEURS AND EMPIRE
The M urasu Archive, the M urasu Firm,
and Persian Rule in Babylonia
by
MATTHEW W. STOLPER
NEDERLANDS HISTORISCH-ARCHAEOLOGISCH INSTITUUT
TE ISTANBUL
1985
©Copyright 1985 by
Nederlands Instituut voor bet Nabije Oosten
Witte Singel 24
P.B. 9515
2300 RA LEIDEN
NEDERLAND
All rights reserved, including the right to translate or
to produce this book or parts thereof in any form
l.S.B.N. 90 6258 054 8
Printed in Belgium
To Toni Stolper,
on her ninety-fifth birthday

CONTENTS
page
ILLUSTRATIONS. XI
TABLES . XII
ABBREVIATIONS. XIII
PREFACE. XIX
I. ACHAEMENID BABYLONIA, THE MURASU ARCHIVE, AND THE MURASU FIRM
Achaemenid Babylonia . . . . . 2
The Murasu Archive . . . . . . II
Dispersal, Publication, and Study . II
Complementary Sources 15
Classical Authors 15
Aramaic Records 16
Royal Inscriptions 17
Achaemenid Elamite Tablets. 17
The M urasu Firm . 18
Personnel . . . . . . 18
The Murasu Family. . 18
Agents and Subordinates . 20
Temporal Range 23
Geographical Range . . . 24
Land Tenure . . . . . . 24
The Business of the Murasu Firm . 27
Purpose and Reference of the Archive 28
Prospect . . . 31
·II. TENURE AND MANAGEMENT: CROWN PROPERTIES AND CANALS 36
Crown Properties and Canals 36
The Management of Canals 37
Canal Managers. . . . 38
Ma8ennu Officials . . . 45
The Canal Management and the Murasu Firm 49
III. TENURE AND MANAGEMENT: LANDED ESTATES 52
The Crown Prince's Estate . . 54
Gardu and Associated Terms 56
Bit Umasupitru . . . 59
x
CONTENTS
The Queen's Estate 62
Parysatis . 63
Adam .... 64
Landed Princes . 66
Miscellaneous Estates. 67
Summary ... 68
IV. TENURE AND MANAGEMENT: THE !JATRUS 70
The Word ~a{ru (~adru) . 71
Names ... 72
Suslinu . . . 79
Management. . . . . . 82
Foreman and .lfa{ru-Stable Connections. 83
Foreman and .lfa{ru-Unstable Connections . 85
Subordinate Foremen . . . . . . 88
SuJlinus of the Storehouse/Treasury 89
Army Scribes . . . . . 93
Estate of Itti-Samas-balatu . 95
Equerry's Estate . . . . . 95
.lfa{rus-General Characterizations . 97
Guilds?. . . . . . . 97
Military Colonies . . . 98
Embedded Corporations . 99
Survey of Tenure and Management . 100
V. CREDIT AND POLITICAL CHANGE . . • 104
Credit . . . . . . . . . . . 104
"Mortgages": Form and Terminology 104
Distribution . . . . . 107
Political Change . . . . 114
The Rise to Power of Darius II 114
Chronology . . . . . . . 116
First Hypothesis: Hedging . . 120
Second Hypothesis: The System at Work 122
VI. RENTAL COSTS AND THE ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT 125
Rental Costs. 125
Land 126
Animals and Equipment . 128
Canals . . . . 130
Environment. . . . . . 133
Land Costs, Yields, and Profitability . 134
Supply and Cost of Livestock . . . 140
CONTENTS XI
Costs and Environment: Appraisal . 142
Fiscal Policy and the Circulation of Silver . 143
Rents . . . . 146
Taxes . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Summary: Economic and Political Environment. 150
VII. THE EMPIRE AND THE ARCHIVE • • . . 152
APPENDIX I. EXCAVATION AND IDENTIFICATION OF THE ARCHIVE . . . . . 157
Reports of John Henry Haynes on the Excavation of Tablets in
May-June, 1893. . . . . . 161
Extracts from Haynes's Diary . 161
Extracts from Haynes's Journal . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Extract from Haynes's Letter to John Punnet Peters, June 3, 1893. 166
Extract from Haynes's Letter to John Punnet Peters, July 2, 1893 . 166
APPENDIX II. TEXTS FROM THE MURASU ARCHIVE IN THE UNIVERSITY
MUSEUM AND THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 169
Selected Texts . . 169
Transliterations . 231
Indexes. . . . 284
Personal Names 284
Place Names . 302
Canal Names . 303
Appellatives . 304
Museum Numbers 305
Unpublished Texts. 307
INDEXES . . • . • • 309
Texts Cited . . 309
Words Discussed 316
General . . . 318
ILLUSTRATIONS
page
Figure 1. Babylonia and western Iran: major sites of Achaemenid times . 3
Figure 2. Babylonian and Achaemenid rulers . . . . . 4
Figure 3. All dated Murasu texts: number of texts by year 108
Figure 4. Rentals to the Murasus . . 110
Figure 5. Rentals from the Murasus . 110
Figure 6. Receipts for tax payments . 110
XII CONTENTS
Figure 7. Receipts for rent payments. 110
Figure 8. Leases and receipts . 111
Figure 9. Mortgages . . . . . . . . . . 112
Figure 10. Mortgages of Darius II's first year, by month 113
Figure 11. Mortgages of all other years, by month . . . . . . . . 113
