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  2. Land Tenure and Social Stratification in Ancient Mesopotamia: Third millennium Sumer before the Ur III dynasty

Land Tenure and Social Stratification in Ancient Mesopotamia: Third millennium Sumer before the Ur III dynasty

Eric L Cripps 2007 © BAR Publishing
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In this work, the author reconstructs the Mesopotamian land tenure system as it may have existed at or near the beginning of history. The major focus is on the texts from Souruppak, which are the first that can be comprehended reasonably well. These are supported by detailed analysis of two later archives, the more recent of which is Sargonic. Altogether, the substantive study period covers about four hundred years in the middle of the third millennium. Introductory consideration is given to Sumerian Mesopotamia from the end of the fourth millennium until about 2200 in the Old Akkadian period and identifies some components of the tenure system during this time. The chronological focus of the study is extended to provide a broader sweep through the history of urbanisation on the alluvial plains of the Euphrates to provide a context for the development of irrigation, associated agricultural land and its tenure. The research is concerned with the city-states of the area known for the latter part of this period as ki-en-gi, the limits of which regularly varied with the shifting channels of the Tigris to the east and the Euphrates to the west. The texts, which are the database of this study, originate from Souruppak towards the south and Nippur and Isin in the north of Sumer. The primary evidence for types of land tenure in third millennium Sumer is adduced from cuneiform text archives from Early Dynastic Souruppak (Fara), pre- or early Sargonic Isin and Nippur of the classical Sargonic period. These archives are, arguably, administrative and economic records from palace, temple and private households. The study incorporates and emphasises transactions concerning real property from the genre of texts usually represented as sale documents or sale contracts. A principal and essential objective is to integrate these sale documents or contracts with administrative records related to land in a reconstruction of the tenure system. It is almost entirely the case that this synthesis has been absent from studies of sale contracts.
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Series
  • BAR pre-2020
  • BAR International Series pre-2020
ISBN(s)
  • 9781407301136 (paperback)
  • 9781407331539 (ebook)
BAR Number
  • S1676
Subject
  • Neolithic / Chalcolithic
  • Death / Burial / Cemeteries / Tombs
  • Trade / Exchange / Travel / Economy
  • Central and Eastern Europe
  • Ethnoarchaeology / Anthropology
  • Agriculture / Farming / Husbandry / Land-use / Irrigation
  • Ritual / Religion / Temples
  • Epigraphy / Ancient and Medieval Texts / Papyri
  • Bronze Age and Iron Age
Citable Link
  • Table of Contents

  • Stats

  • Front Cover
  • Title Page
  • Copyright
  • Dedication
  • CONTENTS
  • FIGURES
  • TABLES
  • PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  • ABBREVIATIONS
  • 1. PRELIMINARIES, ANTECEDENTS, AND HYPOTHESIS
  • 2. LAND TENURE AND THE COMMUTATION OF THE SERVICE OBLIGATION
  • 3. AN INSTITUTIONAL DEMENSE AND DEPENDENT LAND TENURE IN PRE-SARGONIC ISIN
  • 4. THE RUDIMENTS OF A TENURE SYSTEM "AT THE DAWN OF HISTORY": THE CASE OF THE EARLY DYNASTIC SURUPPAK
  • 5. EXCURSUS: THE LAND TRANSFERS OF ED HIB GIRSU/LAGAS
  • 6. THE SOCIAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE DETERMINANTS OF THE LAND TENURE SYSTEM IN ED IIIa SURUPPAK
  • 7. THE SUMERIAN SYSTEM OF LAND TENURE: SYTHESIS AND CONCLUSIONS
  • NOTES
  • TEXTS APPENDIX
  • INDEXES
  • BIBLIOGRAPHY
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