FAMILY DECEASED ESTATE DIVISION AGREEMENTS FROM OLD BABYLONIAN LARSA ...

902 Pages·2013·12.46 MB·English

FAMILY DECEASED ESTATE DIVISION AGREEMENTS
FROM OLD BABYLONIAN
LARSA, NIPPUR AND SIPPAR

by

SUSANDRA JACOBA CLAASSENS

submitted in accordance with the requirements for
the degree of

DOCTOR OF LITERATURE AND PHILOSOPHY

in the subject

ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN STUDIES

at the

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA

PROMOTER: PROF PS VERMAAK

NOVEMBER 2012
DECLARATION OF MY OWN WORK

I, Susandra Jacoba Claassens declares that the “Family deceased estate division agreements
from Old Babylonian Larsa, Nippur and Sippar” is my own work and that all the sources that
I have used or quoted have been indicated and acknowledged by means of complete
references.

Signed at Pretoria on the 30th day of April 2013.

_____________________________________
Susandra Jacoba Claassens

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ABSTRACT

In most cases in a deceased person’s estate, there are problems with co-ownership where
more than one family member inherits the deceased family estate assets. To escape the perils
of co-ownership the beneficiaries consensually agree to divide the inherited communally-
shared asset/s. This agreement can take place immediately after the death of the family
estate owner or some time later regarding some or all of the said assets. On the conclusion of
the division agreement, the contractual party who receives the awarded assets enjoys sole
ownership and the other contractual parties by agreement retract their ownership. In a
jurisprudential content analysis of forty-six recorded family deceased division agreements
from Old Babylonian Larsa and Nippur, essential elements are identified which are the
framework and qualification requirements for a family deceased division agreement. Within
this framework the concepts, terms and elements of the agreement are categorised as natural
and incidental elements, which reflect the specific law traditions and choices of contractual
parties and show the unique scribal traditions in the different Old Babylonian city-states of
Larsa, Nippur and Sippar. The aim of the study is to shed a more focused light on the
interpretation of recorded Old Babylonian division agreements and to show that the division
agreement was a successful, timeless, estate administration mechanism and tool to obviate
any undesirable consequences of co-ownership of the bequeathed property.

Keywords:

Ancient Near Eastern Law, Mesopotamian Law, Old Babylonian Law, Cuneiform Studies,
division agreements, redistribution agreements, partition agreements, allotments, inheritance
share, inheritance, co-ownership, preference share, “first-born” share, “heart is satisfied”,
“from straw to gold”, cuneiform agreements, Old Babylonian contracts, Mesopotamian
contracts, methodology

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To my son

LOUIS CLAASSENS

Thank you for your patience and unconditional love

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

A special thanks to my husband, Pierre van Wyk whose love inspires and encourages me and
constantly reminds me of the final rewards of my labour. Thank you for your kind assistance
in the final editing of the thesis. Thank you for your constant support and encouragement;
lending a shoulder to cry on, especially in the last stages of my thesis.

Thank you to my family and friends, especially my son Louis, for their support through these
years. Words alone cannot express what I owe them for their encouragement and patient
love, which enabled me to complete this thesis.

I am also indebted to Corrie Claassens for the house drawing in the methodology chapter.

Thank you to Professor Fanie Vermaak who not only served as my promoter but also
challenged me throughout my academic program. He guided me through the thesis process,
never accepting less than my best efforts.

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

List of abbreviations commonly used by scholars of ancient Near Eastern studies.

Abbreviation English description
ANE Ancient Near East/Eastern
CAD Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental
Institute of the University of Chicago
ETCSL Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian
Literature
OB Old Babylonia/Babylonian
PSD Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary

Mesopotamian cuneiform collections / law collections / law codes.

Abbreviation English description
LE laws of Ešnunna
LH laws of Ḫammu-rāpi
LL laws of Lipit-Ištar
LU laws of Ur-Nammu
MAL Middle Assyrian laws

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TABLE OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES

Old Babylonian Units Approximate present-day values
1 area sar = 1 rod square 36 m2
1 volume sar = 1 area sar x 1 cubit 18 m3
1 (ubu) = 50 sar 1800 m2 or 900 m3
1 (iku) = 2 ubu = 140 sar 3600 m2 or 1800 m3
1 (eše) = 6 iku 2.16 ha or 108,000 m3
1 (búr ) = 3 eše 6.48 ha or 324,000 m3
1 (sar) = 6 bur'u 388.8 ha

(Powell (1987); Robson (2007); http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/dcinchest/metrology.html.
Cited 29 January 2007).

