I
UC-NRLF
BJ
\rB'7
^ V.ONTRIBUTION TO THE STUDY
OF THE MORAL PRACTICES OF
CERTAIN SOCIAL GROUPS
IN ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA
KY
BEATRICE ALLARD BROOKS
A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE FA-
CULTY OF BRYN MAWR COLLEGE IN PARTIAL
FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR
THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
1920
EXCHANGE
i'
A CONTRIBUTION TO THE STUDY
OF THE MORAL PRACTICES OF
CERTAIN SOCIAL GROUPS
IN ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA
BY
BEATRICE ALLARD BROOKS
A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE FA-
CULTY OF BRYN MAWR COLLEGE IN PARTIAL
FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR
THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
1920
PRINTED BY W. DRUGULIN, LEIPZIG
1921
237
.• • •
• • •
• • •
ABBREVIATIONS
ABR Kohler, J. and Peiser, F., Aus dem babyhnischen Rechtsleben,
4 vols., Leipzig 1890.
ADD Johns, C. H. W., Assyrian Deeds and Documents^ 3 vols.,
Cambridge 1901.
AJSL American yournal of Semitic Languages, Chicago.
Arch. & Bib. Barton, G. A., Archaeology and the Bible, Philadelphia 1916.
BA Beitrage zur Assyriologie, edited by F. Delitzsch and Paul
Haupt, Leipzig 1890 — 1894.
Bab. Briefe Ungnad, A., Babylonische Briefe aus der Zeit der Hammurapi-
Dynastie, Leipzig 1914.
BB Zimmem, H., Babylonische Biifipsalmen, Leipzig 1885.
BE Publications of the Babylonian Section ^ University of Penn-
sylvania Museum, Philadelphia 1911 f.
BE (A) Hilprecht, H. V., ed.. The Babylonian Expedition of the Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania, Series A., Philadelphia 1893 till
1 911; Munchen 1913, 1914.
BL Langdon, S., Babylonian Liturgies ^ Paris 1 91 3.
Br. Brunnow, R. E., A Classified Listy Leyden 1889.
BN Botta, P. E., Monument de Ninive, 5 vols., Paris 1847 — 1850.
CEBK King, L. W., ed., Chronicles concerning Early Babylonian
Kings, 2 vols., London 1907.
C. T. Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian tablets in the British Mu-
seum, London 1896 — 1914.
Cun. Par. to O. T. Rogers, R. W., Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament,
New York 1912.
D^c. De Sarzec, E., Dicouvertes en Chaldie, Paris 1884 f.
DeClercq DeClercq, M.. Collection DeClercq Catalogue Mhhodique et
RaisonnSf 3 vols, 1888—1911.
D61. Scheil, W., ed., Diligation en Perse Vol. IV., Paris 1902.
EBH Radau, H,, Early Babylonian History, New York 1900.
Ham. Laws Harper, R. F., The Code of Hammurabi, Chicago 1904.
Ham. Letters King, L. W., The Letters and Inscriptions of Hammurabi,
3 vols., London 1898—1900.
Hilp. Ann. Vol. Hilprecht, H. V., Anniversary Volume; Studies in Assyriology
and Archaeology, Leipzig 1909.
HLC Barton, G. A., Haverford Library Collection of Cuneiform
Tablets, 3 vols., Philadelphia 1905 — 1914.
HWB Delitzsch, F., Assyrisches Handworterbuch, Leipzig 1896.
Invent, de Tello Thureau-Dangin, F., Inventaire des Tablettes de Tello, 2 vols..
Paris 1910—1911.
AGS Journal of the American Oriental Society, New Haven.
4C9061
4 —
Jastrow, Civilization
JBL
Johns Bab. & Ass.
J. P. Morgan
JR
JSOR
KAT3
KB
King. Hist. Bab.
King Hist. Sumer
KU
Lay
Lindl
M
MA
MAP
MBI
Mess. Keil. hist.
Meyer, Sum. und Sem.
OBI
OBW
OLZ
PSBA
R
RA
Reisner Hymnen
RT
SAK
Jastrow, M., The Civilization of Babylonia and Assyria,
Philadelphia 191 5.
Journal of Biblical Literature, New Haven.
Johns, C. H. W., Babylonian and Assyrian Laws, Con-
tracts^ and Letters, New York 1904.
J. P. Morgan Collection. Babylonian Records in the Li
brary of J. P. Morgan, 3 vols., New York 191 2 — 1916.
Jastrow, M., Die Religion Babyloniens und Assyriens^
2 vols., GieCien 1905.
yournal of the Society of Oriental Research, Chicago.
Zimmem, H., Die Keilinschrijten und das Alte Testament,
3. Auflage, Berlin 1902 — 1903.
Schrader, E., ed., Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek, 6 vols.,
Berlin 1889—1900.
King, L. W., History of Babylonia, New York 1915.
King, L. W., History of Sumer and Akkad, New York 1910.
Kohler, J. and Reiser, F., Hammurabi's Gesetz, 5 vols.,
Leipzig 1904 — 1 91 1.
Layard, A. H., Inscriptions in the Cuneiform Character,
London 185 1.
Lindl, E., Das Priester- und Beamtentum der altbabylo-
nischen Kontrakte, Paderborn 1 91 3.
Meifiner, B., Seltene assyrische Ideogramme, Leipzig 1910.
Mufi-Arnolt, W., A Concise Dictionary of the Assyrian
Language, Berlin 1905.
MeiCner, B,, Beitrage zum Altbabylonischen Privatrecht,
Leipzig 1893.
Barton, G. A., Miscellaneous Babylonian Inscriptions^
New Haven 1918.
Messerschmidt, L., Keilschrifttexte aus Assur, hislorischen
Inhalts, 19 II.
Meyer, E., Sufnerier und Semiten in Babylonien, Berlin
1906.
Hilprecht, H. V., Old Babybnian Inscriptions, Trans-
actions of American Philosophical Society, Vol. XVIII,
1896.
Barton, G. A., Origin and Development of Babylonian
Writing, 2 vols., Baltimore 1913.
Orientalistische Liter aturteitung^ Leipzig.
Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, London.
Rawlinson, Sir H., The Cuneiform Inscriptions of West, rn
Asia, 5 vols.. London 1861 — 1884.
Revue d' Assyriologie et d' Arc/Uologie Or lent ale, Paris.
Reisner, G., Sumerisch-Babylonische Hymnen, Berlin 1896.
Craig, J. A., Assyrian and Babylonian Religions Texts,
2 vols., Leipzig 1895.
Thureau-Dangin, F., Die Sumerischen und Akkadischen
Konigschrijten, Leipzig 1907.
5 —
Schorr
SCWA
Studien
Tam. & Ish.
TD
Toy. Vol.
VAT
vs
WZKM
YBT
ZA
ZDMG
Schorr, M., Urkunden des aUbabylonischen Zivil- und Proze^rechts,
Leipzig 1913.
Ward, W. H., Seal Cylinders of Western Asia, Washington 19 10.
Frank, C, Studien zur Babybnischen Religion, Leipzig 191 1.
Langdon, S., Tatnmuz and Ishtar, Oxford 1914.
Thureau-Dangin, F., Lettres et contracts de Pipoque de la Premiere
Dynastie Babylonienne, Paris 1 910.
Studies in the History of Religions, presented to C. H. Toy by
his pupils, New York 1912.
Vorderasiatische Abteilung der Konigltchen Muse en zu Berlin.
Vorderasiatische Schriftdenkmdkr der Koniglichen Museen zu Berlin,
Leipzig.
Wiener Zeitschrift fUr die Kunde des Morgenlandes, Wien.
Yale Oriental Series, Babylonian Texts^ New Haven.
Zeitschrift fur Assyriologie , StraCburg.
Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenldndischen Gesellschaft^ Leipzig.
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2007 with funding from
Microsoft Corporation
http://www.archive.org/details/contributiontostOObroorich
A CONTRIBUTION TO THE STUDY
OF THE MORAL PRACTICES OF CERTAIN
SOCIAL GROUPS IN ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA
a
The Sumerian and Akkadian peoples were little concerned
with speculative ethics. The approach to the study of the
moral ideals of a society now merely historical, our knowledge
of which is based on scattered and all too insufficient records,
must be a sociological one. Yet sociological development and
moral evolution are not identical; for a social structure may
be built up or torn down unwittingly. While the rules evolved
by any society are not necessarily ethical, it is essential to
study varieties of customs, since non-ethical customs are of
value in so far as they affect the standard of conduct of the
group or individual. In the evolution of a people, influenced
as it is by geography, economic conditions, religious concep-
tions, and other forces, it is difficult to trace the moral ele-
ments. The purpose of this dissertation is to select from
Sumerian and Akkadian literature now accessible to us, such
illustrations as seem to indicate most clearly the moral ideals
and practices of the group. We are not here concerned with the
ideals of the individual as such, but shall confine ourselves rather
to customs which reveal some of the principles which regulate
conduct within certain social units, as the nation, the family,
classes of women, slaves. A study of the laws and customs
connected with such groups may serve as a basis for judging
the general moral status of ancient Mesopotamia.*
When we consider the larger unit, the nation, or in early
time, the city-state, we find that the principal activities were
war and commerce. Of these the more important for the study
I It is curious that efforts to study the morality as such have been so few.
Mention should be made of the brief statements of Jastrow in Hebrew and Baby-
lonian Tradition, and Aspects of Religions Belief and Practice in Babylonia and
Assyria. We are indebted to S. A. B. Mercer for having first attempted a
systematic outline of moral practices, published in JSOR and Religious and
Moral Ideas in Babylonia and Assyria.
: r ^ , — 8 —
of morality, and that about which we have the most data, is war.
Aside from accounts of campaigns which fill the royal annals,
we are informed of military organization through the letters
and contracts. That there existed, particularly in Assyria, a
state of society which was continually organized to meet the
exigencies of war furnished by attack or by the ambition of
powerful monarchs, we have evidence from contracts an letters.
Such groups as the Kisru^ and sabe"^ were subject to military
service. Neither with the details of the organization ^ nor with
military tactics as such, are we here concerned, '^ it is sufficient
to note that society was so organized that the demands of war
could be quickly met.
To the Babylonians and Assyrians, war was a natural human
activity. If the country were attacked, it became the divine
duty of the king, acting as the instrument of the gods, to
protect it, and punish the invader by any means that seemed
effective. If a king aspired to enlarge his empire, he could,
provided he had a sufficient following and military ability, march
through the country, conquering town after town, making the
vanquished peoples „submit to his yoke" and „bow down at his
feet". Perhaps it was because of this conception of the com-
monplaceness of war, that the Sumerians and Babylonians
wrote little of their conquests; they considered rather that the
building of temples and palaces, the dedication of boundary
stones and canals were of a more permanent interest than the
details of campaigns. It was left to the Assyrians to furnish
descriptions of military strategy.
That the Sumerians were active in battle, is shown by the
date-lists, the year often being named for the chief event that
occurred in it. Frequently a number of successive years recei-
ved their date from the same event as: „The second year after
the subjection of Kismash''^ or „The fifth year after he con-
1 ADD II S 79, 224 f. King Ham. Lett. Ill No. i.
2 Cf. p. 82—85.
3 Cf. "Das stehende Heer der Assyrerkonige und seine Organisation", ZA
XXIV 97 ff., 185 ff.
< Cf. "Assyrische Kriegfuhntng von Tiglat-pileser I his an/ Samsi-adad IIP\
Marie Pancritius, Dissertation 1904. Also BA III i66ff.
5 HLC Pt. II Tablet ZZ-
— 9 —
quered Isin.'" The military activity of the Sumerians and
Babylonians is also indicated by the warlike epithets which
they, as well as the Assyrians, apply to themselves, at the
beginning of most of the royal annals.
In the early period, disputes over boundary stones furnished
one of the chief causes of war. The so-called „Stele of the
Vultures" of Eannatum, and the Cone of Entemena are records
of such conflicts. Entemena describes the difficulties Mesilim,
King of Kish, had with U§, Patesi of Umma:*
Me-siliin Mesilim,
lugal-kis-ki'ge King of Kish,
10. ka d. Ka-di-na-ta by the command of Kadi, the
exalted,
KU gan-bi-ra at the beginning of his territory
Ki-ba na-ne-ru there he erected a stele.
Us Us,
pa-te-si patesi
1 5. gis-uh-ki.ge of Umma,
nam-enim-ma'dir-dir-su according to evil intentions
e-ag acted.
na-(ru)-a-bi That stele
ni-pad he took away
20. edin Sir-la-pur-ki-su into the territory of Lagash
ni-du he went.
(d.) Nin-gir-su Ningirsu
ur-sag d. En-lil'la-ge the hero of Enlil,
ka'si-di-(ni)-ta according to his (ie. Ningirsu's)
righteous command,
25. gis-uh-^i-da with Umma
dam-ha-ra a battle
e-da-ag he made (ie. Mesilim).
The desire of Mesopotamian monarchs for territorial expan-
sion, naturally led them to wage aggressive warfare. The ne-
cessity of maintaining any army for defense, supplied them
with ready material for the nucleus of powerful forces, when
1 SAK p. 237 (g). See also date lists in HLC, SAK, Ham. Letters, Vol.
Ill p. 212 f. etc.
2 Cone. Col. I f. 8—27. Trans, from Dec. Pt. Ill pi. XL VII. In the trans-
lation of quotations, all previous interpretations have been compared.
— 10 —
the king wished to invade a strongly equipped or distant coun-
try. The royal annals of the great Assyrian kings, especially
those of Ashumazirpal, Sargon II, Sennacherib, Esarhaddon and
Ashurbanipal tell of numerous campaigns into distant countries,
subduing obscure tribes not only for the sake of territorial
expansion, but for the tribute such alliances would add to the
national treasury, a revenue which would make it possible for
the king to build temples, palaces and public works of all kinds
to perpetuate his memory.
Whatever the cause of war, the Sumerians and Akkadians
alike were almost unrelenting in their treatment of conquered
towns. Even in the early period, the policy was to destroy
all property, and carry away anything of value that was por-
table. On a plaque of Urukagina we find the lines :^
10. gis-uh-^i Umma
e-ma-zig he took
kur-kur-ri su-e-ma-tag-tag and devastated the lands.
gan u-gig-ga The field Ugigga,
gan-ki-ag the beloved field
15. d. Nin-gir-zu-ka-ka of Ningirsu,
^' Nin-gir-zu'ge Ningirsu
gis-uh-ki of Umma
zig-ga-bi its glory
ni-ha-lam blotted out.
Likewise Sarru-kin, in a bilingual inscription writes:*
uru uruk ki The city of Uruk
e-hul he smote,
bad-bi its walls
15. e-ga'(f) he destroyed;
lii-uriik ki-ga-da with the people of Uruk
gi^ (tukul) in battle
e-da-sig he fought.
The more vivid and picturesque language of Sargon I's chro-
nicle states his ability to accomplish complete devastation .-3
31 ana ^^^^^ Ka-sal-la against Kasala
I Ovale Plaque Col. IV 1. 10—19 Trans, from Dec. Pt. Ill PI. L.
* Col. I 1. 12—20 Trans, from Poebel BE IV (i); p. 173; BE V pi. XX,
Akkadian Text.
3 Chronicle Obv. IX 1. 31—34, CEBK Vol. II p. 33.
— II —
32. il-ltku(ku) -ma dapda-su-nu he went and grievously smote
im-ha-su ka-mar-su-nu is- them and accomplished their
ku-nu defeat.
33. um-ma-an-su-nu rabtta u- Their great army he over-
sam-ki-tu threw;
matu Ka-sal'la ana pi-ri u Ka§al-la to dust and ruins he
kar-ne u-tir-ru turned, (and)
34. ma-an-za-az is sure u-}ial-lik he destroyed (leaving not
enough) for birds to rest on.
In the Assyrian annals, statements of general devastation
became stereotyped. A military formula seems to have been
developed. Repeatedly we find the expressions:'
alani-ni-su ina isati as-ru-up ab-bid ak-kur
their cities with fire I burned, I threw down, I dug up.
Tiglath-Pileser IV writes:*
"»• Pii-ku-da kima sa-pa-ri as-hu-up
the Pukuda as (with) a net I threw down,
di-ik-ta-su-nu a-duk sal-la-su-nu
with their slaughter I slaughtered, their spoil
ma-at-tu as-lu-la^
great spoil I plundered.
Assyrian atrocities are mentioned in Biblical narratives; II
Kings 25 9 tells of the burning of houses, and vs. 13 — 17 of
the destroying and robbing of the temple of Solomon. Archae-
ological evidence of the victor setting fire to a conquered city
is furnished in the reliefs on the so-called „Bronze Gates of
Balawat" of Shalmanezer, * and the walls of the Palace of Sar-
gon II at Khorsabad.s
Many texts, even the early ones, enumerate the variety of
goods that were plundered. A very early instance of this is
found in an account of the destruction of Lagash. The inscrip-
X Tiglath-Pileser I, Prisim inscription Col. I 1. 94 till Col. II 1. 1. Trans,
from I R. pi. 9.
2 Tiglath-Pileser IV K. 3751 1. 13. Trans, from II R. 67.
3 Cf. also Sennacherib, Taylor Cyl. IV 1. 64—67. I R. 40.
4 F. Delitzsch and Billerbeck, Die Palasttore Salmanassars II von Balawat
PI. B T & 2, in BA VI, Heft I. King: Bronze Gates of Balawat PI. LVI.
5 BN, Tome I PI. 61.
— 12 —
tion mentions the slaughter which took place in the various
buildings of the city; we find the recurring line:^
azag-za -gin-bi ba-ta -kes-kes^
"silver and bright lapis lazuli they plundered".
In the Assyrian Annals, passages having reference to plunder
are more frequent. There are seemingly innumerable occur-
rences of such statements as, „their spoil, their property, their
goods, I brought forth." ^ Many passages might be quoted
which give a more specific account of booty taken as:^
^ su-si
1 80
ruk-ki iri pi- 5 nir-ma-ak siparri^
unguentaries of bronze, 5 jars of copper
it-ti ilani-su-nu hurasi u kaspi
together with their gods, gold, and silver
du-muk nam-kur-ri-su-nu as-sa-a
the choice (articles) of their property, I removed:
sal-la-su-nu bu-sa-a-su-nu u-si-za-a
their spoil, their goods I carried away.
Asurnazirpal II writes: 5
sal-la-su-nu busa-su-nu alpi-su-nu
their spoil, their goods, their oxen,
kirru si-ni-su-nu uti-ra
their sheep I brought away.
Shalmanezer III tells of war weapons as booty :^
^V« narkabati-su-mi bit-hal-la-su-7iu
chariots, their stallions,
ti-mi-tu tahazi'SU-nu e-kim-su-nu
their war implements, 1 took from them.
Sennacherib writes: 7
27 hurasi kaspi
Gold, silver,
1 Heuzey, Nouvelles Fouilles de Tello, p. 47 f. Col. I 1. 6, 7.
2 See for example Tiglath-Pileser I Prisim Inscription, Col. I 1. 93, 94, I R. 9.
3 Tiglath-Pileser I Prisim Inscription Col. II 1. 29 — ZZ- I R- lo-
4 Br. 7819.
5 Ashurnazirpal II Annals Col. II 1. 42. Trans, from I R. 21.
6 Shalmanezer III Obolisk, Face 1. 65. Trans, from Lay. 90.
7 Sennacherib, Taylor Cyl. Col. I 1. 27 — 33. Trans, from I R. 37.
— 13 —
28. u-nii-tii hurasl kaspi adnu a-kar-tu numma sum-sit'^
utensils of gold (and) silver, precious stones of every kind
29. busu makkuru la ni-ba ka-bit-tu bilti
possessions, goods without number, heavy tribute,
zinnisati libibi ikallisu
the women in the midst of his palace,
30. in- tiri in- man-za-az pa-ni^ m- nar f- fiar
guardians, eunuchs, male singers, female singers
31. si-hir-ti um-ma'a-ni ma-la ba-su-u
all, troops as many as there were,
32. mut-ta-bi'lu'tu^ ikallu-us u-si-za-am-sti
the guardians of his palace I brought forth
33. sal-la-ti-is am-nu
(and) as spoil I counted (them).
Again :^
semiri as-pi hurasi sa rit-ti-su-nu am-hur
Rings of gold from their fingers I took off
While it is the Assyrian annals that are so full of evidence
that plunder of this nature was customary, Babylonian records
are not entirely silent. In an early chronicle we find it recorded
of Hammurapi:5
Uru ki u Larsa ^i ka-at-su ik-su-ud
Ur and Larsa his hand conquered
bu-sa-su-nii a-na ^«^- Babili ki il-ka-a
their possessions to Babylon he took.
Apparently the Assyrian conqueror took the crops of the
enemy for the use of his own army, destroying any agricultural
produce which could not be used or carried away. Tiglath-
pileser IV writes:^
^>« kiri i?^ m^i-suk-ka-ni^ sa di-ih duA-su
the groves of palms (?) which rest on his wall
1 numma sum-su = "anything whatever", cf. Br. 11966 and OBW 53223.
2 manzaz pani See Br. 6865 and MA 562* for translation cf. p. 66 f.
3 Cf. MA 62 1 ^
4 Sennacherib, Taylor Cyl. Col. VI 1. 3 Trans, from I R. 42.
5 CEBK Vol. II p. 17 Obv. 1. 10, II.
6 Tiglathpileser IV K. 3751 1. 24, Trans, from II R. 67.
7 MA I 567^.
— 14 —
a-kis-ma isti-in ul e-zib m girintmari-su
I destroyed, and not one did I leave. His date-palms
sa pi-rih mati a-duk-ma
which was the growth of the country, I destroyed.
Among the sculptures of the Bronze Gates of Balawat there
appears to be a representation of the victor cutting down the
trees of the conquered territory.' Sometimes images of the
enemies gods were taken away as plunder.*
„He shattered his forces, his camp and his tutelary gods he
took from him."
The treatment of the person of the enemy was ruthless; and
here again it is the Assyrians who furnish us with the more
graphic details. It was not sufficient merely to accept the ene-
mies' admission of defeat; he must be tortured and made an
example to other peoples who were likely to refuse to submit.
Phrases expressing general slaughter present the picture of
masses of corpses filling the battlefield. Various Assyrian kings
write in vivid language i^
, , . ^ . , the bodies of their army
na-ou'td-ti ummanatt-su-nu . , ,. ... , ,
, V . . , . AT . r / widespreadrngr hke water I
ra-ap'sa-tz kt-ma me lu-at-ou-uk . ^ °
poured out.
