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Some Assyrians at Sippar in the Old Babylonian Period

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Christopher Walker
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Extract

The trade in tin, textiles, and silver between Ashur and its trading colony Kanesh is by now well known from the partly published archives from Kanesh. While the textiles involved were primarily produced in Ashur itself, a small proportion of them were imported from Babylonia, being described in the texts as “Akkadian textiles”. This link in the trading chain is still scarcely documented in the absence of the trading archives which must be presumed to have existed at Ashur, and probably at Sippar. The Babylonians themselves were actively involved in the trade, as is shown by the well-known but still inadequately published letter VAT 9249, referring to the absence of the Akkadians and their textiles from Ashur because of a revolt in their country.

From its geographical position the city of Sippar must have occupied a focal position in trading relations between Babylonia and the kingdoms to the north and north-west. It naturally figures in the Old Babylonian itinerary from Larsa to Emar. Some years ago W. F. Leemans summarised the evidence for trading relations between Sippar and Assyria and the Middle Euphrates and for Sippar's involvement in the trade in tin in the reverse direction from Ashur to Babylonia.

Type
Research Article
Information
Anatolian Studies , Volume 30 , December 1980 , pp. 15 - 22
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute at Ankara 1980

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References

1 Larsen, M. T., The Old Assyrian City-state and its colonies (Copenhagen, 1976) 87 and 89Google Scholar; Veenhof, K. R., Aspects of Old Assyrian trade and its terminology (Leiden, 1972) 98–103 and 158–159Google Scholar.

2 Larsen, op. cit. 87 n. 8; Veenhof, op. cit. 98.

3 Goetze, A., “An Old Babylonian itinerary’, JCS 7 (1953) 51–72Google Scholar; Hallo, W. W., “The road to Emar”, JCS 18 (1964), 57–88Google Scholar.

4 Leemans, W. F., Foreign trade in the Old Babylonian period (Leiden, 1960) 98–110 (also p. 96–98Google Scholar, CT 6 19b).

5 Leemans, W. F., JESHO 11 (1968) 201–214Google Scholar.

6 Kraus, F. R., AbB VII (Leiden, 1977) nos. 1Google Scholar (Halab), 11 and 15 (Ekallatum), 76 (Ashur), 145 (Emar). See also Dalley, S. M., The Old Babylonian tablets from Tell Rimah (London, 1976) no. 134 (Karana)Google Scholar.

7 In this article I do not distinguish between Abu Habbah (Sippar proper) and Tell ed-Der (one of its suburbs).

8 Gelb, I. J., “A tablet of unusual type from Tell Asmar”, JNES 1 (1942) 219–226Google Scholar.

9 Larsen, op. cit. 47 n. 76; Donbaz, V. in Florilegium Anatolicum (Festschrift, E. Laroche, Paris, 1979) 106Google Scholar. Ni 395 has now been published in transliteration by Kraus, F. R., Ab B V (Leiden, 1972) no. 156Google Scholar. He comments on its possible origin in Ashur and its Old Assyrian form of address, with some reservations about its writing and grammar. PBS 1/2 1, which forms part of the same correspondence, also has an Old Assyrian form of address; its envelope, PBS 7 1Google Scholar, is sealed with a seal of peripheral Old Babylonian style (see PBS 7 pl. XCVII) in some respects comparable to seals on Old Assyrian tablets (e.g. CCT VI pl. 54 no. 54), and its inscription dub PN a-na PN differs from the normal Old Babylonian envelope (only a-na PN), although AbB II 160Google Scholar, a-na PN dub PN, is comparable.

10 IM 49309: Edzard, D. O., TIM 7 (Wiesbaden, 1971) no. 190Google Scholar, and Tell ed-Der (Munchen, 1970) 187–188 no. 190Google Scholar. See previously Leemans, W. F., Foreign Trade 101–102Google Scholar.

11 BM 97050 = 1902–10–11, 104 = Frankena, R., AbB II (Leiden, 1966) no. 155Google Scholar.

12 Kindly checked for me by Professor E. Leichty. Cf. W. F. Leemans, op. cit. 100–101.

13 JESHO 11 (1968) 179–180 and 199Google Scholar.

14 Kraus, F. R., AbB VII nos. 12–16Google Scholar.

15 D. O. Edzard, Tell ed-Der no. 152, 9.

16 CT 8, la, 22 and 4a, 23.

17 Some Old Babylonian letters from this collection are published in CT 29 and 33 (and Frankena, R., AbB IIGoogle Scholar), numbered between 97031 and 97816.

18 For previous discussion of the term see Kraus, F. R., Ein Edikt des Konigs Ammiṣaduqa (Leiden, 1958) 63 n. 1Google Scholar, Edzard, D. O., Tell ed-Der 147Google Scholar, and K. R. Veenhof, op. cit. 111.

19 On the alternative forms ilteqe and melqēt see D. O. Edzard, op. cit. 29–30 and 149–150.

20 Otherwise for the redemption of property or people held on mortgage or in debt slavery.

21 On the Level Ib colony at Kanesh see Balkan, K., Observations on the chronological problems of the Kārum Kaniš (Ankara, 1955) 41–43Google Scholar, Orlin, L. L., Assyrian colonies in Cappadocia (The Hague, 1970CrossRefGoogle Scholar), and M. T. Larsen, op. cit. 52–53.