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VOLUME 1
PART A & B

TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION OF MY OWN WORK ................................................................................................................... I
ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................................................ II
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................................................. IV
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................................................................. V
TABLE OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES ............................................................................................................. VI
TABLE OF CONTENTS ..................................................................................................................................... VII
CHAPTER ONE .................................................................................................................................................. 1
INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................... 1
1.1 BACKGROUND INFORMATION ..................................................................................................................... 1
1.1.1 Different terms or expressions assigned to the family division agreement .................................... 1
1.1.2 What is an Old Babylonian family deceased division agreement? An example .............................. 2
1.2 RESEARCH QUESTIONS ............................................................................................................................. 3
1.2.1 What is a division agreement? ....................................................................................................... 4
1.2.2 Uniqueness of the agreement ......................................................................................................... 5
1.2.3 Different law practices and legal traditions .................................................................................... 5
1.2.5 Scribal school traditions: recording of the division agreement ....................................................... 6
1.2.6 Comparison of different division agreements in Old Babylonian Larsa, Sippar and Nippur (new
perspectives?)................................................................................................................................................ 7
1.3 HYPOTHESIS ................................................................................................................................................. 7
1.4 SOURCES .................................................................................................................................................... 10
1.4.1 Primary sources............................................................................................................................. 10
1.4.2 Secondary sources......................................................................................................................... 11
1.5 METHODOLOGY ......................................................................................................................................... 13
1.6 DELINEATION OF STUDY ............................................................................................................................ 16
1.7 FRAMEWORK OF THESIS ......................................................................................................................... 17
PART A ........................................................................................................................................................... 21
INTRODUCTORY SECTION: ASPECTS OF OLD BABYLONIAN LIFE ..................................................................... 21
PROLOGUE ..................................................................................................................................................... 21
CHAPTER TWO ............................................................................................................................................... 23
CHARACTERISTICS OF ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIAN (OLD BABYLONIAN) LEGAL TRADITIONS ........................... 23
2.1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................................... 23
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2.2 SOURCES OF PERFORMATIVE LEGAL TRADITIONS .................................................................................. 24
2.3 PROBLEMS WITH INTERPRETATION OF RECORDED LEGAL TRADITIONS TEXTS ...................................... 27
2.4 NATURE AND CHARACTERISTICS OF PERFORMATIVE LEGAL TRADITIONS .............................................. 29
2.4.1 Non-specialisation ........................................................................................................................ 30
2.4.2 Religious impact ............................................................................................................................ 31
2.4.3 Kingship and institutional enforcement ........................................................................................ 34
2.4.4 Social or group orientation ........................................................................................................... 35
2.4.5 Concrete nature of legal acts ........................................................................................................ 39
2.4.6 Status quo/static nature of legal traditions .................................................................................. 41
2.4.7 Openness....................................................................................................................................... 45
2.5 CONCLUSIONS ........................................................................................................................................ 46
CHAPTER THREE ............................................................................................................................................. 51
AGRICULTURAL AND ARCHITECTURAL ASPECTS ............................................................................................. 51
3.1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................................... 51
3.2 OLD BABYLONIAN CITY LIFE AND LANDSCAPE ........................................................................................ 52
3.2.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 52
3.2.2 Old Babylonian landscape and agricultural factors ...................................................................... 53
3.2.3 Old Babylonian city life and house structures ............................................................................... 55
3.3 PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS OF FAMILY DECEASED DIVISION AGREEMENTS ............................................ 59
3.4 EXAMPLES OF PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS OF CITY LIFE AND LANDSCAPE ELEMENTS ............................. 62
3.4.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 62
3.4.2 Division agreement between the brothers Enlil-mansum (eldest brother), Ṭab-balaṭu, Ur-ukuga
and Enlil-glazu ............................................................................................................................................ 62
3.4.3 -imguranni, Tarîbum and Anu-pî-dIlabrat (N1) .. 67