Sal-mat ku-ra-di-su-me si-ra With corpses of their warri-
ra-ap'SU lu-u-me-el-li ors the wide plain I filled.
'^ a-bi-ik-ta-su-nu as-ku-un dame-su-nu
their defeat I accomplished (with) their blood
hur-ri u mus-pa-li sa sadi-i lu-me-ki-ir
the ravines and passes of the mountains I sprinkled.
5 sal-ma- at ku-ra-di-su-nu
the bodies of their strong men
1 BA VI (I), PI. B I & 2. King, Bronze gates of Balawat PI. XLVIII, XLIX.
2 Adad-nirari I Synchronous history 1. 27. Winckler: Untersuchungen zur
altorientalischen Geschichte. p. 148 KB I p. 196. Cf. Layard: Nineveh,
2nd Series pi. 30 for archaeological evidence.
3 Shalmanezer I Col. Ill 1. 21 — 24. Trans, from Mess. Keil. hist. Heft I
p. 22.
4 Tukulti-Ninib I Annals Obv. 1. 24, 25 Trans, from King: Records of the
Reign of Tukulti-Ninib I.
5 Tiglathpileser I Octagonal Prism Col. I 1. 77— 80. Trans, from I R. 9.
Cf. also Col. II 1. 12—24.
— 15 —
i-na mit-hu-us tu-sa-ri ki-via ra-hi-si
in heavy battle like an inundation
lii-ki-mir damt-su-nu hur-ri
I overthrew. Their blood in the valleys
u ba-ma-a-ti sa sadi-i lu-sar-di
and high places of the mountain I caused to flow.
* alu dan-nu-ti-su-nii ak-su-ud
their strongholds I captured;
sdbi muk'tab-li'Su-nu i-na ki-rib hur-sa-ni
their fighting men in the midst of the wooded- mountains
pa-gar mtik-tab-li-su-nu a-na gu-ra-na-te
the bodies of their fighting men into piles
i-na gi-sal-lat^ sadi-i lu-ki-ri-in
on the peaks of the mountains I heaped up.
sal-mat kii-ra-a-di-su-nu nam Na-a-me
the bodies of their soldiers the river Name
a-na Diglat lu-u-si-si^
carried into the Tigris.
Other picturesque expressions of a frequently recurring type
are:*
wm-ma-na-ti-su-nu ki-ma zi-ir-ki^ u-ni-ki-is
their troops like a swath of grain I hewed down.
^ umman d. Ha-at-ti-i
The army of the Hittites
u Ah-la-me-i ra-i-su-su
and Arameans, his allies
ki-ma zi-ir-ki lu-u-ti-bi-ih
like sheep I slaughtered.
A favorite picture presented in the annals of Ashurnazirpal II
is expressed in the following extract :7
1 Tiglathpileser I Octagonal Prism Col. II 1. 12—24. Trans, from I R. 10.
2 HWB 202^.
3 Cf. also Tiglathpileser I Octagonal Prism III 82, IV 93, VI 5, 7, etc.
4 Tiglathpileser I Octagonal Prism Col. Ill 1. 98, 99. Trans, from I R. 11.
5 MA 297 ^
6 Shalmanezar I Col. II 1. 38—40. Trans, from Mess. Keil. hist. Heft I
p. 21.
7 Ashurnazirpal II Col. I 1. 53. Trans, from I R. 18. Cf. also Col. II
1- 17. 55^ 56, 114 etc.
— i6 —
dajm-su-nu kima na-pa-a-si sadu-ii hi
(with) their blood like red-dyed wool the mountain
as-ru-up si'ta-ti-su-nu hur-ru
I indeed dyed. The rest of them the cave
na-ad'ba-ku sa sadi-i akul
and precipice of the mountain devoured.
Shalmanezer III writes:' 45. mun-dah-hi-si-m-nu
their fighting men
46. ina kakki u-sant-kit kuna d. Adad eli-su-nu
with weapons I brought low, like Adad I caused the
ri-hi'il'ta u-sa-az-nin ina hi-ri-si
inundating rain to rain over them, into the valleys
at'bu-uk-su-nu sal-mat
I poured them. With bodies
47. ku-ra-di-su-nu siru rap-su u-mal-li
of their fighting men the broad plain I filled,
dami-sa-nu kima na-pa-si sadu as-ru-up
with their blood like red-dyed wool the mountain I dyed.
Sargon II in his eighth campaign writes:^
134. di-ik-ta-su ma- * -at-tu a-du-tik-ma salmat
his army to death I slew down, and the bodies
pl- hu-ra-di-su kima se bukliC?) as-di-ma sa-pa-ni
of his warriors like grain (?) I spread out, and the ravines
sadi-e u-mal-li
of the mountains I filled.
135. damt-su-nu hur-ri na-ad-ba-ki nar-es u-sar-di-ma^
theirblood in the abyss and precipices like a river I caused to run.
Warfare was a subject often treated by Assyrian sculptors
as well as by scribes. And they were no less graphic in their
presentation than were the writers of the royal annals. In
connection with the passages quoted above, examples of these
sculptures may be noted. A frequent motif is that of a corpse
lying beneath a horse which is drawing a chariot. The inten-
tion was apparently to give the idea of a battlefield so full of
1 Shalmanezer III Monolith Col. I 1. 45*^— 47. Trans, from III R. 7. Cf.
also II 1. 77, 98, 99.
2 Sargon II Col. II, 1. 134, 5. Trans, from Thureau-Dangin, Huiti^me
Campagne de Sargon, PI. VII.
3 Cf. also. Sennacherib, Taylor Inscription Col. V 1. 80—85.
— i; —
corpses that chariots must drive over them.^ Fragment D of
the Stele of the Vultures shows corpses lying beneath the
phalanx; fragments B and C furnish an excellent illustration of
the custom of heaping up corpses.^
From the time of Tiglathpileser I on, -J there are found fre-
quent passages which record methods of mutilating the bodies
of the enemy, alive and dead. Ashurnazirpal II, whose annals
are in many ways the most vivid in the reporting of military
tactics, writes:
89.* rabuti am-mar
the nobles as many as
90. ib-bal-ki-tu-ni a-ku-su maski-su-nu
revolted I flayed; (with) their skins
a-si-tii u-hul'lip an-nu-ti ina lib-bi
I covered a pillar. Some in the midst
i (or dysi'te u-ma-gig a-nu-ti ina Hi
of a mound I walled up, others above
91. i-si-ti ina i?^ zi-ki-bi u-za-kip an-na-ti
the pillar on a stake I lifted up, others
bat-tu-bat'ti sa a-si-ti ina zi-ki-bi
around the mound on stakes
u-rak'kas ma--du-ti ina pi-rik
I bound. Many at the entrance
mati-ya
of my country
92. a-ku-su maski-su-nu dura-ni u-hal-lip
I flayed, with their skins I covered the walk.
In recording other mutilation of the body we find such a
passage as: 5
1. 117. an-nu-te kap-pi-su-nu rit-ti-su-nu
of some their hands, their arms
1 Cf. DeClercq, Tome II pi. ZZ and BN pi. 56, 58, 59 bis, gg, 92, 99, 100, etc.
2 Fragments B. C, & D, Heuzey-Thureau-Dangin, StMe des Vautours.
Planche II, and in D^c. pi. 3, 3 bis.
3 Cf. Tiglathpileser I Col. I, 1. 81, Col. VI 1. 5 etc.
4 Ashurnazirpal, Annals Col. I 1. 89 — 92. Trans, from JR. 19. Cf. also
Col. Ill 1. 108 and Ashurbanipal, Rassam Cyl. Col. II 1. 3, 4.
5 Ashurnazirpal, Annals Col. I 1. 117 — 118. Trans, from I R. 19. Cf. also
Sennacherib Taylor Cyl. Col. V 85— VI 4.
2
— i8 —
u-bat (or bd)-tik an-nii-ti ap-pi-su-nu
I cut off: of others their noses,
uzna-sii-nu ritti-su-nu u-bat-tik sa
their ears, their fingers I cut off, the eyes oi
sabi maduti ina-su-nu u-ni-bil
many soldiers I put out,
1 1 8. istini-it i-si-tu sa baltuti istini-it sa
one pillar of the living, one of
kakkadi ar-sip ina ^>« gubni ina
heads I built on stakes planted in
li-me-it mahazi-su-mi kakkadi-su-nu
the neighborhood of their city I hung up their heads
ina lib-bi u^-il
in the midst.
Among the reliefs found by Botta at Nineveh is one showing
a picture of three men; below is the representation of a be-
sieged city. Each man is supplied with an axe, and is engaged
in chopping a corpse, the two arms already cut off lying near-
by.' But the chief satisfaction of the Assyrian conqueror
seems to have been in wholesale decapitation, in piling these
heads in pyramids, in causing them to be worn about the
necks of horses or of captives, or in putting them in con-
spicuous places to terrify yet unconquered peoples. Ashurna-
zirpal writes:
71.^ kakkadi-su-nu u-ni-kis ina
their heads I cut off on
*>« guh-(ni)^ sa tarbasu^ ikalli-su i--il^
vines of the courtyard of his palace I hung (them).
72. 20 sabi baltuti ina kat usabbi-ta
20 live soldiers with the hand I captured,
ina dziri ekalli-(su) u-ma-gi-gi
in the wall of his palace I walled (them).
Of a similar nature is the following extract from Esarhaddon's
Cylinder A:^
1 BN pi. 140 cf. also Layard: Nineveh^ 2nd Series PI. 47.
2 Ashuraazirpal Annals Col. II 1. 71, 72. Trans, from I R. 21.
3 or gu-ub. 4 OBW 95 3. 5 or u-'-il.
6 Esarhaddon Cyl. A. Col. I 1. 47—51. Trans, from I R. 45. Cf. also
Ashurbanipal, Rassam Cyl. col. VII 1. 40.
— 19 —
as-su da-na-an Assur beli-ya
in order to show the people
nisi Kul-lmn-mi-im-ma
the power of Assur my lord
kakkadi m. Sa-a?t-dii'{u)-ar'ri
the heads of Sanduarri
11 m. Ab-di-mi-il-ku-iit-ti
and Abdimulkuti
ina ki-sa-di m. rabitti-su-un a-lul-ma
upon the necks of their great men I hung.
And in the Rassam cylinder of Ashurbanipal we find:*
69 pi-i-su-nu ' as-lu-uk
their tongues, I cut out
70. si-it-ti nisi bal-iii-sun ina sedi^ lamassi^
the rest of the people alive among bull colossi and bull gods
yi. sa Sin-ahi-irba abu abt bani-ya ina libbi is-pu-nu
which Sennacherib my grandfather in the midst threw down.
72. e-nin-na a-na-ku ina ki-is-pi-su
again I threw those people
73. ?iisi sa-a-tu-nu ina libbi as-pu-un
in the midst of the pit;
74. stri-su-nu nu-uk-ku-su-u-ti
their flesh (which was) cut off,
75. U'Sa-kil kalbi sahi zi-i-bi (issuri)
I caused to be eaten by dogs, swine, vultures,
']6. nasri issuri sami-e 7iuni ap-si-e
eagles, birds of heaven, (and) fish of the deep.
Assyrian art abounds in illustrations of this decapitating
custom. Among the sculptures of the palace of Sennacherib
there are representations of soldiers carrying heads in their
hands, 5 and of soldiers piling up heads. ^ The Bronze Gates
of Balawat? offer an interesting variation; here we find a series
1 Ashurbanipal, Rassam Cyl. Col. IV 1. 69 — 76. Trans, from V R. IV.
2 variant lisdni. 3 See Br. 485 and MA 1013^
4 See Br. 486 and MA 489*.
5 Paterson: Assyrian Sculptures, pi. 9, 51.
6 Paterson: Assyrian Sculptures, pi. 17, 18, 43, 52, piling heads under
palm tree.
7 Billerbeck and Delitzsch BA VI (i) PI. Ill H lower row 4. Cf. also King
Bronze Gates of Balawat pi. XLIV.
a*
— 20 —
of heads on a pole, one placed above the other. A relief from
the palace of Ashurbanipal which is of value as a picture of
the private life of royalty, has an element of interest here. This
relief* shows the king and queen feasting together in their
garden, surrounded by attendants and musicians. Attached to
a palm tree hangs a human head, which Ashurbanipal appears
to be regarding with satisfaction, while the queen has her back
turned toward the war trophy. In the De Clercq collection^
is an illustration of the custom of attaching a trophy head
around the neck of a horse. Representations of headless bodies,
sometimes floating about in a river, 3 sometimes lying in the
battlefield beneath the chariots,* are frequent among the reliefs
found at Nineveh.
It is probable that the policy of burning the conquered
existed, for although phrases such as Shalmanezer I uses of
himself: 5 ka-am za-a-a-ri^ "who burns up the enemy," are to
be considered merely phrases of oriental color, there are many
passages which undoubtedly refer to actual burning. Ashur-
nazirpal II writes:^
3 limu sal-la-su-nu ina
3,000 of their captives with
isati asrup ki-i li-tu-ti isti-in
fire I burned: as hostage one
ina lib'bi-su-nu baltu id i-zib
among them alive I did not leave.
7 . . . . ba-tuli-su-nu (ba-tu-la-ti-su-nu)
their youths (and maidens)
a-na maklu-ti asrup.
as a holocaust I burned.
We find many examples of the burial of the dead ; but it is
not clear whether the conqueror buried the dead of the enemy,
or merely his own dead. The burial of the dead body was
1 Handcock, Mesopotamian Archaeology PI. XXI GreBmaDn, Texte und
Bilder p. 139.
2 DeClercq Vol. II PI. XXX 8.
3 BN PI. 64. 4 BN PI. 65-67, 76.
5 Shalmanezer I, Obv. Col. I 1. 11. Mess. Keil. hist. Heft I p. 18.
6 Ashumazirpal, Annals Col. I 1. 108. Trans, from I R. 19.
7 Ashumazirpal Col. II 1. 43^, I R. 21. Cf. also Shalmanezer III Monolith
Col. II. 17.
— 21 —
considered very essential to future peace; the body should not
be exposed to light. The importance of this is illustrated by
the hope expressed in the curse customarily found at the end
of an inscription, — the hope that the destroyer of the tablet
may be left unburied. King in his History of Sunier and
Akkad'^ points out that the apparent references to burial in
the Stele of the Vultures, need not necessarily refer to actual
burial, but may merely be Eannatum*s method of saying that
he killed many. Jastrow ' interprets the mutilation of corpses as
"merely another phase of this curse upon the dead". The
leaving of the body for beasts and birds of prey to devour,
became therefore the worst fate that one could inflict on his
enemy.
Entemena writes: 3
ne-ni erim-Go-an 6o strong men of his soldiery,
20. gu id Lum-ma-sir-ta-ka on the side of the river Lummasirta
e-ku'kid he left.
nam-hi-kal-ba The bones of
gir-pad-du-bi that soldiery
edin-da e-da-kid-kid on the plain he left.
sahar-dul'tag'bi^ Those (who were) heaped up in
the dust
ki-ya in five places
ni-mi-dub he buried.
But Thureau-Dangin 5 expresses the opinion that in the in-
scriptions of Eannatum and Entemena, the bodies referred to as
buried are not those of the enemy; while Radau here and in
similar passages^ interprets the text to mean that the dead of
the enemy were buried. The meaning of sahar-dtd-tag is uncer-
tain; but evidently the series of signs meant „those who have
fallen in the dust'*, and may therefore, in connection with the
1 P. 138 f., p. 149.
2 Jaslrow: Aspects of Religious Beliefs in Bab. & Ass. p. 360.
3 Entemena, Historic Cone. Col. Ill 1. 19 — 27. Trans, from D6c. Pt. Ill
pi. XLVII. Cf. Stele of VullttreSy Frag. A. D^c. pi. 3 — vultnres carrying
off heads.
4 Cf. EBH p. 99 note 30.
5 Heuzey — Thureau-Dangin, Stele des Vautours p. 49, note 5.
6 Eannatum, Brick, Col. IV, D6c. pi. 31 ; EBH 94. Galet A Col. Ill 1. 13 f.,
EBH 85, 86.
— 22 —
verb which follows, ni-mi-dub, be interpreted as meaning dead bod-
ies. The use of bi becomes, therefore, of importance in this con-
nection. Its most common use in relation to a noun is pronom-
inal, representing the third singular; the personal use is more
common than the neuter. ^ If the bi is translated "his", it could
refer to either the enemy or the victor. Heuzey makes the
statement' that it must be remembered that the people of the
same race when fighting one another have respect for the
enemy dead. But Galet A of Eannatum Col. Ill describes a
victory over the Elamites. Centuries later Ashurbanipal writes 3
of refusing burial to a dead enemy. While the actual gramma-
tical uses prove nothing on either side; it is more in accor-
dance with what we know of Sumerian and Akkadian war
ethics to conclude that such passages relating to burial refer
to the victor's burial of his own dead.
Another frequently employed method of torture and means
of terrorizing was that of impaling conquered peoples on stakes.
Ashurnazirpal often writes :'^
ina zi-ki-bi ina pu-ut ali-su-mi
on stakes at the boundaries of their cities
u-za-kip.
I impaled (them).
Not only ordinary soldiers, but also the kings were treated in
this manner. 5
15. Nabu-u-sab-si apal si-la- a-ni di-ik-ta-su
Nabusabsi, son of Silani, his warriors
ina i-ta-at ^^^ Sa-ar-rab-a-ni ali-su
at the side of Sarrabani, his city,
a-duk
I killed,
16. u sa-a-su mah-ri-it abul ali-su
and in front of the great gate of his city
1 Delitzsch, Sumerische Grammatik 40.
2 Heuzey — Thureau-Dangin, Stele des Vautours p. Ii.
3 Rassam Cyl. Col. VII 1. 45.
4 Ashurnazirpal Col. Ill 1. 84. Trans, from I R. 25. Cf. also Col. Ill
1. 84, 108, 112. Also Shalmanezer III Black Obolisk Face D, 1. 154.
5 Tiglathpilezer IV. K. 3751 1. 1$, 16. Trans, from II R. pi. ^t.
— 23 —
ana 'V« za-ki-pi u-si-li-su-ma
on a stake I lifted him up, and
u-md'gil-la niat-su
I subdued his land.
Examples of this custom also, may be found among the reliefs
from Nineveh published by Botta. ^ This shows a row of men
hung on stakes beneath a besieged city. An example of the
effectiveness of Assyrian methods of terrorizing may be seen
by the record in II Chron. 28 21 that the kings of Judah even
gave parts of the house of Yahweh to try to pacify the
approaching Assyrian armies.
Prisoners were variously treated. Sarrugi writes of the custom
of leading the captive in chains:*
(lugal'Za-gi-zi) (Lugalzagizi)
sar king
uruk ki of Uruk
in-kas-x he fought
su-du-a and captured him by hand,
in si'gar-ne-ru and in fetters
a-na kd-^en4u through the gate of Enlil
u-ru-us he led him.
Ashurnazirpal speaks of walling them up in his palace:^
20 sabi baltuti ina kat
20 soldiers alive by hand
risabbi-ta ina duri ekalli-(su) u-nia-gi-^a
I captured, in the wall of his palace I walled in.
Another treatment is shown from the following extract from
Esarhaddon:*
3. ina di-hi abulli sa sit sa Ni7ia
in the entrance of the eastern gates of Nineveh
it'ti a-si kalbi u saht
with wild animals, dogs, and swine
u-si-sib-su-nu-ti ka-me-is
I caused them to sit bound.
1 BN pi. 55. Cf. also relief from time of Tiglathpileser IV, Handcock,
Mesopotamian Archaeology, PL XVII.
2 Sarrugi BE IV p. 174 and V no. 34 Sumerian text.
3 Ashurnazirpal Col. II 1. 72. Trans, from I R 21.
4 Esarhaddon: Cyl. A Col. II 1. 3—5. Trans, from I R 45.
— 24 —
Ashurbanipal writes:'
VIII 28. mI-U kalbi as-kun-su-ma
The chain of a dog, I placed upon him
29. u-sa-an-sir-su ^> si-ga-ru^
and caused him to be kept in a cage.
IX 21. ina kabal tam-ha-ri bal-pi-tis-m-nu
In the midst of battle, alive
u-sa-bit kati
my hand captured him;
22. kati u sipi bi-ri-tu parzilli ad-di-su-ftti-fi
hands and feet I placed in fetters of bronze.
Biblical accounts corroborate the Assyrian testimony that pris-
oners were chained. ^ Again the reliefs from Nineveh furnish
us with evidence; captives are seen with hands and feet shack-
led, marching in procession. -^ We also find examples of the
captive being led away by means of a hook attached to the lip.s
When a king entered and subdued an enemy country, he
put the people "under his yoke." Those who were not killed,
or tortured in the ways described above, were either left in
their own land which was annexed, or transported to the capital
city as slaves or hostages. This policy existed from early times.
Possibly there is evidence of it in the Stele of the Vultures,^
but the text is too broken to admit a certain interpretation.
Shalmanezer I writes: 7
25. sal-la-sii bu-ul-su e-ma-am-su
his booty, his cattle, his family
26. u busu'Su a-na ali-ya As-sur lu-ub-la
and his property I carried away to my city Assur.
Tiglathpileser I writes:^
28. assati'Su aplt-su
his wife, his children,
1 Rassam Cyl. Col. VIII 1. 28—29 Col. IX 1. 21, 22. Trans, from V R 8
and 9. Egy. Camp. Col. I 1. 130, 131, V R i.
2 MA loiob 3 Cf. II K. 174 or II Chron. ZZ^"^
4 BN pi. 81, 82, 118, ligbis, 120 Cf. King: Bronze Gates of Balawat pi.
XXII, XXIII, XLV. 5 BN pi. 83. sew A, Fig. 140 c. 6 Col. VIII.
7 Shalmanezer I. Rev. Col. Ill 1. 25, 26. Trans, from Mess. Keil. hist.
Heft I p. 22.
8 Tiglathpileser I. Octagonal prism Col. II 1. 28—33. Trans, from I R 10.
Cf. also Tiglathpileser I Col. V 1. 17 and Ashurbanipal 2nd Egy. Camp. Col.
II 1. 39—43 Rassam Cyl.
