From the 21st Century B.C. to the 21st Century A.D.

Proceedings of the International Conference on Neo-Sumerian Studies Held in Madrid, 22–24 July 2010

Steven J. Garfinkle, Manuel Molina

• Publisher: Eisenbrauns
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781575062969
• eBook ISBN: 9781575068718
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Ancient History
• Index: History

This volume collects the proceedings of a three-day conference held in Madrid in July 2010, and it highlights the vitality of the study of late-third-millennium B.C. Mesopotamia. Workshops devoted to the Ur III period have been a feature of the Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale roughly every other year, beginning in London in 2003. In 2009, Steve Garfinkle and Manuel Molina asked the community of Neo-Sumerian scholars to convene the following year in Madrid before the Rencontre in Barcelona. The meeting had more than 50 participants and included 8 topical sessions and 27 papers. The 21 contributions included in this volume cover a broad range of topics: new texts, new interpretations, and new understandings of the language, culture, and history of the Ur III period (2112–2004 B.C.).

The present and future of Neo-Sumerian studies are important not only for the field of Assyriology but also for wider inquiries into the ancient world. The extant archives offer insight into some of the earliest cities and one of the earliest kingdoms in the historical record. The era of the Third Dynasty of Ur is also probably the best-attested century in antiquity. This imposes a responsibility on the small community of scholars who work on the Neo-Sumerian materials to make this it accessible to a broad, interdisciplinary audience in the humanities and related fields. This volume is a solid step in this direction.

Table of contents

• COVER Front
• Table of Contents
• Chapter 1: Ur III as a Linguistic Watershed
• Chapter 2: Sumerian Adjectival Passives Using the *im- Prefix: The Old Babylonian Evidence and Some Possible Third Millennium Precursors
• Chapter 3: Hypotactic and Paratactic Complementation in Sumerian ditilla Texts
• Chapter 4: On the Location of Irisaĝrig
• Chapter 5: The Archive of Iri-Saĝrig /  l-Šarrākī: A Brief Survey
• Chapter 6: Some Considerations on the Management of an Administrative Structure in Ur III Mesopotamia:The Case of mar-sa
• Chapter 7: The Tenure of Provincial Governors: Some Observations
• Chapter 8: Symbols and Bureaucratic Performances in the Ur III Administrative Sphere: An Interpretation Through Data Mining
• Chapter 9: The Third Dynasty of Ur and the Limits of State Power in Early Mesopotamia
• Chapter 10: Networks of Authority and Power in Ur III Times
• Chapter 11: Prince Etel-pū-Dagān, Son of Šulgi
• Chapter 12: The Ur III Administration: Workers, Messengers, and Sons
• Chapter 13: Šulgi Meets Stalin: Comparative Propaganda as a Tool of Mining the Šulgi Hymns for Historical Data
• Chapter 14: The Control of Copper and Bronze Objects in Umma During the Ur III Period
• Chapter 15: Le système après-récolte dans l’hydro-agriculture mésopotamienne à la fin du IIIe millénaire avant notre ère
• Chapter 16: The Barbers of Iri-Saĝrig
• Chapter 17: Absence from Work in Ur III Umma: Reasons and Terminology
• Chapter 18: The Manufacture of a Statue of Nanaja: Mesopotamian Jewellery-Making Techniques at the End of the Third Millennium B.C.
• Chapter 19: Corvée Labor in Ur III Times
• Chapter 20: Ikalla, Scribe of (Wool) Textiles and Linen
• Chapter 21: The Regular Offerings of Lambs and Kids for Deitiesand the é-uz-ga During the Reign of Šulgi:A Study of the mu-TÚM and zi-ga/ba-zi Texts from the Animal Center
• Indices