3.4.3.1 Background information ..................................................................................................................... 67
3.4.3.2 Outline of paternal assets distributed between beneficiaries ............................................................ 68
3.4.4 Division agreement between the brothers Bêlessunu and Hiššâ u (L2) ................................... 71
3.4.4.1 Background information ............................................................................................................................. 71
3.4.4.2 Outline of paternal assets distributed between beneficiaries of the estate by means of exchange .......... 72
3.4.5 Three recorded division agreements regarding one oral agreement (S11, S12 and S13) ........... 72
3.4.5.1 Background information ............................................................................................................................. 72
3.4.5.2 Outline of paternal estate assets distributed .............................................................................................. 73
3.5 CONCLUSIONS ........................................................................................................................................ 73
CHAPTER FOUR .............................................................................................................................................. 79
OLD BABYLONIAN SCRIBAL SCHOOL TRADITIONS .......................................................................................... 79
4.1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................................... 79
4.2 RELEVANCE AND MEANING OF RECORDINGS ON OBJECTS IN ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA ....................... 81
4.3 PRACTICAL AND THEORETICAL MECHANISMS OF FAMILY DECEASED DIVISION AGREEMENT RELATING
TO SCRIBAL SCHOOL TRADITIONS .................................................................................................................... 83
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4.4 DEVELOPMENT OF SCRIBAL SCHOOLS .................................................................................................... 88
4.5 DIFFERENT APPROACHES IN THE STUDY OF SCRIBAL SCHOOLS .............................................................. 89
4.5.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 89
4.5.2 Traditional approach.................................................................................................................... 90
4.5.3 Physical tablets rather than the text approach............................................................................. 92
4.5.4 Archaeological evidence ............................................................................................................... 93
4.6 PRACTICAL FUNCTION OF SCRIBAL SCHOOLS ......................................................................................... 96
4.6.1 A šu ....................................................................................................................................... 96
4.6.2 Student-scribes (male and/or female) .......................................................................................... 97
4.7 SCRIBAL SCHOOLS: NIPPUR AND SIPPAR ................................................................................................... 99
4.7.1 Scribal Schools: Nippur ...................................................................................................................... 99
4.7.2 Scribal Schools: Sippar ..................................................................................................................... 101
4.8 CONCLUSIONS ......................................................................................................................................... 102
PART B ......................................................................................................................................................... 105
CORE SECTION: CONTENT ANALYSIS AND TYPOLOGICAL COMPARISON STUDY OF FAMILY DECEASED
DIVISION AGREEMENTS OF OLD BABYLONIAN LARSA, SIPPAR AND NIPPUR ................................................ 105
PROLOGUE ................................................................................................................................................... 105
CHAPTER FIVE .............................................................................................................................................. 107
ANALYSIS-MODEL ........................................................................................................................................ 107
5.1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................... 107
5.2 DIFFERENT METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES ..................................................................................... 110
5.3 PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF A FAMILY DIVISION AGREEMENT IN A DECEASED ESTATE ...................... 117
5.4 MOTIVATION FOR AN ANALYSIS-MODEL .............................................................................................. 120
5.5 ANALYSIS-MODEL OF A DIVISION AGREEMENT .................................................................................... 122
5.5.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 122
5.5.2 Essential elements ........................................................................................................................... 124
5.5.2.1 E1 Family connection of beneficiaries ....................................................................................................... 124
5.5.2.2 E 2 Deceased estate owner ....................................................................................................................... 125
5.5.2.3 E 3 Estate Assets ........................................................................................................................................ 125
5.5.2.4 E 4 Mutual Consent ................................................................................................................................... 126
5.5.2.5 E 5 Raison d’être ....................................................................................................................................... 126
5.5.3 Natural elements of an oral division agreement recorded in a written agreement ....................... 127
5.5.3.1 Nat 1 adoption/support - clause ............................................................................................................... 128
5.5.3.2 Nat 2 bringing in - clause ........................................................................................................................... 128
5.5.3.3 Nat 3 division by lots/in good will - clause ................................................................................................ 128
5.5.3.4 Nat 4 heart is satisfied - clause .................................................................................................................. 129
5.5.3.5 Nat 5 as much as there is/completely divided/from straw to gold - clause .............................................. 129
5.5.3.6 Nat 6 no claim - clause .............................................................................................................................. 129
5.5.3.7 Nat 7 oath in temple/oath - clause ........................................................................................................... 130
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