— 25 —
29- nab-ni-it lib-bi-su il-la-su 3 sii-si
off-spring of his heart, his troops, 180
30. nik-ki iri 5 nir-ma-ak siparri
bronze ointment jars, 5 metal jars,
31. it-ti ilani-su-nu hurasi u kaspi
together with their gods gold and silver,
32. du-muk nam-kur-ri-su-nu as-sa-a
their choice treasure I removed,
33. sal-lu-su-nu bu-sa-a-su-nu u-si-sa-a
their spoil, their possessions, I carried away.
Ashurbanipal : ^
24. sa-a-sti bal'tu-uS'SU it-ti f- A-di-ya-a
he himself alive, with Adiya
25. assat m. U-ai'ti-'' sar 'wa/. A-ri-bi
wife of Uaiti, King of Arabia,
26. is-ba-tu-nim-ma u-bil-u-ni a-di
they captured, and brought before
mak-ri-ya
me.
The Assyrian policy of deportation greatly influenced the
national and religious development of the Hebrew people; of
the Assyrian military practices this is most frequently men-
tioned not only in the historical, but in the prophetic literature.
The book of II Kings abounds in references to this custom;*
chap. 2413 — 17 records Nebuchadrezzar's deportation, chap. 25 5 — 7
the binding of a king and slaying of his sons before his own
eyes, and chap. 25 18—21 relates the deporting and killing of
important men.
Along with these evidences of cruelty, instances of which
could be multiplied almost indefinitely, are found here and there
traces of what might at first be considered clemency on the
part of the victor. The boastful manner in which these more
merciful acts are related, seems to indicate not touches of real
humanitarianism, but only a part of military strategy. By so
doing they gained the submission of their victims and acquired
for themselves a feeling of magnanimity. Ashurnazirpal often
1 Ashurbanipal. Rassam Cyl. Col. VIII 1. 24, 25., V R 8.
2 II K. 1529 Cf. with I Chron. 56-26; n K. 176, 18" etc.
— 26 —
has in his annals the phrase, *'I showed him mercy." ^ In the
account of Sargon IFs Eighth Campaign we find the passage:*
1. 58. su-ii a-di ^t' ra-ba-ni ^- sa-kin te-im
he, together with his chiefs, administrators of
inat-su ii'sal-lu-ni-ma i-na pa-ni-ya
his land, prayed, and before me
eli ir-bi rit-ti-su-nu ip-tas-si-lu
with their four paws they besought
ki-ina kal-bi
(me) like dogs.
1. 59. ri-e-ma si-ar-su-nu-ti-ma
I had pity on them, and
ut'nin-ni'su-7iu al-ki at-inn-su-mi
their prayers I received, their words
sa te-7iin-ti as-mi-ma
of supplication I heard, and
ak-bi'Su-nu a-hu-lap ^
I said to them, „ahulap".
Occasionally there are traces of discrimination in the otherwise
wholesale slaughter.
Sennacherib:*
4. maran mahazi i-pis an-m u hab-la-ti
the inhabitants of the city who had committed sin and evil
5. a-na sal-la-ti am-nu si-it-hi-ti-su-nu
I counted as spoil. The rest of them
6. la ba-bil hi-ti-ti 71 kid-hil-ti sa
(who) had not committed sin and wrong who
a'ra'ra7i
had not
7. la ib'SU-u uS'Sur-su-uTi ak-bi
made rebellion, I announced amnesty to them.
War was considered not only a proper occupation for man-
kind; it was sanctioned, even commanded by the gods. To engage
1 for example, Col. Ill 1. 76.
2 Sargon II 8 th Campaign Col. I 1. 58. Trans, from Thureau-Dangin,
Huitteme Campagne de Sargon pi. III. Cf. also 1. 155.
3 ahulap = word of deliverance. HWB 43^ gives as its meaning in such
passages, "Peace to you".
4 Taylor Cyl. Col. Ill 4—7 Trans, from I R 39. Cf. also Esarhaddon Prism.
B. Col. Ill 1. II und 12.
— 27 -
in war became a divine duty; and in consequence, man could look
to his gods to furnish him with strength to subdue the enemy.
In the Stele of the Vultures are found expressions which
indicate this belief that the gods commanded war.^
Assyrian kings write:*
43. i-7ia ti-mi-su ina i-mu-ki si-ra-ti
in those days through the supreme power
44. sa ^' A'Stir beli-ya i-na an-ni ki-e-?ti
of Assur my lord, through the everlasting grace
45. sa d- Santas ku-ra-di i-na tuhil-ti
of Shamash the warrior, through the help
46. sa Hani rabiiti
of the great gods.
49. a-na matati sarra-ni ni-su-ti
to the lands of distant kings,
50. sa a-ah tamdi e-li-ni-ti
on the shores of the upper sea,
$1. sa ka-na-sa la i-du-u
who did not know submission,
52. d. A-sur bel U'ma--ra-in-ma al-lik
Assur, my lord, sent me and I went.
hia"^ ki-bit Assur bel rabu beli-ya
By the command of Assur, great lord, my lord
it'ti'Su-nu am-tah-hi-is
I fought with them.
The gods sanctioned not only war, but all its accompanying
cruelties. Ashurbanipal, having explained how he threw some
captives into a pit to be eaten by dogs, vultures, bears, etc. 4,
goes on to say:5
td'tu ip-si-e-ti an-na-a-ti i-te-ip-pu-sa
by these deeds (which) were done
7i-ni-ih-hu libbi-(bi) Hani rabiiti beli-ya
I quieted the hearts of the great gods, my lords.
1 For example, Heuzey-Thureau Dangin, StUe des Vantours Col. VI Face D. 1. 7.
2 Tiglathpileser I Col. IV 1. 43 — 46, 49—52. Trans, from I R pi. 12. Cf. also
Col. I 70.
3 Shalmanezar III Black Obolisk Face D 1. 63. Trans, from Lay. pi. 90.
4 Ashurbanipal-Rassam Cyl., Col. IV 1 66 — 75.
5 Ashurbanipal, Rassam Cyl. Col. IV 1. 76, 77. Trans, from V R pi. 4- Cf.
also Col. VIII 1. 27, Col. IX 1. 704—108.
— 28 —
If successful, the conqueror felt that he had been aided by
the gods. Sargon II accords to the mighty gods his power
to give mercy also:'
as-su da-na-ni su-tu-ri sa d- A-sur
by means of the glorious power which Assur
d- Marduk is-ru-ku-ni.
and Marduk gave me.
A reason given for the building of temples was that one
might assure success in war. Sargon I speaks of restoring a
temple sa-kar nakiri-i-su- "to overcome his enemies".^ The
help of the gods was invoked by prayer. Sennacherib writes: 3
1. 50. a-na-ku a-na d. Assur d. Sin d. Samas d. Bel
I to Assur, Sin, Shamash, Bel,
d. Nabo d. Nergal
Nabo, Nergal
51. — Hani ti-ik-li-ya
gods of my confidence
52. a-na ka-sa-di m. nakri dan-ni am-hur
at the borders of my powerful enemy
su-nu-ti-ma
to overcome them and
53. su-pi-e-a ur-ru-his is-mu-u
my prayers quickly heard,
il-li'ku
they came
54. ri-su-ti
to my help.
Ashurbanipal:^
as-si katt-ya u-sal-li
I lifted my hands, I prayed
«^ Assur u il^ Istar assur-i-tu
to Assur and Ishtar of Assyria.
1 Sargon II Thureau-Dangin, Huitieme Campagne Col. I 1. 60, pi. III. Cf.
also Tiglathpileser I Col. I 1. 44—45; Sennacherib, Taylor Cyl. Col. IV 1. 43.
2 Sargon I YBT Vol. I Col. I 1. 17 No. 38, pi. XXm, p. 51.
3 Sennacherib, Taylor Cyl. Col. V 1. 50—54. Trans, from I R pi. 41. Cf. also
Shalmanezer I Col. I 1. 27 and Sargon I YBT Vol. I Col. II 1. 13—15 P- 53-
4 Ashurbanipal. Rassam Cyl. Col. I 1. 65. Trans, from V R pi. I. Cf. also
Col. II 1. 115— 117.
— 29 —
In return for this help, the plunder gained was dedicated to
the god:^
ud d. (En-lil'la) When Enlil
ma-iia-ni-hun-a had looked favorably upon him,
Kis ki " then Kish
mti-hul he cast down;
En-ne- uguti Enne-ugun,
lugal Kis ki King of Kish,
mu-dur he cast down
lugal erint gis-uh ki -ka-ge king of the hordes of Umma
uru-na ga-hid his city full of malignity
bil he burned.
mu-ne-gi he brought
alana-bi his statue,
azag-zagin-bi his shining silver,
^•r dig-ga-bi the utensils, his spoil,
d. En-lil'la to Enlil
En-lil ki-i^ of Nippur
a-mu-na-sub he presented.
Captives were also brought before the gods; Naram-Sin writes:^
is-tum Then
kas-ligir kas-ligir he overcame
su-nu-ti those
isarru (-ar-ru) armies
u and
sar-ri'Su-nu j their three kings
{•ik-mi-ma he bound, and
mah-H-is before
d En-lil Enlil
u-sa-ri'ib he brought (them).
But if the enemy made war, he sinned against the gods.3
Hi (gis'uhyki ge
the people of (Umma)
1 Enne-ugun. Quoted from restoration & translation of Hilprecht in OBI
pt. II Nos. 103, 104, 102, 110, 105. Trans, p. 264 Note 2.
2 Naram-Sin. YBT Vol. I, No. lo, pi. V., 1. 9—18. Cf. also Gudea B. i.
64 or En-sakus-anna, Poebel BE IV p. 151.
3 Destruction of Lagash Col. VII 1. 10— Col. VIII 1. 2 Nouvelles Fouilles
de Tello, p. 48.
— 30 -
sh'-la-(pHr-^^) ba-hula-ta nain-tag (?)
Lagash devastated, sin (?)
d- Nin-gir-zu'da e-da-ak-ka-an
against Ningirsu (they) committed.
The military policies as shown in Sumerian and Akkadian
literature, indicate the unquestioned righteousness of war. No-
where do we find statements which suggest that the moral right
was at all doubted; a king did not consider whether he had
a right to make war on another king, ^ but the question of
whether an enemy king had a right to make war in return,
was a different matter, it was a sin against the gods. This
exaltation of war naturally led to the conception of a warrior
as a type of ideal man. To find this calculated inhumanity
exercised by the Babylonians and Assyrians who were govern-
ed by legal codes which reflect a well developed moral sense,
is not without parallel. It was natural that their ideals of
justice should have been developed in their relationships with
their own people first. Of real attempts at international justice
we find no sure trace; even in the period of the latest Baby-
lonian kings, the international policy was one of diplomacy
rather than justice.
These many military expeditions throughout Mesopotamian
history naturally opened the way for commercial intercourse.
At an early time, when the ruler of one city-state exercised a
suzerainty over a neighboring city, as for example Mesilim of
Kish over Lagash,' trade which could no longer be called
strictly domestic, grew up. The policy of the transference of
large populations for political reasons, as under Shar-gani-sharri
and Manishtusu, encouraged official and commercial relations.
The kings of Kish early entered Elam, and made it a place
for commercial development; many of the monuments from
Dungi's time record transactions and give lists of consignments.
Naram Sin brought diorite from Magan, and Gudea, from Me-
lukha and Gubi. Even by the time of the First Dynasty, trade
routes were opened up the Euphrates to Syria, and the pottery
trade established with Carchemish.3 Of special interest are the
1 Cf. JAOS XXXVn 169 f. & Vol 38, p. 209 ff.
2 Cf. RA IV 109.
3 Cf. King Hist. Bab. 127 f. 182.
— 31 —
laws of the code which have to do with shipping, ^ even though
at this period they probably had reference only to commerce
up and down the Tigris and Euphrates and small tributaries.
By these laws a man who rented a boat was protected against
mishap to the property, * and provision was made in case two
boats collided.^ In connection with these laws may be men-
tioned a type of document which has been classified as a bill
of lading 4 recording the amount of grain sent "by boat" by
the agency of a certain man. These probably aided the mer-
chant in checking up cargo entrusted to agents. The builder
of a boat, and the boatman received fixed wages, s Several
of the letters of Hammurapi record, or give orders concerning,
a shipment of goods. ^
For the history of foreign commercial relations we are de-
pendent largely upon the royal annals, which, though they give us
little direct information of actual products exchanged by trade,
but rather record products taken as booty, nevertheless show
us what territory was opened up. The Amarna letters offer
us, for a late period, material which shows the extent of com-
mercial intercourse; but here again, we are without any specific
information which would contribute materially to the discussion
of morality. It is not of value here to attempt to outline the
commercial history of the Mesopotamians. We may only con-
clude that they doubtless exercised a definite moral code in
foreign trade, as they did in domestic. Whether that code was
as high as that used in domestic affairs cannot with certainty be
<as. determined. History shows that national ethics are usually
lower than those of the individuals of a nation. It should also
be remarked that not all documents which appear to represent
a record of a consignment of goods received, need necessarily
be such; among a people of so great military activity, docu-
ments of this nature may record material taken as plunder,
even though the record appears on a separate document rather
than in a royal annal.
I § 234—240.
* S 236 — 238. Cf. also similar law in YBT. Vol. I, p. 20. Law Three.
3 S 240. 4 HLC II p. 9. 5 234, 239.
6 King Ham. Letters, No. 8, 36, 75, 87 etc. Cf. also BE (A) XVII (i)
p. 107; J. P. Morgan I No. 97; RA X p. i; YBT Vol. II No. 36, 139.
— 32 —
Our principal sources of the social relationships of the ancient
Mesopotamians are: fragments of legal codes, the Code of
Hammurapi, and thousands of "contract tablets".'' The Hammu-
rapi Code presupposes a long period of legal control; the re-
forms of Urukagina and the so-called Sumerian Family Laws
doubtless contain the elements of laws which later appear in
this more systematic statement of legal customs which was
codified during the First Dynasty. It is also to be assumed
that most of the laws stated in the Code of Hammurapi had
been in force for some time. But to attempt to discuss the
moral practices of the Sumerians on the basis of this assump-
tion, as has been done,^ is precarious. We are not as yet
sufficiently sure of the earliest history of the Tigris-Euphrates
Valley to determine unqestionably the priority of either the
Sumerian or Semitic peoples in this region, nor can we be
certain how soon the two peoples became so intermingled that
a common legal code might serve. 3 Until ^uch time as our
knowledge is more complete, it would seem a more accurate
method to confine observations upon Sumerian morality, to
Sumerian documents, even at the expense of incompleteness in
our picture of Sumerian moral practices. While we cannot as
yet trace the development of many specific laws, we recog-
nize that the code of Hammurapi is undoubtedly a compilation
which may be analyzed in general along the lines of the solution
presented by Jastrow.* But we may be at least certain that
by the First Dynasty, and for some time before, custom had
developed into law that was a definite force in social control.
Cuneiform literature is particularly rich in documents which
inform us of the laws and customs regulating domestic business
transactions. Thousands of tablets which contain merely a
statement of the delivery of goods, the completion of some
1 This dissertation was completed before the Assyrian Law Code found by
German explorers at Kaleh-Shergat was published by Otto Schroeder in Vol. 35
of the WissenschaftUche Veroffentlichung der Deuischen Orient-Gesellschaft in 1 920.
Jastrow's translation in JAOS XLI pp. i-59 appeared while this dissertation was
in the press.
2 See article by Mercer in JSOR 1 47 f. For further treatment by same
author see, Religious and Moral Ideas in Babylonia and Assyria, S. A. B. Mercer,
Milwaukee, 19 19.
3 Schorr, Revue Semitique XX p. 378 f. maintains Semitic character of Code.
Cf. Koschaker, PSBA XXXV 230 f. 4 JAOS XXXVI i f.
— 33 —
mission, or an inventory of stock on hand, furnish us with no
material which may be said to have direct bearing on the
subject of business ethics, save as the multiplicity of such
documents testifies to the solidarity of legal control. By the
First Dynasty at least, we have documentary evidence that
Mesopotamian society was well organized for the transaction
of business, and that there were definite laws regulating the
drawing up of private contracts. For the industrial activities
and business transactions of the period prior to the First Dy-
nasty, our material is scattered and often unsatisfactory. But
we are in possession of sufficient data to assure us that even
in the Sumerian period there was a definite standard of bus-
iness ethics.
Before examining the business documents for the study of
types of transaction, it may be well to sketch briefly the judicial
organization. In the event of a dispute, the case was brought
before a judge; decision was made and recorded. Analysis of
early documents has already shown* that while in the early
period judicial power was invested in the priest, there were
also civil judges, royal functionaries, or local magistrates. But
in this period the patesi could be appealed to above the civil
judge and could change the civil decision.* There was a trans-
ition from the prevalence of the sacerdotal judge to the civil,
so that by the time of Hammurapi the civil judges predomi-
nated, and a civil tribunal had developed. 3 The exercise of
jurisdiction by civil judges may have been due to the fact
that there was invested in the person of the king both sacred
and civil authority; he could render justice in the palace as
well as in the temple. Temple judges, however, continued to
function; civil judges could pronounce the judgment, but when
oath before the gods must be taken, temple judges must act*
The Code provides a penalty for the judge who, after rendering
a decision and causing it to be sealed, changed his judgments
According to Cuq,^ in some types of decision, a time interval
might occur between the decision of the civil judge, and the
final oaths before the sacerdotal judge, giving the contending
1 RA VII 65 f. Cuq, "Essai sur rorganization judiciaire de la Chald^e".
2 RA Vni 31. 3 RA VII 68. 4 op. cit. 78.
S S 5. 6 RA VII 8i.
3
— 34 -
parties time to come to terms independently before the decision
was finally ratified. During the Neo - Babylonian period the
priest of the village was commissioned by the judges to summon
the defendant; he was sometimes given the task of collecting
evidence for the judges,' and in certain cases was given right
to execute judgment. Other judiciary officials were the gover-
nor, the mayor of the city, the assembly of leading men, the
judges of the district, and the judges of Babylon. Occasion-
ally the governor or mayor rendered a decision; the latter
also presided over the assembly of leading men, an organi-
zation which can be traced back only to the First Dynasty.*
This assembly formed a civil jury and was under the control
of the king. The judges of Babylon formed a court of higher
appeal to which cases tried in other cities could turn, and pro-
bably the court of any of the large cities served as a supreme
court to the outlying districts.^ Judges had assistants, as the
MASKJM,* who appear in the judicial acts of the Second Dy-
nasty of Ur. The ridu daiani was analogous to a police force
at the disposal of the judges; the mar-pisan dub-ba-a was the
clerk of the tribunal with some judiciary power,5 and it was
probably part of his function to keep records of all decisions
for the archives of the tribunal.^
In all periods of the history, the temple was the great center
of commercial life, even though by the First Dynasty the
priests had been divested of their judiciary power. The dues
and gifts made to the temple rendered it the chief banking
concern of the community. It owned large tracts of land and
other property, none of which could be rented or sold. These
lands were usually in charge of temple officials and worked
by temple slaves; a large part of our documents are accounts
of goods received as gifts, regular tax, or proceeds from temple
property. 7 Temple lands were free from royal tax, for such
lands were often the gift of the king, and in no way the prop-
erty of the state. The temple was supervised by certain
families, the office being hereditary; certain persons had the
right to receive temple offerings for stated periods, a right
1 For ex. of legal note used in court, see AJSL XXXI 79.
2 RA VII 87. 3 Cf. Ham. Letters III p. 136: BE (A) VI (2) No. 10.
4 Cf. Babylonica III p. 88, too, Passim. 5 RA VII 98.
6 RA VIII 17. 7 Cf. BE (A) VIII (1) No. 102, 136, 158 etc.
- 35 —
which could be sold/ transferred,^ or rented.3 The study of
the importance of the temple as a commercial center during
the First Dynasty made by Price "* emphasizes the function of
the temple as a banking center, though whether loans are
made in behalf of the temple as such, or by temple officials
privately, it is often impossible to distinguish.
In the legalizing of certain types of contract, especially mar-
riage, adoption, and manumission of slaves, the oath was im-
portant. The purpose of the oath was to prevent false witness*
or the future breaking of contract by either party. Such an
oath was originally not a mere formula, but of actual value
as a deterrent among a people whose religion was accom-
panied by a strong belief in and practice of magic. These
oaths were sometimes sworn in the name of the king, more
often in the name of the gods, and as time went on specific
gods became associated with certain types of contract. 5 The
affixing of the seal or nailmark to a contract was not necessary,
although it was frequent. It helped to ratify the agreement
and guard against alteration to the document. The seal was
usually that of the contracting party who gave up a claim, or
took an obligation upon himself; in case two parties took obli-
gations on themselves, as in a marriage contract or partnership
agreement, both attached their seals.
By far the most common of the business transactions relate
to sales of a varied nature. Sales of slaves, land, house, granary,
grain, date palms and animals being among the most common.
When the parties concerned had decided upon a price, the
transaction was recorded by a scribe, probably both parties
kept a copy, and a third was made for the temple archives.
It is possible that each party sealed the copy held by the
other.^ The document usually began with an identification
of the object of sale, followed by the identity of the con-
tracting parties; a statement of the basis of the transfer,
1 AJSL XXXIV 127; BE VIII (i) p. 40.
2 J. P. Morgan II contains nineteen documents referring to such transference.
Cf. also Johns, Bab. & Ass. 215.
3 Cf. Babylonica m 102. 4 AJSL XXXII 250 f.
5 JAOS XXXIII, XXXIV; AJSL XXIX, articles by Mercer. Also "The
Oath in Babylonian and Assyrian Literature", S. A. B. Mercer.
6 Johns Bab. & Ass. 227.
3*
- 36 -
whether payment was made in full, and a statement to guard
against either party trying to withdraw from the bargain.' A
list of witnesses was appended. At an early time * we find that
sometimes not only the actual price was paid, but a small gift
was presented to the seller, though this custom probably did
not exist in Assyria. 3 The scribe received a fee for his part
in the transaction, and for his service in procuring the seller's
seal or nail-mark. Only the seller affixed his seal.^ The greater
part of the Assyrian contract is devoted to statements that the
seller or his heirs will never rescind the sale or bring suit,
penalties being stipulated. It is often stated that if either party
attempt to bring suit, the judges shall not hear him and he
shall lose his case. But while attempt to break the agreement
could not be made, in Babylonia the seller or his family could
later buy back the property. There is no mention of this right
in the Code, but there are a few contracts which attest it.s
If however a sale were later found to be illegal, further steps
could be taken, and another contract drawn up to adjust the
matter.^ In many contracts the buyer got the best of the
bargain in that he was safeguarded against fraud, intentional
or unintentional and against breaking of contract. The con-
tracts relating to slaves usually state that if the slave contracts
the bennu sickness within a stated time the seller shall return
the payment and take back the slave. In the statement of
the penalty, it is always the seller who is assumed to be the
offender, it is in connection with him that there are enumerated
names of his family, relatives, or officials of the district, any of
whom might be the cause of the breaking of the contract.