Figure 12. The topography of Nippur and the location of modern excavations 160
Figure 13. Drawing accompanying Haynes's letter to Peters, July 2, 1893. 167
TABLES
page
Table 1. Neo-Babylonian Units of Measure and Metric Equivalents 128
Table 2. Rental Costs of Animals and Equipment. 129
Table 3. Unit Prices of Leases Without Canals . 131
Table 4. Unit Prices of Leases With Canals . . . 132
Table 5. Ratios of Barley-Rent to Barley-Seed . . 136
Table 6. Coefficients of Yields in Texts from Sippar . 137
Table 7. Oxen, Seed, and Area . . . . . 139
Table 8. Incidence of Surcharge (mandattu) . . . 141
ABBREVIATIONS
Bibliographical Abbreviations
and Text Sigla
ABAW Abhandlungen der Bayerischen Akademie der
Wissenschaften, philosophisch-historische Klasse
(Munich)
Acta Antiqua Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae
AfO Archiv fiir Orientforschung
AHDO+RIDA Archives d'histoire du droit orientale et Revue inter
nationale du droit d'antiquite
AHw. Wolfram von Soden, Akkadisches Handworter
buch (Wiesbaden, 1959-1981)
AJSL American Journal ofS emitic Languages and Litera
tures
=
AMI Archaeologische Mitteilungen aus Iran
ANET Ancient Near Eastern Texts relating to the Old
Testament, edited by James B. Pritchard, 3rd edi
tion (Princeton, New Jersey, 1969)
Annali . . . Pisa Annali de/la Scuo/a Normale Superiore di Pisa,
Series III
AnS t Anatolian Studies
AoF Altorientalische Forschungen
AOS American Oriental Series (New Haven)
AS Assyriological Studies (Chicago)
Augapfel Julius Augapfel, Babylonische Rechtsurkunden aus
der Regierungszeit Artaxerxes I. und Darius II.,
Kaiserliche Akademie der Wissenschaften in
Wien, philosophisch-historische Klasse, Denk
schriften, 59, 3 (1917)
BASOR Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Re
search
BE The Babylonian Expedition of the University of
Pennsylvania, Series A: Cuneiform Texts (Phila
delphia)
BiMes Bibliotheca Mesopotamica (Malibu, California)
BiO r Bibliotheca Orienta/is
BM tablets in the collection of the British Museum
Bogaert Banque Raymond Bogaert, Les origines antiques de la
banque de depot (Leiden, 1966)
Borger Esarh. Rykle Borger, Die /nschriften Asarhaddons, Konigs
von Assyrien, Archiv fiir Orientforschung Beiheft 6
(1956)
XIV ABBREVIATIONS
CAD The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of
The University of Chicago, edited by I. J. Gelb,
A. Leo Oppenheim et al. (Chicago and Gliick
stadt, 1956~)
Cam b. Johann Nepomucen Strassmaier, Inschriften von
Cambyses, Konig von Babylon, Babylonische
Texte, VIII-IX (Leipzig, 1890)
Cardascia, "Le fief' Guillaume Cardascia, "Le fief dans la Babylonie
achemenide", pp. 57-88 in Les liens de vassalite et
les immunites, Recueils de la Societe Jean Bodin 1,
2nd edition (Brussels, 1958)
Cardascia Murasu Guillaume Cardascia, Les archives des Mura§u,
a
une Jami/le d'hommes d'affaires l'epoque perse
(455-403 av. J.-C.) (Paris, 1951)
CBS tablets in the Collections of the Babylonian Sec
tion of the University Museum, Philadelphia
Clay, "Aramaic Indorsements" Albert T. Clay, "Aramaic Indorsements on the
Documents of the MurashU Sons", pp. 287-321 in
Old Testament and Semitic Studies in Memory of
William Rainey Harper, edited by R. F. Harper et
al. (Chicago, 1908)
Coquerillat Palmeraies Denise Cocquerillat, Palmeraies et cultures de
l'Eanna d'Uruk (559-520), Ausgrabungen der
Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft in Uruk
Warka 8 (Berlin, 1968)
CT Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets in the
British Museum (London)
Cyr. Johann Nepomucen Strassmaier, Inschriften von
Cyrus, Konig von Babylon, Babylonische Texte,
VII (Leipzig, 1890)
DAFI Cahiers de la Delegation archeo/ogique fran~aise en
Iran
Dandamayev, "Achaemenid Muhammad A. Dandamayev, "Achaemenid Ba
Babylonia" bylonia'', pp. 296-311 in Ancient Mesopotamia
Socio-Economic History, edited by I. M. Diako
noff (Moscow, 1969)
Dandamayev, "Foreign Slaves" Muhammad A. Dandamayev, "Foreign Slaves on
the Estates of the Achaemenid Kings and their
Nobles", printed separatim from XXV Interna
tional Congress of Orientalists, Papers presented by
the U.S.S.R. Delegation (Moscow, 1960).
Dar. Johann Nepomucen Stras~maier, Inschriften von
Darius, Konig von Babylon, Babylonische Texte,
X-XI (Leipzig, 1897)
DB trilingual inscription of Darius I at Bisitun
(Behistan)
=
DLZ Deutsche Literaturzeitung
DNc trilingual inscription of Darius I at Naqs-e
Rustam