Johns points out 7 that the names enumerated thus were not
necessarily to guard against their breaking the contract, but
served merely as a means of stating that anyone who attempted
it would be penalized. The penalty might consist of the paying
of a definite sum of money to a deity, an obligation to dedicate
horses to a deity, the devotion of harbakanni animals to a god,
1 Cf. analysis in ADD III § 620 and Schorr p. in.
2 Manishtusu, D^l^gation en Perse II i f.
3 Johns Bab. and Ass. 230. 4 op. cit. 231.
5 Cf. Schorr p. 119.
6 Cf. Jastrow in papers of the Philadelphia Oriental Club 1894, pp. 116—136.
7 ADD III S 600.
— 37 —
service of a child to a god, or a payment to the purchaser of
tenfold its amount.^ All these statements were doubtless meant
only as threats, and probably were not carried out. The
amount of the money threat varied according to the amount
of the purchase, and was a fairly definite proportion.^ Accor-
ding to the Code, a purchaser who took money, or real estate
from the hands of a minor without contract or witnesses, was
considered a thief and received the thief's penalty, death.3 The
purpose of the sale contract was not only to guard against
the seller trying to reclaim his goods, or the purchaser trying
to claim dissatisfaction, but it also might serve as testimony
in the event that the goods were later stolen and the thief
tried to claim that he had purchased them.^
The sale of land or a house was the most frequent of this
type of contract.5 In this kind of sale, the phrases identifying
the object of sale, state the boundaries, usually with such
exactness that if we had records of all the land transactions
of a given city, we could draw up a fairly exact plan of the
streets and buildings. Sales of date-palm orchards^ and other
real estate, of slaves and children, of cattle,^ sale- contracts of
all kinds ^ are drawn up in Babylonia and Assyria in relatively
the same manner, as far as the principle of legal justice is
concerned, all showing that these people had a highly devel-
oped sense of property right.
The Code, as well as the contracts, inform us that a large
part of the business of merchants was carried on by agents,^
and it contains laws intended to protect the merchant against
the dishonest advantage an agent might take of him, guarding
against his carelessness or failure to report the real amount of
his sales.^° These merchants employed messengers who deliv-
ered the goods assigned to them, and kept a record of the
consignment, to which the messenger's own name was appended."
1 op. cit. s 605 f.
2 Cf. ADD III p. 369. 3 § 7. 4 SS 9—13.
5 Cf. AJSLXXX i7of. JAOS XXXVI 34; PSBA XXXIV 11 1; BE VIII (i)
34, 35, 37, 38. 6 AJSL XXX 187. 7 ZA V 276.
8 BE IX (I) 18 f.
9 ADD II SS 165, 187.
10 SS 100—107. Cf. also Fragment of Code in PSBA XXXVI loi, XXIV 360.
»« For such documents see HLC.
- 38 -
Merchants were apparently men with considerable capital who
made advances to cultivators; the Code contains laws to protect
the lender.^ This system of agents, from whom the merchant
received a percentage of the proceeds on the goods sold, furnishes
us with an early example of profit-sharing. Profits were some-
times shared by two persons united in a temporary partnership.*
Not only were advances of money made as a business enter-
prise, but also as loans and deposits. The loans were princi-
pally of corn and money, corn being legal tender, money loans
being payable in corn, unless otherwise stipulated. Loans were
usually temporary and made at harvest time to meet the
expenses of harvest labor, but to be repaid shortly after the
harvest.3 In Assyria loans were often made without interest
on security. ■< In later Babylonian times it was sometimes
stipulated that a loan was without interest.s Promissory notes
were given as protection.^ Many of the loans and advances
made were by a landlord to his farmers ; he must supply them
with materials for raising their crop,? and the farmer was
bound to return the stock or its equivalent. If he kept it beyond
the appointed time, a fine was imposed;^ loans or advances of
this kind however were probably on easy terms because it was
of advantage to the landlord to supply his workers. Most of
the loan tablets state that if the loan is not paid at a stated
time, interest will be charged at a fixed rate. In the Baby-
lonian contracts, interest is usually reckoned per month,^ and
while the basis of reckoning was not usually mentioned on
the Assyrian tablets, we may assume, with Johns,^^ that it was
reckoned by the month as in Babylonia. Money, therefore,
was not lent for the sake of obtaining an income from the
interest; the interest was intended as a penalty or deterrent,
and as a means of insuring attention to business. Johns con-
cludes that in Assyria at least there was no standard rate of
^ §§ 49—52, 66. Cf. Fragment in Arch. & Bib. 321.
2 BE (A) X No. 44. Cf. YBT Vol. II No. 92.
3 BE (A) XIV No. Ill; BE (A) VI (2) No. 16.
4 For explanation see ADD III S 375 and for examples BE VIII (l) p. 45»
47, 48. HLC I 334.
5 BE (A) VIII (I) No. 93. 6 BE (A) III (i) No. it, 13.
7 PSBA XXXIV III. 8 ADD III S 3^3-
9 Cf. Cappadocian Tablets in RA VIII 142 ff. 10 ADD III S 389.
— 39 —
interest, and no law to prevent the charging of a large rate,^
sometimes 33V3 7o.^ The fragment of the Code published in
BE V PL. 39, and translated by Scheil,^ relates to the legal
rate of interest in Babylonia,^ as reckoned on the basis of grain.
Much of the lending was done in the temple, the temple being
often mentioned as the place where the loan was to be returned.
The Shamash priestesses, or SAL ME were frequent lenders,5
whether they acted in the capacity of officials, or on their
own responsibility, is not always clear. The official recognition
of the termination of a loan transaction was the breaking of
the tablet after it had been paid.
If a man who borrowed was unable to repay, or if a man
fell into debt by any cause, he was protected by the Code.
If his inability to pay was due to destruction of his crops by
storm or drought, he need not pay to his creditor either prin-
cipal or interest;^ but if for any other reason he had not raised
grain and produce, he was not freed from his obligation.^ If
a man who was in debt, died in the creditor's house, the claim
was cancelled, and if he had died there by violence, the
creditor was prosecuted.^ A debtor could sell his wife, son, or
daughter into service for three years, as a means of paying off
his debt ^9 he could not sell his maidservant who had borne
him children,**' but if he bound over for service a male or
female slave, he could have no future claim on them." The
debtor was regarded as a criminal, and could be seized by the
creditor and imprisoned in his house. This situation evidently
led to abuse and it became necessary to protect the debtor.
According to Jastrow, law ii6 is a later development than 115."
If a man levied a distraint unjustly, he was fined.* ^ That laws
were enforced upon officials as well as upon the common
people, we have evidence in a letter of Hammurapi in which
he forces a governor to pay a debt of three years standing
to a merchant. *4 A fragment of the Codecs gives a bankrupt
I op. cit. S 399- 2 op. cit. S 390. ^ RA XIII p. 49.
4 Cf. Cuq RA XIII p. 143. 5 Schorr p. 67. 6 § 48.
7 S 52. 8 SS Il5t 116. 9 g 117. 10 § 119.
11 8 118. Cf. BE I (2) p. 84; BE (A) VIII (1) No. 28.
12 Jastrow Civilization 300. i3 $% 113, 114.
14 King Ham. Letters III p. 32.
>5 Poebel BE V No. 93 Col. 3. Cf. Barton Arch. & Bib. 321.
— 40 -
law, providing that the debtor, lacking money, could discharge
his debt by handing over to the creditor whatever property
he had.
A man might be temporarily relieved of his debt obligation
if he could find someone to act as surety for him. Whether
pledges were made in the earliest times is subject to some
difference of opinion.^ The right of a man to give his wife
or child in return for payment is an example of a pledge given
to off-set the interest, and this type of pledge was the most
common in Assyria, and in Babylonia after the First Dynasty.^
During the First Dynasty the right of pledge was not common,
but in the Neo-Babylonian period, the principle developed to a
more elaborate system.^ The object of pledge could be a
field, house, right to collect toll, slave, son, — any profitable
property, and the benefits of any of these were utilized by the
holder of the pledge. The right to utilize the object of the
pledge compensated for the interest, estimated at the value of
the contract.4 Even where there is no interest or special
obligation stated, it is probable that the borrower was in some
way the dependent of the lender, for it would seem that the
lender must have had some security other than the debtor's
acknowledgments
Guarantees are frequent, and of various kinds. There are
guarantees for debt;^ for example an individual becomes surety
for the payment of a relative's indebtedness to another; 7 slaves
are held as security;^ there are guarantees for the delivery of
goods 9 as well as obligation to appear at an appointed time
or place either to pay a debt or act as witness ;^° there are also
guarantees against defects in a slave and against theft." A
common form of guarantee is found in the case of two men
owing a third man; each of the two is taken as guarantee
that the other will pay." Guarantees were made as to the
I Cf. Johns Bab. & Ass. 262. 2 op. cit. 263; Babylonica II II.
3 Cf. Cuq RA XII 88 f. ; and Koschaker, P., Babylonisch- Assyrisches Biirg-
schaftsrecht, Leip. 1911. 4 RA XII 95. 5 ADD III S 462.
6 BE (A) III (I) No. 7.
7 BE (A) VIII (i) No. 25, No. 105; BE (A) IX No. 57; YBT IV No. 55.
8 BE (A) VIII (I) p. 19. 9 op. cit. No. 39.
10 op. cit. No. 25. " Darius 93.
12 Nabonidus 133, cf. Johns Bab. & Ass. p. 269.
— 41 —
quality or durability of goods, as a document from the time
of Artaxerxes I guaranteeing indemnity if an emerald fall out
of its setting before the end of twenty years.' Mortgage was
common,* especially in the later time, sometimes two or more
persons pledged their joint property as security for payment
of a debt. 3
All kinds of property were offered for rent, especially land,*
house,s slaves, farming supplies and animals.^ If a man hired
a piece of land for the purpose of cultivating it, he was bound
to do so, and if he did not, he was responsible for paying
average rent and returning the land in good condition.7 If a
farmer rented a field and the crops were destroyed by flood,
he must bear the loss himself, § 45, but if the rent had not
been received by the owner, whether it were let for half or a
third of the crop, the farmer and the owner of the field were
to share according to their agreement that which remained,
§ 46. A man might sublet the field, § 47. There was pro-
vision for the lease of a field, for several years; the gardener
who leased it being expected to cultivate it and share with the
owner, §§ 60 — 65.^ A fragment of the Code has a law relating
to the penalty imposed upon a house owner who, though he
had been paid rent in full, ordered the tenant to vacate before
the expiration of the lease,^ but as the tablet is broken, we
cannot know what the penalty was. The rent of* a house
varied according to the size and location; the lease was usually
for one year, the rent being due at the end of the term. The
tenant was credited with the amount he had found it necessary
to spend on repairs.*^ A receipt for rent was given."
The process of exchange is treated by one law only in the
Code, §41, which pronounces illegal the exchange of a bene-
fice. Other exchanges could be executed, and probably were
I Cf. BE (A) IX No. 41, AJSL XXXI p. 80. 2 BE (A) X No. 62.
3 BE (A) IX No. 17.
4 BE VIII (1) p. 44; BE (A) IX No. 48; AJSL XXX p. 169 f.
5 WZKM IV 113; J. P. Morgan II p. 36; BE (A) VIII (l) No. 104.
6 BE (A) X 131; BE (A) VIII (i) No. 63. 7 §S 42—44-
8 Cf. BE (A) X p. 21, lessor of fish-pond to supply agent with daily fish.
9 BE V No. 93 Col. II, cf. Arch. & Bib. 32 1.
10 BE (A) VIII (i) No. 112.
11 BE (A) X No. 126.
— 42 —
common;^ the contract sealed the transaction, stating the two ob-
jects to be sold, the two persons making the exchange, and so on.
All business was not carried on by private persons, there
existed partnerships and business firms. Partnership is found
early, and in a simple form; two men buy a piece of land, or
undertake some similar business project together.^ The only
law regarding partnership that exists is from the fragment of
the Code,3 which states that when a man gives money to
another man for partnership, the profit is before the gods, and
they shall do business together. Sometimes the business was
done through a third person acting as agent.-^ During the
period of partnership, debts received by one party became
partly the responsibility of the other.s Dissolution of the
partnership must come before the court.^ In the event of the
death of one member of the firm, settlement of his share in
the business was made with his heirs. ^
In the later time larger business alliances were formed. Of
the actual workings of such firms we know little, but we have
collections of documents bearing the same names as trans-
actors of business, such as those of the Marashu Sons.^ Such
firms kept files of their business transactions; and in the late
period, when cuneiform was falling into disuse as a vernacular,
these documents had Aramaic notations made on them to assist
the clerl^ in filing. That such a system was resorted to, shows
not only the highly developed business methods, but the value
set upon such documents as a means of guarding against future
disagreement regarding a transaction.
The industrial life of these peoples was varied. We find
mention of fishermen, 9 soap-makers (?)'° weavers," leather
workers," carpenters,'^ bakers,'^ jewellers,'5 and metal workers,'^
1 Cf. J. P. Morgan II No. 35, BE VIII (i) p. 56. Schorr Nos. 112—117.
2 Cf. AJSL XXX 188, BE (A) X No. 55; ZA I 202 f.
^ Cf. Arch. & Bib. 321.
4 Jastrow Civilization p. 354; Strassmaier, Nabon. 652, 572.
5 CT II 28*; Jastrow Civilization p. 355.
6 Strassmaier, Nabon. No. 116, Jastrow Civilisation 355.
7 AJSL XXX 195. 8 BE (A) X.
9 Ham. Letters III p. 122. 10 RA VII 113-
11 JAGS XXXVI 415; ADD n S 146; BE (A) XVII (i) p. 100, 108.
12 Johns Bab. & Ass. 301; ADD II S 166. U ADD II § 197.
14 Ham. Letters III 43. i5 ADD II $ 200. 16 Ham. Letters III 53.
— 43 —
brick-makers,* fullers,^^ and store-keepers.3 While these industries
probably did not constitute a real caste system, it is probable
that members of the same family followed the same trade, and
that there may have been, as Johns suggests,^ a group of in-
dustrial guilds. In Urukagina's cone we read: 5
U'Ul-li-a-ta From a former time,
mmiim-e-a-ta from the beginning,
ud-bi-a unto this day,
lu-ma-lah-ge the boatman by
ma ezi the boat lives,
ansii u-du-li by the ass the muleteer,
e-zi lives,
tidu u-du-li by the sheep the shepherd
e-(2i) lives,
U'sar u-(ka sar) from the low-lying vegetable garden
essad-du the dyke-tender
e-zi lives.
These lines, in contrast with Col. VII i. 27 — 35 which state
that Urukagina released the boatman from the boat, the
shepherd from the ass and sheep, and the dyke-tender from
the garden, suggest that in this early time a system of trade
guilds existed. Had we further evidence to support it, these
lines might refer to a caste system which Urukagina strove to
eradicate. In expressing family relationship, the Babylonians
often referred to themselves as the "son of the baker", etc.
The gentes or guilds reflect the old tribal organization and show
the solidarity of the group. These groups or kimtu possessed
a right of intervention in alienation of property, male or female
representatives having power to exercise the right.^ It is
possible, however, that a person called "son of a baker", or
the like, was one who had been adopted to learn the trade.
The Code provides that a man may adopt his apprentice.7
This would indicate that there was no iron-bound rule requiring
a man to follow the trade of the family into which he was
born, and it may indicate that to enter another trade, he must
1 ADD II S 173. =^ BE (A) XVII (i) p. 124.
3 AJSL XXVII 201(b). 4 Johns Bab. & Ass. 121.
5 Cone B & C. Cf. D^c. pi. LII.
6 ADD II S 104. 7 SS 18-^, 189-
— 44 —
claim legal adoption into a family engaged in that trade. Johns
suggests* that with the increase in the number of slaves, and
their entrance into the trades, the old artisan guilds may have
been supplanted and gradually dissolved. In some instances
we seem to have examples of home work, large amounts of
wool and other raw material being held by the temple or
palace and given out under bond to private establishments
for work.*
As the industrial life became more complicated, a definite
system of bookkeeping arose. The many offerings given to the
temples, the tithes, the wages of temple officials and industrial
workers, the records of consignments, must all be recorded.
For the early period we have a large number of temple records,
accounts of oil, wool, and so forth, received and recorded by
the priests,^ accounts of reeds and wood,* records of deliveries
of produce,^ consignments of provisions for temple officials,^
inventories,? and gifts.^ Interesting examples of ancient book-
keeping are pay-rolls.^ An early tablet giving the pay-roll of
a temple, has space for the figures left blank.*° The Cassite
period had a highly developed form of bookkeeping, less
awkward, and more systematic than that of preceding periods."
The payrolls show that the wages of women were lower than
those of men and the wages of children still less.^* The acti-
vity of women in industrial and public life, and their legal rights,
are among the most noteworthy phenomena of Mesopotamian
civilization.*^
Wages were paid either in produce or in currency, and the
average wage per year for a workman has been estimated as
I Johns Bab. & Ass. 1 21. 2 op. cit. 203.
3 Cf. Hussey Sumerian Tablets Vols. I & II; YBT Vol. IV, V.
4 AJSL XXVII 322, XXVIII 207, XXIX 138.
5 RA VIII 183 ff.; IV 69 f.; JAOS XXXIII 167 f.; PSBA XXXIV 109 f.; BE
IX (1) 21.
6 RA VI 135. 7 op. cit. 144; BE I (2) 98. 8 RA VI 146.
9 RA XII 15; AJSL XXVII 198; XXXIII 208; Thureau-Dangin, Invent, de
Tello II No. 618; BE VIII (i) p. 62; BE (A) III (i) p. 68; HLC III, PI. 113,
114. 10 JAOS XVIII 363.
" AJSL XXIII 282; Cf. also BE (A) XV No. 25, passim; and HLC I 18.
12 Cf. BE (A) XIV No. 58.
13 For further discussion see pp. 53 — 54; 60 note 4.
- 45 -
five shekels.' But the study of the standardization of wages
belongs rather to an economic discussion. We may note,
however, that the Code regulates the fees for builders, boatmen,
oxen by the year, field laborers, herdsmen, shepherds, and
animals and men.^ A curious arrangement is recorded in
S 273 whereby a laborer receives more pay for the first five
months of the year than for the last months.
This brief sketch of the principal business relationships as
practiced in Babylonia and Assyria reveals the chief moral
tendencies in the commercial world. We have noted that
from the earliest time to which our written documents refer,
property right of the individual was recognized and respected;
the protection of property was no longer left entirely to the
family or individual, but was controlled by law, either by civil
or sacerdotal officials. While we have only small fragments
of such laws, it is probable that attempts to standardize them
for the mutual advantage of the inhabitants of Sumer was made
early. The marriage and divorce customs were not only to
regulate relations between the sexes, but were considered in
the same light as laws governing property right. Sale, rent,
taxation, loans, were controlled by civil law, subject to definite
legal procedure, which when transacted, could not be annulled
without recourse to a court. The phraseology of the various
types of contracts testifies to the regularity of legal control.
The moral principle of the pledge and of surety early emerged
and developed a legal code which shows a highly developed
sense of moral obligation.
Though we are justified in first discussing some of the moral
tendencies of the nation, we find the fundamental social unit
in the family. That the solidarity of the family as such
persisted, may be seen from a document of the time of Na-
bonidus.3 A woman brought suit against a certain Nabu-akhi-
iddin because she had not received payment for a slave she
had sold to him. The defendant produced a receipt proving
that the payment had been made to the sons of the plaintiff.
Investigation showed that the sons had embezzled the money.
^ Jastrow Civilization 353.
2 Cf. §S 228, 234, 243, 257, 258, 261, 268—277.
3 Cf. Barton: Assyrian and Babylonian Literature, Aldine ed. p. 276.
- 46 -
As a penalty for having brought false suit, the plaintiff had to
pay the entire amount of the slave sale j the woman was held
responsible for the crimes of her sons.
The early fragments assume the legal status of marriage,
but give us divorce laws only. The Code of Hammurapi de-
finitely provides, § 128, that a marriage is not legal unless there
is a contract. A marriage usually involved some settlement;
a betrothal present, tirhatam, was given to the bride's father,
and if the groom broke the engagement, he must forfeit this,
§159. A document of the Ur period shows that the consent
of both parents was necessary to annul a betrothal.* But if
the father of the bride later refused to allow his daughter to
marry, he must double the amount of the tirhatam and return
it to the groom, § 1 60. The practice of giving this tirhatam to
the parent of the woman may very probably be a relic of the
primitive custom of bride purchase, as Jastrow maintains.' The
actual dowry or marriage portion, seriktu, given by the bride's
father to his daughter at marriage seems to have played an
important part in controlling the marital status. The early
legal fragments do not furnish us with material relating to
these marriage settlements. The Hammurapi Code provides
that the seriktu was to be refunded to the woman, be she wife
or sugetim, if divorced without cause, § 137, 138; or to an in-
valid wife returning to her father, §149. A widow upon
remarrying took her dowry with her, § 172. Besides this
seriktu which was given at marriage, a marriage gift or nu-
dunnu was given by the husband to the wife, which at her
death belonged to her children, § 171, 172. In the later Baby-
lonian period, we find among the laws published by Peiser,3
Law C, Col. Ill 3 — 15, a law providing for a double settlement;
the father of the son upon the groom, and the father of the
woman upon the bride, and neither party, it would seem, could
go back on its agreement. This corresponds to the tirhatam
of the Code. Another of these laws, Law E Col. Ill 23—31,
protected the bride's father who, having made an agreement
1 RA VIII 27.
2 Jastrow Civilization p. 345; JAOS XXXVI 5.
3 Sitzungsberichte der Koniglichen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin
1889, pp. 825 f.
- 47 -
as to the amount of her marriage portion, later had financial
reverses which rendered him unable to meet his pledge. The
law allowed him to fulfill the pledge by giving according to
his means. In these later Babylonian laws the midunnu is the
dowry and the seriktu the husband's gift to his wife.
One of the earliest regulations relating to divorce is found
in the reforms of Urukagina.^ Urukagina tells us that formerly
this condition was found:
lu-dam-u-kid (When) a man divorces his wife,
ku'gin V an five shekels
pa-te-si-ge to the patesi
ba-timt he pays;
ku-gin-\-an one shekel
sukkal-mah-e the great official
ba-tum receives.
From this it appears that at an early time the divorce money was
paid to the patesi who gave a certain percent to the grand
vizier. While this may have been originally intended to be a
deterrent against divorce, it probably had the opposite effect;
it increased the revenue of the officials, and gave the woman
no economic protection. Urukagina claims to have changed
this evil so that these officials received nothing.* Whether he
was the means of transferring the payment to the wife we do
not know, but in the so-called "Sumerian Family Laws" we read:^
sum-ma If
as-sa-at mu-us-su a woman her husband
i'Zi-ir-ma * resists,
ul mu-ti atta (and) "Thou art not (my) husband",
ik-ta-bi shall say,
a-na na-a-ru into the river
i-na-ad-du-su they shall throw her.
sum-ma If
mu-ut a-na as-sa-ti-su a man to his wife
ul as-sa-ti at-ta "Thou (art) not (my) wife,
ik-ta-bi shall say,"
y, ma-na kaspi i-sak-kal ^2 mana of silver he shall weigh out.
I Oval Plaque Col. II 1. 15—21 D^c. pi. L. a Oval Plaque CoL III 1. 1—5.
3 V R 25; Delitzsch, Les. 2nd. ed. p. 76; 4th ed. p. 115.
4 Cf. Haupt's interpretation in ZA XXX 93—9,.
- 48 -
These two laws show the inequality in the legal status of the
man and woman; it was a simple matter for a Sumerian man
to rid himself of his wife. The only other divorce law that we
have from a period prior to the Hammurapi Code, appears on
the same tablet with the above quoted laws. Unfortunately
the Obverse of this inscription is entirely effaced, and as this
law referring to divorce is the first on the Reverse, it is diffi-
cult, especially in the light of the five or six laws which follow,
to decide what was the context that may have preceded.
These laws, so long entirely misunderstood,* present a number
of interesting sociological points to be discussed later ^ in
connection with Babylonian votaries. To quote only the Se-
mitic text of this law:
u-zu'bu-sii i-ha-as-ma Her divorce money he shall take,
i-na su-ni'SU ir-ku-us in her girdle he shall bind it,
ina bit u-se-si-su from the house he shall cause
her to go out.
a-7ta ma-ti-ma mu-ut lib-bi-su Forever a husband of her choice
i-hu-uS'SU she may marry.
U'ul i-ra-ag-gu-um-si He shall not sue her.
In the Code, however, a sugetim or Sal Me who had borne
children,^ if divorced without just cause, received her dowry
and the income of the fields, garden, and goods to enable her
to bring up her children, § 137. If she had no children, she
received from her husband the amount of her tirhatam and her
seriktam, § 138. If it happened that there had been no mar-
riage settlement, the husband must give her one mana of silver,
§ 139, or if he were a freeman, ^/^ mana, § 140. On the other
hand, if a woman had neglected her household, she received
nothing, § 141. If a woman resisted her husband and desired
divorce, she could have a trial, and if found blameless, she
received her dowry and returned to her father's house, § I42.4
These laws show considerable development over the Sumerian;
the wife is given fair trial, and there is in no case a death
penalty for the woman. Women once married were free to
1 V R 25; Trans, by Barton in AJSL XXXVII pp. 62—71.
2 See pp. 54—79-
3 For interpretation of sugetim and SAL ME see p. 58.
4 Cf. note 4 p. 47.
~ 49 —
marry again, whether divorced, § 137, or widowed, §§ 172 — 4,
177. The wife of a man who had deserted his city and fled,
could also remarry, § 136. That it was the custom for a man
to continue to live in his father's house after marriage is im-
plied by §§ 155 and 156. There is evidence from § 166 and
from a legal document' that a man was not free to marry
without his father's consent, and from the abduction laws of
the Yale text^ it appears that a woman must have the con-
sent of her parents.
Scanty as our material is for the early period, we may trace
a distinct development in the divorce regulations. We note
the transfer of the payment of the divorce money from offi-
cials to the woman. The money which the woman received
was at first a nominal sum, and by the time of the First Dy-
nasty, the amount received was regulated by the amount of
her tirhatam and seriktam.
From the earliest time the prevailing custom seems to have
been to permit only one legal wife, and the Code allows con-
cubines. As early as the time of Urukagina there are found
among his other social reforms, regulations against bigamy.
The law gave the man a right to divorce his wife if he discov-
ered that she had been previously married to two men.3
sal ud-bi-ta-e-ne (If) the woman before she was
in his house
nitah 2-ta two men
ni-tug-an possessed,
sal-ud-da-e-ne now the woman they, —
za-as-da-bi fti-stib the man who wishes shall cast off.
It is possible to interpret this text as meaning that the woman
had been married to two men successively, but if this be the
case, it is difficult to understand why the third husband should
necessarily wish to divorce her. Two frequently quoted,* un-
dated documents which Schorr assigns to the time of Sinmu-
ballit record the marriage of two sisters s to one man. But it
appears that one sister is to be subservient to the other.
I Cf. Johns Bab. & Ass. 127, Cyrus 312.
a YBT Vol. I, p. 22. 3 Oval Plaque, D6c. L.
4 CT II 44; Schorr No. 4; MAP 89, etc.
5 Meissner in Alte Orient VII (i) 23 says probably not actual sister.
4
— 50 -
The expression su-ge-tim which appears in the Code, has
ben interpreted as concubine, but the interpretation of Peiser
and Landsberger seems the more probable.^ But whatever
function the sugetim performed in Babylonian society, it is
certain that the amtu served as a recognized concubine, §§ 144,
146. If the amtu bore children, her mistress could not sell
her, §§ 146, 147. That the sons of an amtu in a royal family
could hold full rank is indicated by the fact that the mother
of Esarhaddon was an amat^
Further laws regulating morality within the family group are
those dealing with incest and adultery. The early legal frag-
ments have no material relating to this. But incest is dealt
with in the Code by four laws: concerning a man and his
daughter, penalty, expulsion from the city § 154; father and
daughter-in-law, penalty, father drowned § 155; a father and
his son's betrothed, penalty, father fined § 156; a man and his
mother after the death of his father, penalty, both burned S I57 ;
a man and his father's chief wife who has borne children, pe-
nalty, man disinherited %\l%. Jastrow considers §§ 156 and
158 a late development, but in any case it will be noted that
in only one circumstance is the woman penalized. Adultery
was a capital offense, the offenders being bound and thrown
into the river § 129; but the husband might save his wife, or
the king his male servant A man who forced a virgin who
was betrothed, was put to death and the woman allowed to
go free, § 130. If a man falsely accused his wife, she could
take an oath in the name of the god and return to her house
S 1 3 1 ; on the other hand, if a wife was falsely accused because
of another man, for her husband's sake, {ana mutisa), she must
throw herself into the river, %\Z2.
Children, legitimate or adopted, were entirely under the con-
trol of their parents, and any disloyalty was severely punished.
In the Sumerian Family Laws we read, to quote the Semitic
version :
sum-ma ma-ru a-na a-bi-su If a child to its father,
ul-a-bi (at-ta) My father (thou art) not
ik-ta-(bi) shall say,
I See discussion cited below p. 58. « AJSL XXIX 26 f.
- 51 —
u-gal'la-ab-su they shall brand him,
ab'bu-(ud-tiim) i-sa-ak-ga-su a fetter they shall bind upon him
u a-na kaspi i-nam-ru-su and for money shall sell him.
sum-ma ma-ri a-na um-mi-su If a child to his mother,
td um-mi at-ti ik-ta-bi "Thou art not my mother", shall
say,
mu-ut-ta-as-su u-gal-bu-ma his forehead they shall brand,'
a-la-am u-za-ah-ha-ru-su in the city they shall belittle him,
u i-na bit u-se-su-su and from the house they cause
him to go out.
On a legal fragment of the Yale collection are found two laws
of a similar nature.* One declares that if a child repudiate his
parents, he shall leave the house and the neighborhood, but
his father must first give him his full share of the estate. The
other declares that if the parents repudiate the child, he shall
go forth from the city. 3 The same principle of punishment
holds in the case of the adoption of a woman, who proving
disloyal, was made an amat.^ But a son who had been disin-
herited might be adopted by another.s
The Hammurapi Code allowed the child a trial before disin-
heritance could be brought about, and if found guiltless, the
father could not cast him off, § 1 68. If the child had com-
mitted a crime, he could be pardoned for first offense, but at
second offense could be cut off from sonship, § 169. But if
the rebellious son were adopted, he was cut off and returned
to the house of his real parents, § 186. Should this rebellious
adopted son be that of a special class of society, the NER-
SE-GA or zinnisti zikru,^ they must cut out his tongue 8 192;
if he hated his adopted father and mother because he had
discovered his real parentage, they must pluck out his eye,
§ 193. An adopted son was protected by the law; an artisan
who had adopted a son as an apprentice, must teach him his
craft §§ 188 — 9; a man must reckon the young adopted son
among his own sons S IQOJ a man who had taken a young
I Cf. discussion pp. 83 — 85.
a YBT Vol. I, No. 28, Laws 4 and 5.
3 Cf. Schorr 9. 4 OLZ IX 534.
5 YBT Vol. n, No. 50.
6 See Discussion pp. 70 — 78.
4*
- 52 —
child to rear, and who later acquired sons of his own, might
not cut him off, he must give him one third of the portion
of a son, but no real estate, S ^P^-
A man had the right to sell his wife or son for debt. In the
First Dynasty, he could sell his daughter as a common slave,^
though it is doubtful whether he could actually sell his son as
a slave. While the son was bound out in service however,
his life was probably the same as that of an ordinary slave;
his services were estimated at the rate of a slave. A man
could dispose of his son as profit to his creditor for a maxi-
mum of three years, § 117, or could conclude an arrangement
to have his son's services used by creditors.' In the later time
a man could give his wife for debt,3 but in this case she ser-
ved as an amtu who was a concubine.-* A daughter could be
sold by her mother, s
As has been indicated, the marriage dowry constituted the
chief article of inheritance. A woman's dowry belonged to
her children, §§ 162, 171; if she were childless, and the father-
in-law returned to the husband the marriage settlement, tir-
hatam, the woman's dowry, seriktu, belonged to the house of
her father, § 163. If a woman's husband had not given her
a gift, she received her dowry and a portion of her husband's
estate equal to that of a son, § 172. Her children, after the
death of their father, could not claim any property he might
have legally given her; she could will such property to a child,
but not to her brother, %i^o. A favorite son could inherit not
only what his father had given him, but also, at the division
of the estate, an equal amount with his brothers, S ^^S- ^^ ^^^
case of a man who had had two wives, each of whom had
borne children, the children received the dowries of their re-
spective mothers, and an equal division of their father's estate,
§ 167. The children of a maid, if recognized by the father as
sons, inherited equally with the wife's children S ^/O; if the
children had not been recognized by the father, they did not
share with the children of the wife, but they and their mother
were given their freedom, S ^7i- ^^ ^ widow left the house of
her first husband, and bore children to a second husband, at
I RA VIII 12. 2 CT IV 22^. 3 Nabonidus 655.
4 See RA XII, 84ff. & CT VIII 22^^. S RA VIH 19.
— 53 —
her death the children of each shared her dowry, § 173, but if
she did not bear children to her second husband, the children
of the first received her dowry, § 174. It is of interest to note
that if a slave of the palace or a freeman married the daughter
of a patrician, the children might not be claimed for service
by the owner of the slave, S ^75- The children received the
social status of the mother rather than of the father.
The late Babylonian laws have also reference to inheritance.
Law D^ provided that if a widower who had a married son
should marry again, and his second wife should bear children,
the sons of the second wife received a third of his property
remaining. Law K provided that on the death of a man who
had married twice and had children by both marriages, the
children of the first wife could take two thirds of the goods of
the father's house, and the children of the second wife could
take one third. This law is inferior to Code $16^ which allows
the children the dowries of their respective mothers, and an
equal division of the father's estate. Law F is analogous to
Code $16^.
Several groups are worthy of special discussion, and of them
none is more important than that of women. The appearance
of women in public life is one of the most unique features of
Sumerian and Akkadian society. There are no traces of the
custom of keeping women in entire seclusion, in the oriental
sense. This was true also of women of the royal family. Even
in the early period they are found in official positions. Sargon I
in the 26th year of his reign appointed his daughter to be
"lady" of the Elamite region of Marharshi.^ In documents of
the seventh century are found references to the office of
sakintu^ which was, on analogy with the saknu^ that of del-
egate or deputy, possibly parallel to the Persian satrap,^ an
office probably dependent on the king's will. The sakinti were
doubtless women of royal rank. A woman appears as a may-
oress of a small district,* as judge,5 and as scribe.^
I Peiser: Sitzungsherichte der Koniglich Preussischen Akademie der Wissen-
schaften 1889 Pt. 2 826. 2 King Hist. Sumer 286.
3 ADD II SS ^79» 180 gives list of occurrences of this term in Assyrian
documents treated. 4 ADD No. 232.
5 CT VIII 28^. Cf. Jastrow, Civilization 346.
6 K. 1473, Cf. ADD II S 153.
" 54 -
Not only the women of nobility had freedom, but the aver-
age woman was free to enter industry, could contract legally,
and negotiate all kinds of business transactions.^ The SAL
ME, a type of votary, was very active in buying and selling
real estate, and lending money.* Women possessed large
estates, they could act as sellers for their husbands in their
absence, but do not appear in court apart from their hus-
bands.^ It is probable, as shown in a document from the time
of Ammi-ditana, that a married woman could not appear in
court alone, but that in case she was summoned or was the
initiator of a suit, her husband must appear in her stead.* If
this were true, by her marriage she lost, in part, her legal identity.
On the other hand we find a document interpreted by Oppert
to record the case of a woman who became legal guardian of
her husband.5 That she could enter into all kinds of business
relations has been shown above,^ and her name was as good
as that of a man, when attached to a pledge or note.7
The ennumeration of all the industrial capacities in which
women served, would involve a detailed study of the economic
life; we find women as millers,^ weavers,^ messengers, '° and
stenographers (?)." The keeping of public beer houses was
evidently an occupation exclusively of women of the lower
class.^2
A class of women which must be considered in any dis-
cussion of Babylonian and Assyrian morals is that to which
the general term "votary" may be tentatively applied. The
exact interpretation of the functions of these women is involv-
ed in considerable difficulty. There are fourteen sections in
the Hammurapi Code which have been interpreted as applying
1 For late period cf. BA IV (i) pp. 1—77.
2 See discussion p. 60 note 4.
3 ADD II § 106. 4 RA VII 129—138.
5 ZA III 17. 6 pp. 34—45-
7 Cf. J. P. Morgan I No. 29.
8 Amherst Tablets 151.
9 Thureau-Dangin, Invent, de Tello II (l) 790, 794-
10 PSBA XXXIII 121 f. ZA XIX 384.
" SAL-DUP-SARj CT VI 46 cf. Lindl p. 19 and passim.
12 Code S 110; MAP No. 35. Smith Miscellaneous Texts Sm. 526,15. PSBA
XXXVI 104.
— 55 —
to such women,^ and within these sections a number of classes
of votaries appear to be mentioned; the SAL ME, the SAL
ME NIN-AN, the zm7iistu zikru, the SAL E-GE-A, the SAL
ME NU-GIG, the NU-BAR, and the SAL ME ilu Marduk. It
will be noted that the sign ^— f- occurs either separately or
in composition eleven times in these fourteen laws.* In the
instances in which it appears alone, it has been interpreted as
"votary"^ and as "wife"*. The sign appears to be composed
of ^ the feminine determinative and >f-, MAS, or |i=— , ME;
in either case it may mean a consecrated woman or priestess.
As will be observed later, in the legal documents in the Hammu-
rapi script, the sign is frequently written so that its identification
with ME seems the more probable. The transliteration of ^-f-
as assatu has no foundation in the syllabaries, though it is em-
ployed by a number of scholars.s A syllabar text (VAT 9558)
would seem to Landsberger to establish for SAL ME the
reading naditu or natitu\^ while we may recognize this as
possibly correct, because the text is fragmentary, we shall in
referring to this class employ the transliteration SAL ME
throughout this discussion. Meissner was the first to point
out the existence of this class of women, whom he regarded as
priestesses of Samas.7 In g§ no, 178, 179, the sign is used in
connection with NIN AN which may be read e7itu} Dhorme9
identifies this type of votary as a high priestess: *'De meme
que le personage enu est en tete du sacerdoce, le pretresse
entu (bab. entum) est la premiere d'entre les femmes sacrees".
NIN AN has been variously transliterated and translated, so
Harper *° reads NIN AN and translates "priestess", Ungnad"
reads entum and translates "Hierodule"; Barton" translates ''wife
of a god"; Lyon '3 translates "sister of a god". In %i\o the
» §S 40, 110, 127, 137, 144—147, 178, 179, 180, 181, 182, 192, 193.
2 SS 40, 110, 137, 144—146, 178, 179, 180, 181, 182.
3 So Lyon, Barton. 4 So Scheil, Harper, Kohler and Peiser, etc.
5 So Scheil, D61. IV p. 56 n. i; Ham. Laws. SS 137» 144— 146; Rogers,
Cun. Par. to 0. T. pp. 429, 431, etc.; KU II 50, 52.
6 ZDMG LXIX 506. 7 MAP p. 11 1.
8 Br. 10997; cf. also KB VI (i) 439-
9 RA XI 106. »o Ham. Laws. p. ST, 45, etc.
" KU II 46 etc.; I Z1 etc, « Arch. & Bib. 322 etc.
13 Toy Vol. 347.
- 56 -
sign ^-f- appears before the NIN AN, and in §§ 178, 179
after it. Jastrow' considers the NIN AN or SAL NIN AN as
in the service of the god, hence, a sacred prostitute, and the
NIN AN SAL as in the service of a goddess and therefore
allowed to marry. Such a distinction, based evidently on the
order, is artificial; Sumerian was certainly not precise in the
order of signs. Scheil^ held that the SAL and the NIN AN
represented the same class of persons. Barton, Lyon, and
Ungnad interpret the sign ^»-f— as referring to a separate
class from the NIN AN, and hence translate: "If the wife of
a god, priestess," etc;^ *Wenn eine Hierodule, Priesterin," etc*
NIN AN appears without ^— |— accompanying it, in § 127.
There is therefore the possibility that this sign when used in
composition is a determinative of office.
The ziftnistmn zi-ik-ru-imi^ has been interpreted: Harper^
"devotee"; Ungnad, 7 "Hure"; Scheil,^ "femme publique";
Winkler,9 "Buhldirne"; "Cook,^° "courtesan"; Dhorme," "femme-
male"; Barton," "sacred harlot" — according as zi-ik-ru-nm
has been identified with zikaru, "to name", or zikaru, "male".^^
The SAL E-GE-A may be transliterated kallatnn,^'' "bride",
and is menioned only in § 180. Here again, various inter-
pretations have been offered: Scheil,^5 transliterates kallatim,
and translates "bride"; Ungnad, ^^ transliterates ishppat ij) gagim,
and translates, "eine Priesterin"; Barton,' 7 translates ''a priestess
living in the appointed house". The expression MAL-GE-A
appears in § iio; in Harper's edition of the Code, no trans-
lation for the group of signs is offered, but in subsequent
notes'^ he considers MAL a scribal error for E. Winckler and
Miiller translate "Frauenhaus", and Peiser'9^ "Harem".
I AJSL XXXVI (I) 30, n. 50. 2 D61. IV ^7 n. e. (1).
3 Arch. & Bib. 331. 4 KU I 54.
5 S§ 178, 179, 180, 187, 192, 193. 6 Ham. Laws p. 65 etc.
7 KU I p. 53. 8 La loi de Ham. 2nd ed. p. 38.
9 Die Gesetze Ham. p. 52 ff.
^o Laws of Moses and Code of Ham. p. 148.
II La Religion Assyro-Bab. p. 300. 12 Arch. & Bib. p. 331.
13 KU I p. 53 n. 3 "oder ist awilat zikru etwa als Zwitter zu verstehen?"
of. also Del. IV p. 87 n. 2 — "femelle du male".
M M 4459. ^5 Da IV p. 89. 16 KU I 54; II 69.
17 Arch. & Bib. p. 331 18 AJSL XXII 15. ^9 KU I 32.
— 57 -
SAL ME NU GIG, § i8i, may be transliterated kadistii,^
"temple prostitute". = It has been translated by Rogers and
Harper as "votary", by Barton, "sacred harlot", by Johns,
"temple maid", by Ungnad, "eine Priesterin, Dime (?)". Dhorme^
considers the kadistu a prostitute, identifying her and the zer-
niasitii with the istaritu, Kadistu is connected with the root
tS^lp, which is used in Deut. 23 1 8, a law against sacred prosti-
tutes, male and female.*
In g 181 NU BAR,5 may be transliterated ^^;';;2^i'//^w,^ "one
that throws away seed". Harper,^ leaves the term untranslated;
Barton^ translates ''temple maid"; Johns, 9 "virgin"; Rogers ^°
"hierodule"; Ungnad" "Templemadchen"; with the suggestion
of the possibility of "Jungfrau"; Scheil" "la petiti"; while Jastrow^3
interprets it as one who vows herself to chastity.
These in brief are the classes of vowed women provided
for by the Hammurapi Code: the SAL ME, the SAL ME
NIN AN, the zinnistu zikru, the kadistam, and the zerniasitani.
Before attempting to decide what, if any, distinction existed
between them, it is necessary to compare the sections of the
Code which mention them.
§ 40 has been interpreted by some scholars to have no re-
ference to a votary. The first sign, Stele Col. XII 1. 39, is read
asm by Scheil, translated as a preposition, "pour", and inter-
preted as a pun!^'^ Peiser regards the sign as used for summa.^^
Daiches holds that the meaning "votary" is improbable.^^ If
the sign of the original inscription is ^>— |— as Scheil and
Harper read it, in the light of our knowledge of business trans-
actions into which a SAL ME entered, instances of which are
very numerous,^ 7 it does not seem improbable that § 40 ap-
plied to the SAL ME class.
1 B. 2017. See also K B VI (i) 439-
2 MA 910 (a). 3 RA XI 107.
4 Cf. Gen. 3821.2; Hos. 4 H. S ZA XXIV 345.
6 M 1147; cf. MA 297 (a). 7 Ham. Laws p. 69.
8 Arch. & Bib. 331. 9 Johns Bab. & Ass. p. 60.
xo Cun. Par. to O. T. p. 442.
" KU I 55, and n. 2.
12 D^l. IV 87. 13 JAOS XXXVI 30, n. 51.
M D61. IV 37 n. 3. IS KU I 20.
16 ZA XVIII 206. »7 See note 4 p. 60.
- 58 -
S§ I37> ^44 — 7 h^ye been construed as applying to a regular
wife. If the sign ^-|- is read assatam, it must be noted,
that assatam occurs in the Code phonetically written thirty-
three times, and in all of these instances, it clearly means
*'wife". Of the eleven cases in which ^-|— is used, seven
apply to a vowed woman: gg 40, no, 178, 179, 180, 181, 182.
There is a possibility therefore, that had assatam been intended,
it would have been written phonetically. Luckenbill* bases an
argument for the reading assatam upon the new versions of
portions of the Code, published by Langdon' and Poebel,^
which he believes use the sign DAM {=assatu) instead of
SAL ME. He notes that Langdon himself is doubtful whether
his copy is correct, but considers the appearance of the sign
in PoebePs text as conclusive proof that Langdon's copy is
correct and this group of laws refers to the regular wife. An
examination of Poebel's text, however, renders this conclusion
precarious; the tablet appears to be considerably worn away,
the traces of the sign as indicated by Poebel are quite insuf-
ficient to establish any proof. The sign might equally well be
NIN. But if the sign intended is DAM, in recognition of the
variant script of the Hammurapi period, there is the possibility
that DAM was substituted for the SAL ME of the stele text;
we have a strong analogy in the exchange of SAL and SAL
ME in the business documents.^ Some regulation dealing
with a man's right to take a concubine, would, however, be
expected.
The interpretation of sal^ugetim of §g 137, 144 — 7, as con-
^ cubine has for a long time been held, and its possible identi-
fication by dissimilation with hl^ advocated.5 It has likewise
been considered to be connected with sanu.^ Whether it is to
be read sarratum, is questioned.^ Peiser has noted ^ that § 146
and 148 of the Code are parallel in that they provide for the
securing of offspring. In § 146 the term ^(^^ su-ge-tim is used,
and in § 148, sa-ni-tim\ % \6f6 concerns the married SAL ME,
1 AJSL XXXIV 2fr. 2 BE (A) XXXI No. 22, Obv., Col. i.
3 BE V No. 93. Col. 10.
4 See note 4 p. 60. 5 ZA XV 396; OLZ VII 171.
6 Br. 7132, M 5124. Delitzsch, Sumerisches Glossar S. loo.
7 KU II S. 168. 8 OLZ XVIII ^Z.
- 59 —
S 148 the as-sa-tam. Landsberger ^ has tried to show that the
sugetim was a secondary priestess who bore children for the SAL
ME. Such an interpretation, besides explaining the frequently
mentioned document recording the marriage of two sisters to
one man,^ makes more intelligible § 183, 184 of the Code. These
laws immediately follow those dealing with the dowry of pries-
tesses of various classes. If we accept this interpretation of hige-
tim, we have only one law in the Code relating to an ordinary
concubine, § 148, — a law making concubinage legal in case of
illness of the wife. Now if we assume that §§ 137, 144 — 7 applies
to the SAL ME, this type of votary might marry and have
children. Lyon believes that, with the possible exception of the
zinnistu zikru, no votary bore children. 3 The word aladu is never
applied to her, though used about twenty times in the Code with
reference to the regular wife, sugetim^ and widow who married
again. The votary "causes her husband to have children", i e,
usarsi, ustabsL This distinction is particularly striking in § 137.
Lyon therefore concludes that the votary wife was barren, and
that her marriage was late in life. In this connection we may
note in a bilingual religious text from A§Sur, published by Ebe-
ling'^ and translated by Maynard,5 the verbs aladu and usarsu
The words are used in a manner that would indicate that the
writer considered them synonymous. The incantation is ad-
dressed to Enlil; the Akkadian of the line in question reads:
sa a-na ha-i-ri-ia zd-du-su u-sar-bu-su , "by whom (ie. Enlil)
for my husband I have borne him, I have brought him ."
The Sumerian of the line has only the verb tii-ud-ba-an-ta.
The tddtisu usarbum represents a double translation of the
single Sumerian verb. The distinction between the two verbs
which Lyon so strongly urges is not entirely unquestionable.
A document from the time of Sam§i-iluna records the
marriage of a SAL ^^« Samas.^ Another, of the 1st dynasty 7
gives an account of the dowry of a SAL Marduk u zennasitam
who is to marry the son of a priest of Ishtar; it states that
for all time her children shall be her heirs (?). This does not
1 ZA XXX 68. 2 KU 2, 3. 3 Toy Vol. 351.
4 Keilschrifttexte aus Assur: Religiosen Inhalts, No. 14 Obv. Col. I 8-
5 AJSL XXXIV 37—39. 6 MAP No. 90.
7 BE (A) VI (I) No. 84.
— 6o —
prove that they were children whom she had borne; these
documents only show that these women married, and present
the possibility that they bore children. The suggestion of
Johns ^ that a votary, though married, must keep a vow of
virginity, seems untenable. But we know that they sometimes
adopted children;* and in one case^ a SAL ME gave her son
to a married couple as foster-child, the penalties for the re-
pudiation of his foster parents being enumerated.
The SAL ME were free to enter into all kinds of business
relations, as an examination of the contract tablets shows. The
tablets are largely concerned with the business interests of the
SAL or SAL ME of Samas, though there are some which
relate to votaries dedicated to other gods. We find ^^^
»f ^1 (SAL il^ Santas) quite as often as ^Hf- »f ^] (SAL
ME i^^ Samas). It is obvious that the two terms are used
interchangeably, as the occasional appearance of both expres-
sions on the same tablet referring to the same priestess, indi-
cates. The irregularity of the Hammurapi script often makes
it impossible to distinguish which was intended. A classified
list serves to illustrate the diversity of interests of these women. *
t Johns Bab. & Ass. p. 137; Hastings Bib. Diet. V 591. Cf. also King
Hist. Bab. p. 187. and Mercer JSOR II 58.
2 CT VIII 5a; Schorr p. 35: CT 11 41; Schorr p. 36
3 BE (A) VI (I) No. 17.
4 ADOPTION
BE (A) VI (i) No. 17.
BE (A) VI (1) No. 96.
CT II. 41 Schorr No. 19.
CT VIII. 5 a Schorr No. 18.
BUILDING
CT rV 22 b Schorr No. 198 A.
TD 185 Schorr No. 201.
EXCHANGE
TD 73 Schorr No. 1 13 (Land).
CT VIII 22 a Schorr No. 114 ( „ ).
GIFTS
P. 70 Schorr ABR III 27 (Real Estate)
VS VIII 33-34 ( „ „ )
CT VI 21 c Schorr No. 213 ( „ „ )
CT VIII 20 a Schorr No. 215 ( „ „ )
— 6i —
The NIN AN or entti was not permitted to conduct or even
enter a wine shop, S ^^OJ she was protected from slander as
VS VIII 3
Schorr No. 213 (Real Estate)
BE (A) VI (2) 70
Schorr No. 206 ( „ „ )
TD 90
Schorr No. 214 (Slave)
VS VIII 33-34
Schorr No. 216 ( „ )
CT VIII 48 a
Schorr No. 27 ( „ )
CT Vm 291 c
Lindl p. 24 ( „ )
HIRE
MAP No. (i% PI. 32 (House)
MAP No. 88 p. 59
( » )
MAP No. 70
( » )
BE (A) VI (1) z^
( » )
MAP No. 73
(Field)
MAP No. 74
( » )
VS IX 157
( » )
INHERITANCE
MAP No. 105
MAP No. Ill
TD 98—99
Schorr No. 186
VS IX 130
Schorr No. 187
VS IX I44-I4S
Schorr No. 188
VS IX 216
LAW SUIT
CT VI 7 a
Schorr No. 297 (Plaintiflf)
CT VIII 6 b
Schorr No. 268 ( „ )
CT II 45
Schorr No. 278 ( „ )
CT VIII 12 b
Schorr No. 260 ( „ )
AO 5429
Schorr No. 317 (Defendant)
CT VI 6
Schorr No. 281 ( „ )
LOAN
TD 82—83
Schorr No. 107 (Bricks)
VS IX 173
Schorr No. 68 (Com)
CT VIII 33 b
Schorr No. 48 ( „ )
VS VIII 93-94
Schorr No. 45 ( „ )
MAP No. 22
( » )
MAP No. 24
( » )
CT IV 20 c
Schorr No. io8 (Onions)
BE (A) VI (I) No.
38 (Money)
CT VIII 24 b
Schorr No. 267 ( „ )
VS VIII 47—48
Schorr No. 49 ( „ )
MAP No. 12
( » )
MAP No. 13
( » )
VAT 1474 A-B
( » )
— 62 —
was the legal wife, § 127 (it is to be noted that there was no
such provision made for the kadistu^ sermasitu-, or zikru.) If
LEASE
BE (A) VI (I) 74.
PURCHASE
CT VI 7b
Lindl p. 22
(Land)
CT 11 17
Lindl p. 23
( „ )
CT IV 44 b
AJSL XXX 181
( » )
CT IV 19 b
AJSL XXX 193 ( „ )
CT II 3
AJSL XXX 170 ( „ )
CT II 5
AJSL XXX 191 ( „ )
CT II 7
AJSL XXX 183 ( „ )
CT II 42
AJSL XXX 187 (Orchard)
CT VI 48 b
Schorr No. 65
(Land)
BE (A) VI (I) No.
13
CT IV so a
KU III 380
CT VIII 23 c
KU III 389
CT VIII 25 b
Schorr No. 96
BE (A) VI (I) No
61 Schorr No. 95 A
CT IV 20 a
AJSL XXX 177 (House)
VS VIII 58
Schorr No. 87
( M )
BE (A) VI (I) No.
105 Schorr No. 92
( ., )
TD 75
Schorr No. 88
( „ )
CT II 26
AJSL XXX 178 ( „ )
MAP No. 31
( » )
MAP No. 40
RENTAL
( » )
BE (A) VI (I) 33a
BE (A) VI (I) 35
(House)
TD 106
Schorr No. 143
( » )
BE (A) VI (1) 51
(Store)
BE (A) VI (1) 5
(Field)
CT VIII 40 b
Schorr No. 118
( » )
CT VIII 17 b
Schorr No. 121
( » )
BE (A) VI (1) 42
Schorr No. 125
i >, )
F II
Schorr No. 152
(Slave)
CT VI 40 a
Schorr No. 153
( . )
CT vin ISC
Schorr No. 154
( » )
VS VIII 99-100
( » )
p 13
( » )
MISCELLANEOUS
CT VIII 49 b
Schorr No. IS
(SAL ME Marduk)
CT VIII 6 a
KU III 450
\ >» >» »» /
CT IV lib
AJSL XXX 189 ( „ „ „ )
BE (A) VI (2) p. 45
( „ „ NINIB)
- 63 -
her father had given her a dowry, and had not in a deed of
gift given her power to will to whom she please, her brothers
must give her a rightful share; if they did not, she might give
her field to any tenant whom she chose, and the tenant must
maintain her. She could not sell or transfer her property, and
at her death it belonged to her brothers, § 178. But if her father
had given her power to will, her brothers could not lay claim,
S 179. If she were dowerless, she received a son's share to
enjoy as long as she lived, § 180. The NIN AN was some-
times of royal family. An inscription in the Louvre* published
by Dhorme' tells that Nabonidus, after rebuilding E-SAG-IL
and E-ZI-DA, dedicated his daughter as priestess, ana e-nu-tim,
and caused her to enter into the E-GI-PAR. A cylinder of
Nabonidus now in the Yale Collection^ contains an account of
his restoration of E-GI-PAR, and of the dedication of his
daughter as entu (NIN - AN -R A). This inscription describes
the enttis function as that of diviner (Col. I 1. 7 — 14 etc.).
The E-GI-PAR is designated as the archive of the edicts
of the entu office. Now giparu means primarily "a reed".*
Dhormes establishes the probability that giparu represented a
tree,^ or group of trees, and that E-GI-PAR meant a sanc-
tuary which was a residence of the entu. Dhorme also main-
tains that the giparu corresponded to the alleged hanging
gardens, and that the ziggurat at Erech was called e-gi-par-
iminp as it comprised seven stages, each planted with trees.
Herodutus* wrote that in the topmost tower of the ziggurat
there was a sanctuary containing a large couch, that a woman
passed the night there, and that the natives believed the god
came down and slept upon the couch. In view of this tradi-
tion, Dhorme's interpretion of the E-GI-PAR is a tempting one.
The possibility is that the E-GI-PAR, while it may originally
have been a sanctuary in the sacred grove in the precincts of
the temple, was in the large temples the name applied to the
priestesses quarters in the ziggurat. In the Yale cylinder, Nabo-
nidus tells of repairing the wall over the ancient ma-ai-al (tna-
I Louvre AO 6444. * RA XI 105 flf.
3 YBT., No. 45. — See also Rhue BibUque 1908 p. 130, which may indicate
that Nabonidus' mother was an entu. 4 MA 229 a.
5 RA XI 108. 6 Cf. Jensen in KB VI 304.
7 M 6709—6710. 8 Bk. I S 182.
- 64 -
a-a-al),^ which Clay translates "resting place."' Jensen 3 identi-
fies it with the root ^«i, "to rest," and considers it equivalent
to irsii, "bed."
Herodotus further states that this priestess was chosen by
the god from all the women of the land. Jastrow'^ observes
that the Yale Nabonidus text states that through omens the
god showed that he "desired," erisu, the princess; the word
erisu is used for "betrothed" in the corresponding Hebrew form,
and in Babylonian is a synonym for "husband" (eri§u=l)a' iru,
II R PI. 36, 39c — d.) We have two inscriptions which give
details of ceremonies undoubtedly connected with the customs
Herodotus records in connection with the ziggurat: ones des-
cribes the dedication of a couch for the god Nabu, who is
said to enter the chamber on the third day of the month Aru
the other ^ also records ceremonies of consecrating a couch of
a god. The first of these inscriptions, and the opening lines
of the Yale cylinder indicate that ceremonies of this nature
took place at a stated time. The second inscription implies
that the priestess who officiated was a virgin. Was a different
entu chosen to represent the wife of the god at each festival?
Was it possible that her term of office lasted only during the
festival? If this was the case, what became of her afterward? The
fact that there are so few references to a NIN-AN outside the
Code would argue rather for the position, that she held her
office as long as she lived. Herodotus states that the priestess
of the chamber could not have intercourse with mortal man.
While it is true that the marital relations of the gods as the
Babylonians conceived them, are greatly confused; because of
the stringent laws against adultery the Code contains, it is
reasonable to suppose there was a feeling that only one wo-
man represented the chief wife of the god. It may be there-
fore, that the NIN AN was the only class of priestess of whom
1 CoL II 1. 4. cf. same term in Gilgamesh Fragment BE X (3) p. 218 1. 22.
In connection with this it is interesting to note Urukagina Cone Col. IX 1. lo,
I gar sag-lal-sal, might be interpreted, "one bread for the woman of the couch".
2 YBT Vol. I, p. 67. 3 KB VI (i) p. 409.
4 AJSL XXXIII p. 120.
5 Harper Ass. & Bab. Letters No. 65. Cf. Frazer, Magic Art II 130.
6 K 164, transliterated in BA II 635.
- 65 -
virginity was required. That a king should dedicate his daughter
as a NIN AN would signify that it was an office which had
considerable prestige.'
The term SAL ME E-GE-A (kallatim, *'bride") appears only
in § 1 80. As the Sumerian implies that she was connected
with a special house, this may be a variant term for the NIN
AN who lived in the E-GI-PAR. That this is a reasonable
supposition is shown by the content of § 180. SS ^7^> ^79 ^^^
with the inheritance rights of the NIN AN and zinnistu zikru:
first, whose father has given a dowry and written a deed of
gift, but has not given her right to will; second, whose father
has given a dowry and written a deed of gift, and has given
her right to will to whom she please. Now § 180 provides for
the dowerless SAL ME kallatim or zinnistu zikru. Conse-
quently if the kallatim is not identified with the NIN AN, there
is no provision for the dowerless NIN AN. The term kallatim
is in the religious literature sometimes applied to Ishtar.* These
laws show that the NIN AN could hold property: there are
a few documents relating to real estate of a NIN AN.^
The preceding discussion tends to establish the identity of
the NIN AN or etitu as the high priestess who represented the
real wife of the god, and presided in the ziggurat chamber:
because she was not permitted to enter a wine shop, which
appears to have been the rendezvous of the vicious elements
of society 'I because she alone was protected from slander as
was the regular legal wife; because she was sometimes of royal
family, and her position appears to have been one of honor;
X For an example of the high position of a votary in early times, cf. Meyer's
and King's interpretation of the plaque of Urnina; i e, that the standing figure
facing Urnina represents his votary daughter, and that she is attended by her
brother Akurgal (Meyer, Sum. und San. p. 79; King, Hist, of Sumer and Akkad,
p. 115, 116). This of course gives no hint of the type of votary she was. In
connection with this note also No. 27 Rev. 1. i of Amherst Tablets, which
designates an official by calling him §ES NIN AN, "brother of the NIN AN".
Cf. also D61. IV 608 Col. n 1. 7 §ES SAL ME.
2 Zimmern. KAT 3, 432, 3. As applied to goddess Ai, cf. CT XXXII
pi. 1—4, Col. I 17, 25; Col. XI 12, 32. In legal literature: VAT 750.
3 CT VI 22a — possession of a field; Thureau-Dangin, Invent, de Tello,p. 15.
No. 1246, text not pub. VS VIII 55; KU IV 785, Schorr No. 24, a Kallatim
gives a slave to temple service.
4 See implication of S io9-
5
— 66 —
and because we have no inscriptions which record a NIN AN
marrying, adopting children, or giving children for adoption.
Johns writes in reference to the votary class as a whole,
"nowhere in the code or elsewhere is there any trace of the
evil reputation which Greek writers assign to these ladies, and
the translations which make them prostitutes, or unchaste, are
not to be accepted. Greek influence may have corrupted their
morals". * It is hardly necessary to revert to Greek writers to
find unmistakable traces, aside from any we may believe to
be in the code, of prostitution as a part of the religious prac-
tices; and it is scarcely probable that by the time of Herodo-
tus at least, there had been sufficient Greek influence to
corrupt the social structure of Babylonian society to any
appreciable degree. The worship of Ishtar, who was funda-
mentally the goddess of fertility, naturally involved practices
which appear licentious. Herodotus,* Strabo,^ the writer of
the apocryphal Jeremiah, * and the metaphors used in the Old
Testament and the statements made by its prophetical writers ,s
combine in testifying that not only did such practices exist,
but that they were prevalent to a late period. Whether the
assertion of Herodotus^ that every Babylonian woman must
openly sacrifice her virginity as a religious rite is correct
cannot be proved from the inscriptions.7 Langdon^ believes
that "there is not the least doubt but that throughout Sumerian
and Babylonian religion, these peoples were convinced that
immoral sacrifices were demanded as an offering to the Mother
Goddess to secure her protection for legitimate birth and be-
getting". 9
A study of the religious literature shows that the idea ot
women devoted to the gods, is a fundamental element in the
Ishtar cult. Ishtar herself is addressed as a devotee.^*' In the
Gilgamish Epic, Eabani, after he has been seduced by the
I Hastings' Bible Diet. V 591. 2 Bk. I i8i, 182, 199.
3 XVI 1 20. 4 Vs. 41—43.
5 For ex. Ezek. i6i5f.; Jer. 32; cf. also Ward, SCWA p. 196, fig. 561.
6 Bk. I § 199. 7 BE X (2) p. 195 1. 20 — possible ref. to the custom.
8 Tam. and Ish. p. 74.
9 "Ishtar as protector of child-bearer", cf. RA IX 7, Obv. 1. 10.
10 See refs. in Tam. and Ish. p. 76.
- 67 -
divine harlot {samhaf),^ Ukhat, goes to the city of Uruk;^
a city elsewhere called "the dwelling of Anu and Ishtar, the
city of kizreti, ukhati, and karmati".^ In V R 42 ef, 60 — 5
(CT. 19, 26) sacred priestesses are enumerated as "ardatum,
batultimiy usakku, harimtu, an dicra(rt?), museniktu^\ Hammu-
rapi assumes that the kizreti were regular temple women,
when in a letter addressed to a governor, he orders that the
goddesses of the land of Emutbal should be brought to Ba-
bylon and that the kizreti should follow after the goddesses/
The ukhati were undoubtedly representatives of the same
character as Ukhat in the Epic. IJarimti appears frequently
in the Epic,5 and is evidently synonymous with samhat.^ Ininni
(Ishtar) is described as ha-ri-im-tum ra-im-tum, "loving cour-
tesan".7 A text published by Zimmern^ contains a warning
against associating with the ha-rim-tUy is-ta-ri-tu, or zer-ma-
si-tu.^ The votaries or attendants of Ishtar are commonly
referred to as the istarti: and Zimmern identifies them with the
karimti and kadisti.^^ Babylonian witchcraft portrays a class
of harlot witches who enticed men; they are called, among
other names, kadistu and istaritu.^^ Ininni is frequently desig-
nated, especially in the Tammuz songs, as the NU-GIG
(kadistu) -AN-NA, the "sacred harlot of heaven";" or as
NU-GIG.^3
Still another term used of the harlots or attendants of Ishtar
is kar-lil. Langdon's Babylonian Liturgies ^^ contains an incan-
tation against the ki-el kar-lil ^-Ininni, who haunts the streets
and entices her lover; she represents the female personification
of lust. Again, in a fragment of a Tammuz hymn^s^ we find
» Cf. Gilgamish Fragment, BE X (3) p. 216 Rev. Col. I 1. 5, II 1. 5.
2 Tab. I Col. IV 1. 7—22. 3 K. 2619 Col. II 6 (cf. HWB 41^).
4 King, Ham. Letters III p. 8. 5 Tab. I Col. IV 1. 30—33-
6 Tab. I Col. IV 1. 42, 43; cf. BE X (3) p. 216 1. 4, 5 and p. 213 1. 8, 9.
7 Reisner Hymnen No. 56 1. 48/50; cf. Hussey AJSL XXIII p. 149-
8 ZA XXIII p. 367—369: Frank, Studien p. 48. 9 Obv. 1. 20—23.
«o BB p. 39, 40. " Bab. and Oriental Record VIII p. 205—209.
12 BE (A) XXXI No. 14 1. 2; BL p. 46 1. 59 (MU GIG); BE X (2) No. 475
1. 2, p. 185; No. 6890 Col. I 1. 2, p. 192.
x3 RA X (3) p. 158; CT XV p. 28, 1. 20.
14 BL p. 13 1. 2. Cf. Mercer's comment on such passages, JSOR I 52.
15 BE (A) XXXI p. 35 1- 10; p. 36 1. 17.
S*
— 68 —
the expression kdr-lil, and Inlnni is called the eri kdr-lu, "child-
begetting courtesan." Kdr-lil is found in a legal document
dating from the time of Hammurapi, which states that a mother
devoted her adopted child as a KARA-LIL, that she might
support her fostermother.' This demon of lust and Ininni are
referred to as virgins,* and the term gin'^ ("= amtu^) ki-el
(= ardatu^) is applied to Ininni^ as an unmarried maid who
is a child-begetter. We read of the dumu-sag dmgir-azag-ga
ki-el aina d.Ba-u, "First-born son of the holy goddess, kiel,
mother Bau."7 Kiel is also used of Ninlil in a myth which
describes the courtship and marriage of Enlil and Ninlil.'^ Ninib
applies the name to his spouse.9 A Tammuz hymn refers to
the kiel of Ishtar's city," referring no doubt to the kizreti,
ukhati, harmati,^'^ etc. These illustrations are perhaps sufficient"
to indicate that there were unmistakably bound up with the
Ishtar cult, conceptions of the gods and religious rites, of the
real nature of which we have no knowledge, that are from a
modern point of view immoral.
Such references as given above do not seem to Lyon^^ to
have any real connection with the votaries provided for by the
Code. While Lyon admits that there were excesses in connec-
tion with the worship of Ishtar at Erech, he believes that we
have no right to assume that the kadisti consecrated to other
deities were dedicated to licentious practices. Ideas of the
social relationships of the gods of any people tend to reflect
the social institutions in existence at a given time. A funda-
mental Semitic conception which grew out of their struggle for
existence in a nomadic desert life, was the worship of fertility
1 BE (A) VI (2) No. 4; Schorr No. 11.
2 Babylonica IV p. 187 f., Col. I 1. 4, 5; Col. Ill passim.
3 BE (A) XXXI p. 42 1. 15, 16; cf. BE X (l) p. 25 1. 12; Babylonica VI p. 52.
4 B 11135. S B 9831.
6 For ex., Hussey AJSL XXIII p. 169 1, i6; Reisner Hymnen No. 53. Also
BL p. 83 1. 42; and Hilp. Ann. Vol. p. 391 I. 19.
7 BE X (2) p. 141 1. 7. Cf. also p. 181 1. 30; p. 184 1. 29.
8 Barton: MBI No. 4 Col. I 1. 11 and passim.
9 AJSL XXXIV p. 51 1. 13. xo RA XII Pt. I p. 35 1. 15.
11 Cf. p. 63 n. 2.
12 Cf. also Ishtar's Descent Ob v. 1. 78, Rev. 1. 8; BE X (2) p. 190 Obv. 1. 5;
BE (A) XXXI p. 31, 1. 13; BL p. II, No. Ill 1. 8.
13 Toy Vol. p. 360.
- 69 -
and the sources of fertility in nature and in human life.' This
led to the early adoption of rites, which though innocent in
primitive society, became, as morality advanced, a deterrent
to social purity.
The hymns and ritual of any religion portray its older ideals;
they are slow to reflect the more advanced ideas, or even the
ideals of the mass'*t>f its adherents. Suppose that even before
the period of Hammurapi, in which time so many of the hymns
were put into writing, the conceptions expressed in the litur-
gical literature were outgrown. Can we suppose that the
Babylonians, with their severe laws against incest and adultery,
would continue to use in their worship hymns and prayers
which enunciated such crudities, unless those crudities actually
received religious sanction? If they did revolt against customs
of this nature, why did they apply to their priestesses titles
which by their religious use and etymology carried such a
connotation? For immoral practices to be a concomitant part
of a civilization which demanded strict moral relationships on
the part of man and wife is not unprecedented, as the social
structure of India to-day testifies. If we had only the Code
by which to gain our knowledge of these votaries, or, if we
had only the religious literature, it might rightly be urged that
we have no proof of customs approaching those mentioned by
Herodotus. But since we have the combined evidence of the
Code, the religious literature, and the business documents,
together with the testimony of the apocryphal epistle of
Jeremiah, and the Old Testament writers, we are forced to
maintain that there existed in Babylonian society to a late
period, temple women who were devoted to prostitution.
The kadisti and zermasiti of whom we have found frequent
mention in religious literature, are mentioned in the Code only
in § 1 8 1, which provides that if such a woman is dowerless,
she shall at her father's death receive one- third of the portion
of a son, which, at her death belongs to her brothers.* This
1 Cf. Barton, Semitic Origins III.
2 But cf. Smith Tablet No. 260 pub. by Grant in Cuneijorm Documents in
the Smith College Library, p. 20; a kadisiu is to inherit equally with brothers;
cf. CT. VIII 50*; Schorr No. 183, shows she could marry but that dowry went
to her brothers.
— 70 —
should be compared with § 182 which allows the SAL ME
Marduk a right to will to whom she may please; and with
§ 180 which allows the dowerless entu and zikru a full son's
portion. In other words, the kadisti and zermasiti have the
least provision of any of the votaries except the sugetim.
Jastrow' thinks this was because they were well maintained by
the temple organization to which they belonged. They are
not frequently mentioned in business documents, but we have
evidence that they adopted and gave children for adoption;
Iltani*, a kadistu, gave her child to a family to nurse because
she was not able to support the child. A kadistti of Adad in
the time of SamSu-iluna^ took a child to nurse for three year's
but as the mother was not able to pay for the food or
clothing, the child became the adopted child of the kadistu.'^
The custom of giving a child to the care of others for a few
years was a common one as § 194 indicates.s
The zinnisti zikru are under the same inheritance laws as
the NIN AN, §g 178, 179, 180; and their children under the
same laws as those of a class of persons usually designated
as the NER-SE-GA (= manzaz panim) §§ 187, 192, 193. Who
were the NER-SE-GA? Johns ^ considers them body-guards
of the king, but regards NER-SE-GA as a general title not
borne by any one class of persons. Contract literature is full
of references to such a class of officials of the king; messen-
gers, and so forth.7 Winckler and Miiller translate "prostitute".
This expression has been transliterated GIR-SE-GAby Ungnad;^
and Langdon9 and GIR-SIG-GA by Myhrman^° and Barton."
Barton attaches to GIR the meaning "foot"," to SIG, "to pour
I Jastrow, Civilization, p. 308. 2 yS VII 16—17; Schorr No. 78.
3 Thureau-Dangin, TD No. 146. 4 VS VII 37; Schorr No. 241.
5 Cf. Scheil in RA XI p. 175, Les Nourries en Babylonie et le S 194 du Code.
6 AJSL XIX p. 103.
7 See refs. collected by Myhrman BE (A) III (i) p. 82; ADD 8 213; Un-
gnad, Bab. Briefe p. 337; King, Ham. Lett. Ill p. 114 1. 8; Harper, Lett. Nos.
291 Obv. 14, 540 Obv. 7, 289 Obv. 10, 415, Rev. 10.
8 Bab. Briefe p. 337. 9 Babylonia IV 21, "prostitute".
10 Ob. cit.
" Article on Sodomy in Hasting's Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics,
Vol. XI.
12 OBW 40024. This sign Barton and others consider a euphemism {ox pubenda;
cf. Is. 7 (20), Ruth 3 (4, 7).
— 71 —
out'V and takes GA as the phonetic complement. He suggests
that manzaz panim may not always have meant "foremost
place", but that panim may have been employed in the Hebrew
sense of "presence" or "person". The GIR-SIG-GA was, he
concludes, a male prostitute who probably represented the god
in the ziggurat chamber. He points out furthermore, that if
these persons were government officials only, there is no reason
why there should have been irregularity in the birth of their
children, or in the children whom they adopted, sufficient to
require a special law. And why were the children of the
zinnisti zikru classed with them if there was not some simi-
larity in their social status?
The Babylonian temple priesthood comprised a large troop
of men and women. One might expect the organization of
the temple of the god to be similar to the organization of the
palace of the king or other men of royal family. Ishtar is
represented as the protector of the harem;* does this refer to
the harem in general, or Ishtar's own harem in her temple?
Raudau interprets hymns § 2 and 3 of his Miscellaneous Col-
lection 3 to have such a meaning. He believes that the inhab-
itants of the harem are the virgins consecrated to Ishtar
who are referred to as hu "birds", or tu b^, "doves". Their
habitations are bdd-si, **dove-cotes". When the harem is
destroyed the "birds fly away".* But it is possible, since the
dove was sacred to Ishtar, that actual doves are referred to.
In the worship of Astarte of Eryx there was a festival held
to celebrate the departure of the deity to Libya. Her depar-
ture was indicated by the flight of doves, and when, after nine
days the doves came back, another feast was held to cele-
brate her return.s The worship of the sacred dove among the
northern Semites may be of totem origin,^ especially as the
worshippers of this deity would not eat them.7 At Mecca we
find an image of the dove in the Ka'ba, and sacred doves
1 OBW17524.
2 CT 15, 8, 2. Cf. BE X (I) 20 1. 14, 15-
3 Hilp. Ann. Vol. p. 391 — 409, 436 — 444.
4 Op. cit. p. 399 f.
5 Aelian: De Natura Animalium IV, 2.
6 Smith: Kinship and Marriage p. 196, 220.
7 Lucian : XIV. Xen. Anabasis I 4, 9.
— 72 —
around it' As there are a great variety of animals sacred to
the Ishtar cult, the probability is that as the Semitic peoples
dispersed, the kind of sacred animal worshipped varied with
local conditions.*
Whether the women connected with the Ishtar cult formed
a sacred harem or not, we know there were also connected
with the Ishtar cult a group of eunuchs. In the Ira myth
we read: 3
sa Uruk su'bat ^^« A-nim u i^^ Is-tar
To Erech the abode of Anu and Ishtar
al ki-iz-ri'ti u-ha-a-tu u ha-rim-a-t(i)
City of the kizretiy uhati^ and harimti
di-ku'U I-an-fia ^ kurgari ''^ i-stn('ni)
Were called to Eanna, the eunuchs, eunuch singers(?)
sa ana sup-lu-uh nisi i^^ Istar zik-ru-su-nit wti-ni ana
SA(L- US-?/-/^>4
Who for the terror of the people, Ishtar had turned their man-
hood to "Mannweiblichkeit"
na-as pat-ri na-as nag-la-bi kup-pi-i u sur-t(i)
They who bear the dagger, they who bear the instrument of
cutting, the sword, the stone-knife.s
The word i-sin(-?ti), "eunuch-singer(?)" is assinu = UR-SAL^
meaning literally "female dog". ^^D, ''dog" is applied to male
prostitutes in Deut. 2319. A Tammuz hymn has the line: 7 kur-
gar-ra uru-na-ka gir nu aga-a-na, "the eunuchs of her city
who wield the dagger no more(wail)". CT XV 44 K 3476
presents a passage which undoubtedly refers to their self-
mutilation.* They are described as 9 mkur-ga-ra pa-lak-ki, "the
» Ibn Hisham p. 821; Wellhausen, Heidentums p. 75.
2 Hebraica X 73. 3 KB VI (I) 62 1. 6— 11.
4 Op. cit., note 4. 5 Tarn. & Ish. p. 77, n. 6.
6 HWB 110^. In connection with use of UR for sacred prostitutes, cf. Ddc.
pi. XXXVI No. 3 — 40 UR DAM NINA; cf. OLZ XII no.
7 RA XII (I) 35 1. 17; Tam. & Ish. p. 78.
8 Frank: Studien p. 80, n. 235; but cf. RA XII (I) 41, n. i.
9 fcraig RT I (2) 55 1. 9; Martin: Textes Religieux p. 196. Cf. also BA V
626, 10.
- 73 —
eunuchs with axes". The ik-mu-u zik-tu si-mat ilu('ti-sa),^
"pointed weapon insignia of her deity" has reference to Ishtar.
Langdon* considers that Ishtar with the pointed sword may
be a symbol of Tammuz, and suggests that "these mutilated
priests who assisted in the wailings for Tammuz, and who bear
the symbol of their mad sacrifice, may have been under the
protection of the dying god who, therefore, bears the same
symbol". In Reisner, Hymnen, No. 56 3 we find a line in which
Ishtar speaks of herself as : bur s(a-si-i)n-nu pat-ri zik-te ( )sa
ina su-nu sak-nu (ana-ku-ma) , "a stone of the stone worker, a
pointed dagger which is set in the loins am I".'*
In the Descent of Ishtar, (Rev. I. 12) an individual called
Asusunamir is created by Ea and designated as an assinuJ»
In the copy of this text from A§§ur, the word ku-lu-* is sub-
stituted.^ It has been established that Asusunamir was a
eunuch, representing Tammuz,7 but whether Tammuz, like Attis,
was a castrate god, is uncertain. Albright finds the clue to
the interpretation in the name Asusunamir, "His rising is
brilliant", as showing his connection with the rising moon. The
connection between the moon and the eunuch priest in mytho-
logy is clearly established by Albright. The kurgarru were
prominent in the New Year's festival, and evidently took part
as players of some musical instrument.^ If the eclipse of the
moon occurred in Adar, the king might touch the head of an
assinu as a means of giving him power to conquer his foes.9
I Craig RT II 55 1. 2. 2 Tam. & Ish. p. 79.
3 Obv. 56; cf. Hussey AJSL XXIII 146.
4 Langdon: RA XII (i), 41 n. 1. states that female kurgarreti are mentioned
in Virolleaud, Adad XII 12. But we fail to find anything in Virolleaud's text
to show that female eunuchs were intended. The zikari kurgarri is better inter-
preted as by Frank, ZA XXIX 200 Z. 16.
5 Interpreted: "black" (fr. Heb. ]B^«) by Talbot, TSBA II 201; "einen Buhl-
knaben" by Gellen, OLZ XX 46; "an androgyn" by Pinches, PSBA XXXI 27;
*«eunuch" by Figulla, OLZ XV 438.
6 Cf. AJSL XXXIV 28. In Ebeling's text from Assur it appears with harimtu
(No. 43 obv. 3). Frank, ZA XXIX 197 identifies kabt and kurgarru.
7 OLZ XV 438; JAOS XXIX 86.
8 Jensen KB VI (2) 42 1. 10, "Mannerliebling" ; Zimmem, Der Alte Orient,
VII (3) 9; and Berichte uber die Verhandlungen der koniglich sachsischen Gesell-
schaft der Wissenschaft, LVIII 138, "Kurgaru-priester".
9 Cf. CT. IV 5, lo.
— 74 —
That the kurgarru and assinu were titles actually applied to
functionaries of some kind and not merely used in mythological
or religious literature, we have evidence from business docu-
ments in which they appear as witnesses/
Eunuch priests are by no means rare in the history of
ancient religious rites. The Ephesian Artemis' and Syrian
Astarte^ were attended by eunuchs and virgins. The most
noteworthy instance of such rites is in connection with the
worship of the Phrygian Cybele and Attis. Cybele was be-
lieved to be a virgin mother* worshiped by eunuch priests
and virgins; Attis was represented as a castrate god. In the
Spring there occured a festival, the third day of which was
known as the Day of Blood, when the chief of the priests drew
blood from his arms and presented it as an offering. Eraser
conjectures that it was doubtless on this day that, wrought up
to a high pitch of religious frenzy, the novices sacrificed their
virility, and threw the severed portions against the image of
the goddess. Similar was the practice at Hieropolis in the
worship of the Syrian Astarte: while the flutes played and
the drums beat, many who had come to the festival only as
spectators, urged by the excitement of the moment, seized a
sword and castrated themselves. The severed parts were later
buried, and the men assumed the attire of women.s This
custom may have been an ecstatic craving to assimilate one's
self to the deity, and to charge himself with her power, the
priest assumed female dress to further complete the trans-
formation.^ That a goddess of fertility should be served by
eunuch priests seems inconsistent, and yet it is typical in the
worship of the Mother Goddess. The priests of Attis would
probably not have continued to mutilate themselves merely
because of the tradition that Attis castrated himself, unless
there was to their minds some recurring need for it. Eraser
finds the explanation of this mutilation and burial of the severed
1 ADD III 268, II 129.
2 Strabo XIV 23; cf. Fraser, Golden Bough I 37f.
3 Lucian: 15, 27, 50 f.
4 Fraser, Adonis, Attis^ Osiris ^ 2nd ed. p. 236, n. I.
5 Fraser, Golden Bough Vol. V 268—270. Cf. Lucian 50, 51. Cf. also Albright,
JBL XXXVII 116.
6 Hastings Ency. Rel. and Eth. V 580.
- 75 -
parts in the opinion, held among many peoples that the
creation of the world is year by year repeated.^ Athenaeus^
reported that female eunuchs, instead of male were used in the
palaces of Lydia.
We have little knowledge of eunuch priests outside of Asia
Minor. Among the Ba-sundi and Ba-bwende of the Congo
many youths are castrasted "in order to more fittingly offer
themselves to the phallic worship".^ A number of other illu-
strations are collected by Fraser.'^ The practice of spaying
women has been noted among Australian tribes,5 the purpose
being to further prostitution.^ Female eunuchs have been
reported in India also.7
It will be observed that there is a strong analogy between
the above described rites performed by eunuch priests, and
the passages which have to do with the worship of Ishtar and
Tammuz; that these men represented Tammuz as eunuch
priests represented Attis, seems therefore probable.
Greek and Latin words for eunuch express etymologically
their function, or refer to their castration: viz. ro/xtas, from rcfivta,
to cut; OXiPtas, from ^AtySw, to crush; castro, to cut, from Sans-
krit sastra, knife; but ewo^xos, from euvi}, bed + -ox- ablaut,
stem of €X€tv, to keep. Now KUR may mean ekallu, palace
or temple;^ GAR, "guard"; 9 and RA may be taken as the
phonetic complement. KUR-GAR-RA, then, describes their
function. If in the expressie)n GIR-SIG-GA we translate GIR
as "foot", giving it the interpretation suggested by Barton and
others, '° SIG as "crush"," and GA as the phonetic complement,
the expression describes their castration. The GIR-SIG-GA
mentioned by the Code % 1^7 is one who is a muzaaz ekallim,
I Adonis^ Attis, Osiris 2nd ed. p. 237. 2 Bk. XII II.
3 Journal of the Anthropological Institute XIII 473.
4 Golden Bough V 270, n. 2.
5 Purcell, Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft fur Anthropologic ^ Ethno-
logie und Urgeschichte, 1 893, p. 288.
6 Milucho-Maclay (Z. E. XIV 26 f.)
7 Archiv fUr Anatomie, Physiologie und wissenschafiliche Medizin, 1 843, p. I59f.
8 OBW 322. 9 OBW 53228.
10 P. 70 n. 12. Cf.Deut. 23 1 for practice among the Hebrews. Cf. also description
of method as given by Paul of Aegina, 7 th century, quoted by Haupt, JBL
XXXV 321. " OBW 1759.
- 76 -
usually translated "guard of the palace". Ekallim may quite
as well mean "temple". The Old Testament word for eunuch,
D'lID (cf. Arab. ^^ from J^^, be impotent; and Syr. Uoa\jf)
is according to Haupt^ connected with serasu, "beer", which
originally meant **mash", and is used not only to indicate a civil
officer of the king,^ but a guardian of the royal harem.3 It is
also significant that these D'^ID are described as *'i^"^l^? DW^Dr!,^
Ij^isn "those who serve in the presence of the king", or D^^JW
'^teiT'';!^ ^NhD, ''those who see the king* s face".5 These phrases
form an interesting analogy to the manzaz pant sarri of the
Babylonian texts.
Were it not for the coupling of the GIR-SIG-GA in the
same laws with the zinnisti zikru, we might conclude that the
GIR-SIG-GA of the Code was a eunuch who filled various
offices for the king. But since the zinnisti zikrii come under
the same inheritance laws as the NIN AN, they must have
been a class of female votaries. The probability is, therefore,
that the GIR-SIG-GA of the Code were eunuch priests and
the zinnisti zikru, eunuch priestesses.^ An examination of
§§ 187, 192, 193 shows nothing to prove that the children of
these persons were not children whom they had adopted. Not
only do these laws occur in a group of adoption laws, but
§ 193 certainly indicates that the adopted child upon finding
out the real status of his adoptive father or mother, was likely
to show hatred toward them. This accounts for the provision
for the NIN AN and zinnistu zikru under the same inheritance
laws, and for the fact that they received more than the kadistu,
zermasitu, or SAL ME Marduk. For the NIN AN, as we
have seen, was a virgin, and the zinnistu zikru because of her
status presumably did not marry; it was necessary for their
1 Johns Hopkins University Circulars, No. 287, p. 32.
2 II K 229, II Chron. 188. II K 23 11 messengers. II K 8 6, 932.
24 12 general officers. II K 25 19, Jer. 52 25, Gen. 37 36, 40 2,7 military officers,
Dan. 47 soothsayers. Dan. i 3,7—11, 18 prince of eunuchs.
3 Jer. 38 7; 29 2; Esther 2 3, 14, 15, 21; i 10, 12, 15; 79; 4 4. 5; 6 2, 14;
II K 20 18; 2415; Is. 39 7; Jer. 29 2. See also general refs. I Chron. 28 i;
I Sam. 8 15; Is. 564. 5; Jer. 41 16; 3419.
4 Esther 1 10.
5 II K 25x9; cf. Jer. 5225.
6 Cf. Landsberger. ZA XXX 73; and ZDMG LXIX 521.
— 77 —
fathers to provide for their support. Upon the death of an
ordinary wife who had borne children her dowry went to her
children, § 162; but if she were childless, her dowry belonged
to the house of her father. Likewise the dowry of the NIN
AN and zmnistu zikru^ reverted to her brothers, § 178, 180, 181,
unless her father had given her legal right to will to whom
she please, § 179. In no case do these latter inheritance laws
suggest that there were children. In a letter of the Hammu-
rapi period,^ the writer states that having no father's house, he
entered into the house of a SAL zikru as an adopted child.
In commenting on this text, Landsberger concludes that the
sal si-ik-ru-tim are indentical with the zikreti of the royal
inscriptions, zi-ik-ru-um being, according to his terminology, a
"Pseudoideogramm" for zikreti. The mention of these persons
taken as war booty, along with the other palace women, leads
Landsberger to conclude that they were palace eunuchs. One
questions whether female eunuchs would be maintained in the
palace, unless perhaps in connection with the Ishtar cult in
private worship.^ It is probable that these men and women
adopted young children of both sexes in order to perpetuate
the order, train them in the cult, and possibly act as their
attendants while they served as novices. Since zi-ik-ru-um may
be connected with the root zikaru^ "male"; the title zinnistu
zikru might therefore have reference to the secondary physio-
logical manifestations which are developments attendant upon
such an operation. ^
This opinion that the GIR-SIG-GA of the Code were eunuch
priests does not preclude the position that the manzaz panim
of the business documents were civil officials and officers of
the king. It shows that the manzaz panim were probably
male eunuchs, and that the same term was applied to the
sacred as well as the civil officer. This interpretation is
strengthened by the analogy to the Hebrew use of 0^*10,
already indicated.
1 Ungnad: Bab. Briefe No. 164 1. 9. CT 29, 7 a.
2 Luckenbill considers them palace women, but does not suggest that they
were eunuchs. AJSL XXXIV 9.
3 The representation of "bearded godesses" is of interest in this connection,
though see Jastrow, "Bearded Venus", Revue Arch^ologique. 191 1 (Pt. I) 271.
- 78 -
The presence of eunuchs in Babylonian society was early
recognized. Layard, in his Nineveh and Its Remaiyis,"- identifies
eunuchs with the Hebrew DID, and finds them represented on
the palace sculptures.* While it is now evident that they played
an important part in the Ishtar cult, it is no doubt true, as
Johns remarks, that many obscure terms applied to priests
have been translated eunuch for want of more accurate know-
ledge.3 Likewise it seems improbable that there existed so many
classes of eunuch priestesses as Landsberger would claim.^ The
SAL ME who are so frequently mentioned in business docu-
ments must have been a large class. Is it possible that a
Semitic people would permit so large a part of the female
population to be of this type?
While at the present state of our knowledge, abundance of
data is lacking by which to establish unquestionably many
problems involved in the interpretation of the status of the
votary in Babylonian and Assyrian society, the foregoing dis-
cussion tends to establish a real distinction between the classes
of votaries mentioned in the Code. The NIN AN was a virgin
high priestess, who presided in the ziggurat chamber as wife of
the god and lived in the temple precincts. The zinnistu zikru
and the GIR-SIG-GA were temple eunuchs dedicated to the
worship of Ishtar and Tammuz. The zermasitam and kadistam
were temple prostitutes, who could marry, who often took
children to nurse or adopt, and who held a recognized position
in Babylonian society. The SAL ME were a large class of
women, dedicated to a specific god, who did not live in a
house connected with the temple, and who enjoyed great
freedom in business life. Although Babylonian moral ideals
and practices, as expressed by religious rites do not measure
up to the social standards which the laws of the Sumerian and
Hammurapi periods laid down in their regulation of the relation
between the sexes, remembering the fundamental conceptions
which lay behind those rites, we cannot judge, so long as they
really believed such rites to be an expression of the will of
1 2nd ed. IE 323.
2 Monuments of Nineveh PI. 93, "Head of Eunuch" pi. 54, 58, 59, 63, 68,
71, 77., cf. BN I pi. 10 (cf. V Text 81), II pi. 105, 140, III pi. 40,66, cf.
DeQerq II pi. 13, 14, 200. 3 ADD III 264. -♦ ZA III 67.
— 79 —
the gods, that the peoples of ancient Mesopotamia were there-
fore grossly immoral.
Slavery as a legitimate social institution existed in Meso-
potamia from the earliest times. But the position of the servile
classes did not involve the unjust or cruel practices which are
commonly recognized as the fate of this stratum of society.
The servile class was perpetuated by birth, capture, purchase,
or disinheritance; a member of the slave class might therefore
be one who had held a high social position in Babylonia, or
in a foreign country. The relative number of slaves in com-
parison with the entire population has been a subject of con-
siderable speculation and dispute, but is for our purposes not
of real import, though as Luckenbill has pointed out,'' the fact
that relatively few slave documents have been found does not
argue that the slave class was therefore small.
In the early period we find the Sumerian Family Laws containing
one article relative to slaves. To quote the Semitic text:
Summa If
a-wi-lmn a man
ar-da i-gu-ur-ma a slave attack and
im-tu-ut ih'ta-tas kill him, injure him (and)
i'ta-ba-ta he perish,
i-ta-pa-ar-ka cease to be,
u im-ta-ra-su or is sick,
i-di-su sa u-ma-kal his pay, daily
^2 ta-a-an se-am */, se
i-ma-an-ta-ad he (shall) measure.
It is to be noted that the only example of a law concerning
slaves that has come down to us from the Sumerians legis-
lates for their protection; even at this early period some
restraint was put upon the slave owner.
The Hammurapi Code has thirty-five laws relating to the
warad and the amtu.* These laws were intended to prevent
a slave from running away and to aid the owner of a runa-
way to recover his lost property.3 They rendered illegal the
1 AJSL XXIII 285.
2 SS 7, IS— 20, 116, 118, 119, 129, 144—147, 170, 171, 175, 176, 176 A,
205, 213, 214, 217, 219, 220, 223, 226, 227, 231, 252, 278—281.
3 SS 15—20. Cf. PSBA 34 p. 112 King Ham. Letters III p. 134.
— 8o ■—
branding of a slave without the consent of the owner. ^ If a
slave repudiated his master, his ear must be cut off.' The
female slave or amtu was introduced into the family for the
purpose of securing offspring; 3 if she bore children she could
not be sold;+ and if the father of these children so chose, he
could make them his legal sons, sharing equally with the
children of the regular wife.s A possible influence of the early
matriarchate may be seen in the laws providing that the
children of a free woman, even if she marry a slave, are classed
as freemen.^ A slave owner was protected against purchasing
a defective slave.7 A slave who had been captured, sold as a
slave in a foreign country, and subsequently brought back to
his native country was, even though recognized by his original
owner, to be given freedom.^ In a number of sections of the
Code the slave appears as the object of less compensation or
penalty in the case of injury received or committed, than is
assigned to men of higher rank. If a man attacked an amtu
and caused her injury, his penalty was slight.^ The penalty
of a slave for assaulting a man's son was more serious than
if the assault had been made by a patrician.^° Likewise if
injury were caused a slave because of a falling house or a
goring ox, the builder of the house, or owner of the ox was
required to pay far less than if the injured had been a patri-
cian," and it was the owner of the slave who received the
compensation, rather than relatives of the deceased. A physi-
cian ran less risk in practicing on a slave than on a freeman,
for if he failed in his treatment, the fine was slight." A slave
could be given as payment for debt'^ and in time if not redeem-
ed the creditor who had received him had a right to dispose
of him.^*
That the buying and selling of slaves offered a profitable
business in Babylonia and Assyria is testified to by the in-
I §s 226, 227. 2 s 282. 3 SS 144—145-
4 §§ 146, 119. 5 §§ 170, 171. Cf. RA VIII 25.
^ §S ^7S» 176. — Cf. variant to § 175, BE (A) XXXI p. 50. — Cf. also RA
vin 7.
7 S§ 278, 279. — Cf. variant PSBA XXIV p. 305 & Vol. XXIX p. 161.
8 S 280. 9 SS 213, 214. »« S 205.
" SS 231, 252. " SS 217, 219, 220, 223.
13 s 116. 14 S 118.
— 8i —
numerable "Slave-Sale" documents,' and evidence of the existence
of slave dealers.* As a piece of personal property, a slave
could be given in payment for debt, could be willed along
with the rest of one's property,^ or could be rented,^ or ex-
changed.s But the warad and amtu were not the only servile
class. What the social status of many of the classes of workers
mentioned in letters and contracts was, we are as yet at a
loss adequately to explain. It is probable that there existed
a class of serfs; Johns, in his Babylonian & Assyrian LawSy
Contracts and Letters asserts that in Assyria there was a large
body of serfs, glebae adscripti, who were free to work as they
chose, but were sold with the land. Since in a legal document
it was not customary to mention the name of a slave's father,
while a serf's father is always named, Johns concludes that this
holding was hereditary.^ He states further that these serfs
probably paid rent, that they were often high-grade artisans,
and were on the metayer system, claiming implements, stock
and supplies from their masters. The Harran census shows
that they often had land of their own.'" From these men were
drawn the kings' men who served for a period in the army
or on public works. In Deeds and Documents Johns recognizes
three subject classes;^ domestic slaves, married slaves, and serfs,
and states that war captives were probably settled as serfs
rather than as slaves. Also according to Deeds and Documents,"*
in Assyria a slave could hold slaves, but probably could not
sell them, since if he were himself sold, his slaves went
with him.
Johns does not tell us what the Babylonian word for his
serfs is. His evidence for the existence of this class seems to
be based largely on his interpretation of the Harran census.
In this inscription he finds, for example, that a man classified
1 Cf. Catalogue of British Museum, Kuyunjik Col. Vol. V, p. 1999.
2 Cf. AJSL XXXIV 199; and Grant, Babylonian Business Documents 0/ Classical
Period^ Phil. 1919.
3 ABR III 40; BE (A) VI (l) No. 28.
4 ABR III No. 37, 58; HLC I No. 340.
5 Schorr 116. 6 Johns Bab. dr^ Ass. 173.
7 Op. cit. 202. 8 ADD III S 630.
9 III S 636.
6
— 82 —
as a cultivator of a vineyard, sometimes had land as his own,
ranianisiiy showing that the land he cultivated was not neces-
sarily his property. This leads Johns to doubt whether these
people were small farmers in a modern sense. He thinks they
were probably serfs and glebae adscripti.'^ But from this it is
not improbable that the cultivator of vineyards was a free man,
owning property of his own, but as a business proposition
cultivating also the land of another, on contract.
While it is quite probable that a class of persons, particu-
larly those devoted to agriculture, may have been attached to
the land and sold with it, our evidence is not clear enough to
establish it. It might have happened that men of the warad
class were sometimes sold with the land when an owner was
disposing of a large part of his property.
The mtcskenu of the Code were probably free men, and not
slaves with special freedom, hi his Schweich Lectures for 191 2,
Johns devotes considerable space to the meaning of muskenu^
giving the history of attempts at the interpretation of this
word,^ concluding that his translation "plebeian" is correct, and
that by the time of the Kassite period they were degraded,
whether to serfdom he does not say. But the Code appears
to rank the muskenu as inferior to the amelu and superior to
the warad] and he could hold slaves, warad^ §§ 15, 175,
176, 219.
The lowest class of society was the sabe^ or men from whom
laborers for the public works or material for the army were
recruited. This class was largely composed of outcasts, war
captives, or worthless slaves ;3 they were clothed and fed at
royal expense and were essentially the property of the state.
In the letters of Hammurapi, men of this class are frequently
mentioned as laboring on canals,^ and public works of various
kinds.5 Consignments of provisions were made to them.^ They
were usually presided over by the UKU-U§ (ridu sa sabe)J
1 "An Assyrian Doomsday Book or Liber Censualis", Johns, Leipzig, 190 1,
p. 21.
2 Schweich Lectures 1912, p. 8, 74, and AJSL XIX 97. Cf. also Harper
AJSL XXII 6 & 7. 3 AJSL XIX 171; ADD II S 228 f.
4 King Ham. Letters III p. 14. 5 Op. cit. p. 82, 85, %6.
6 Op. cit^. p. 58, YBT Vol. II, No. 8. 7 Br 6960.
- 83 -
This office was evidently undesirable; a patesi was made a
ridu as punishment,^ a baker was temporarily assigned to the
riduti, and was later discharged,^ a freeman who had been
sold into slavery in a foreign country, upon coming back to
Babylonia was told he was released from the warad class,
and might go with the riduti, a privilege which he refused.^
Overseers of public slaves may be seen at work on the sculp-
tures of Nineveh 4 and elsewhere, with stick in hand, driving
laborers who are carrying bricks, putting in place a lamassUy
or transporting stone. The laborers are often yoked together;
and the task- master may be seen with stick raised in the air;
ready to descend upon the inefficient workman.5
To the female slave, the terms amtu (= gem Br. 11135)
and ardata (= ki-el Br. 9831) are applied. Whether there is
any real distinction is not clear.^ The female slave was
domestic servant and in certain cases recognized concubine.7
She could be bought, sold, rented, or given away.^ She could
also be dedicated to the temple service.9 Slaves could gain
independence by manumission, sometimes a whole family being
freed at once;*° or, since a slave was able to hold property, it
was possible for them to purchase freedom from their masters.'^
A practice connected with slavery which was existent in the
Sumerian time, and which, when illegally practiced, was a
punishable offense, was that of "branding" or marking slaves.
What this practice actually was, is involved in considerable
obscurity, and its interpretation depends upon the meaning
assigned to galabu-1^^ abuttu\^'^ and muttaiu,^^ as they appear in
Law I and II of the Sumerian Family Laws, and Code §§ 127,
I King Ham. Letters III 106. 2 Op. cit. Ill 104.
3 CT vf 29.
4 Layard: Monuments of Nineveh II, pi. 10 — 17 passim; BN passim.
5 Op. cit. II, pi. II, 13 etc. Cf. King Ham. Letters III, p. 84.
6 But Langdon believes (Babylonica II 149, note 4) that ardatu means mar-
riageable girl who is free born. 7 See previous discussion p. 58, 59.
8 J. P. Morgan II, p. 34.
9 J. P. Morgan II, p. 33; OLZ XII, p. no; RA XV, p. 61 (male slave).
1" AJSL XXIII 291. II MAP p. 7, Note 3.
1^ galabu Heb. nVa, Arab, '.-a^j*., "to scrape, cut, shave".
»3 HWB 13**; MA 12^ gives meaning "fetter". Haupt (Sum. Fam. Ges. 35)
identifies with nnbP, "service", and Zimmem (BB 59) with 132^, "to bind".
»4 Usually translated "forehead". Haupt believes it is related to IKiA "hair".
6*
- 84 -
146, 22''^, 227. The Sumerian Family Laws give as punishment
for disloyalty to father, DUBBIN^ MI-NMN-SA-A, Akkadian
ti-gal'la-ab-stt\ for disloyalty to mother, MUTTATI-A-NI
DUBBIN §A-NE-IN-SI-ES, Akkadian mu-ut-ta-as-su u-gal-bu-
ma. S§ 226, 227 of the Code contain the phonetic SU-I which
has been read galabii.* These laws provide that if a §U-I,
without the consent of the owner of a slave, ab-bu-ti warad la
se-e-im u-gal-li-ib, his hand shall be cut off; and that if anyone
deceive a SU-I and induce him to thus treat a slave, such a
man shall be put to death, and the SU-I upon swearing he
did not mark the slave knowingly, shall go free. § 127
provides that if a votary is falsely accused by a man, that
man shall be brought before the judges and mu-ut-ta-zu ii-gal-
la-bu. An amtu who had borne children, if she tried to take
rank with her mistress, gave her mistress the right to ab-bu-
ut-tam i'Sa-ak-ka-an-si-ma and count her among the maid
servants.
There seems to be no reason for doubting that galabu meant
"cutting" or "scraping" of some kind. §§ 226, 227 indicate that
it was done by a special person who made it his business,
and that the operation was important. If all slaves were ga-
labuy it is not clear why anyone should have wanted to subject
a slave to this operation again. It is therefore reasonable to
suppose that the law refers to some mark of mutilation which
would render the slave of no commercial value. And since a
Babylonian slave might, if he had sufficient funds, buy his way
out of slavery, one questions whether this so-called "slave-mark",
if applied to all slaves, was of a permanent nature. The
shaving of the head or beard, the wearing of a fetter, would
not be serious enough to account for §§ 226, 227. If the mark
were ordinarily visible, it is strange that we find no attempts
to represent it in sculpture.
A document from the time of Ammiditana3 cites the case
of a freeman who was bought as a slave in a foreign land
and later returned to Babylon, his native city. After five years
he was summoned and told el-li-ta ab-bu-ut-ta-ka gu-id-hi-ba-at,
I OBW 104, "a sharp-pointed instrument", "nail-mark".
* M 5143, Br. 7148.
3 CT VI 29; Schorr 37.
- 85 -
and that he could enter the riduti. But he refused and said
he would claim his father's estate. If we translate ellita
"clearly"* a partial solution is offered. This man bears a
slave-mark that is visible; § 280 provides that a war ad bought
in a foreign land, if returned to his native city, must be releas-
ed; as a former freeman he claims a right to his father's
estate; he is told he must go with the riduti^ or overseers of
the sabe. This would seem to indicate that because of his
mark, he was to be classed with the sabe\ that is, he had been
a freeman in Babylon, had gone to a foreign country and
become a warad, but bore mark of slavery. Returning to
Babylon, as a warad who had been free-born he wished to
claim share in his father's estate, but as he had a slave mark,
he was assigned to the riduti. It would therefore appear that
only the sabe had a "slave-mark".
This theory accounts for the occurrence of the custom in
the Sumerian Family Laws ; it accounts for the severity of the
punishment inflicted on one who marked a slave without the
owner's permission, — such a mark would render him unsal-
able by a private individual, for if he had the mark of a sabe
he became a public slave; and it explains § 146, for women
were also of the sabe class. Of the nature of this mark we
have no evidence, but the fact that a special class was required
to bear the marks of its social status, keeping it continually in
subjection, and paralyzing ambition is of importance for the
study of interclass morality.
From the late Babylonian period* we have a law providing
that if a man sold a female slave, and the purchaser later
found some fault with her, the seller must buy back not only
the woman, but all the children she may have borne. The
law is comparable with Code § 278 which, however, makes a
limit of a month in which the purchaser may try out the
slave. The late Babylonian law seems fairer to the seller than
to the purchaser, but it also shows the tendency to prevent
separation of children of slaves from their parents.
1 Cf. KU 740; Johns Bab. & Ass. 176. On analogy with use of ellu in
adoption ceremony documents.
2 Sitziingsberichte der Koniglich Preussischen Akadtmie der Wissenschaftenl2>%()y
pt. 2 — p. 824.
— 86 —
The Babylonian laws regarding slaves tend to treat them as
personal property rather than as human individuals. While it
is undoubtedly true, as has been so often maintained, that
Babylonian slaves enjoyed on the whole greater freedom than
is usually associated with people of that rank, the warad at
least was favored in that he could buy his freedom, was not
sold away from his family, could hold property, and could
marry a free woman thereby securing a status of freedom for
his children. It must however be remembered that most of
our evidence is written from the patrician point of view. -^
It is obvious that the spirit of the Code reflects a de^4€€
to protect the various elements of society of which advantage
might be taken. In the epilogue, Hammurapi claims that he
was called by Anu and Bel to prevent the strong from oppres-
sing the weak — to further the welfare of the people and to
secure justice for the poor and the widow. Such expressions
are found at an earlier period, as for example the statem'^nt
of Gudea that at Lagash during the feast after the conse-
cration of E-ninnu, "the maid was equal to her mistress; master
and slaves consorted together; the powerful and the humble
man lay down side by side; the rich did not wrong the orphan,
the strong man did not oppress the widow and Babbar trod
injustice underfoot."^ So Sennacherib says he is „guardian of
justice and lover of righteousness";^ and Sargon II, in the
midst of gruesome details of campaigns, says he ^'protected
the weak and injured from their wrongs." ^ Such random quo-
tations are of value only as they are indicative of a certain
mental attitude in the recognition of ideals of justice on the
part of important kings. Taken by themselves they need not
be considered to indicate anything more regarding moral prac-
tices than is proved by the policy or "platform" of anyone in
public office.
It is notable that in all the material from legal codes which
are available to us, there is no mention of, or provision for,
the mentally subnormal, the blind, and persons suffering from
other disorders which would make them dependents, and of
1 Cf. SAK 138 f.
2 I R 37 Col. I, 1. 4.
3 I R 36,4. Cf. KB II, p. 41. Cf. also BE X (2) p. 147, 1. 22 f.
- 87 -
no value as slaves. There is indeed little material to show us
what the attitude toward such members of society was. This
is of course due to the fact that disease and similar misfor-
tunes were looked upon as punishment inflicted by the gods,
or evidence of the activity of evil spirits, a circumstance making,
the afflicted person dangerous to the community.
It was doubtless because of an instinct to protect the weak
as well as the importance that the Semitic mind attached to
offspring, that legislation was made to protect the pregnant
woman. Among Urukagina's reforms^ appears the expression,
ama-gi-bi A pregnant mother
e-gar he protected,
nu-sig nu-ma-zu. the orphan, the widow,
lu a-tug the mighty man
nu-na-ga-ga-a he does not oppress.
The translation of ama-gi-bi as ''pregnant mother" is problem-
atical,' but whether the expression may be thus translated
or not, we at least are certain that we have here a statement
of an attempt to protect the oppressed. The Sumerian legal
fragment of the Yale Collection furnishes us with certain evi-
dence that the pregnant woman was protected against assault.^
The first of these two laws assumes that the offense was
unintentional, and the penalty is ten shekels; the second
assumes an intentional act and the penalty is ^3 mana of silver.
These may be compared with §§ 209 — 214 of the Code. Here
we find a distinction of penalty according to the rank of the
woman. If she be the daughter of an awilum, the offender
must pay ten shekels; if the woman die, the daughter of the
offender must be put to death. If the woman be the daughter
of a maskinu, the offender must pay five shekels, §211; and
if the woman die, one-half mana is the penalty. Again, if the
woman be the slave of an awilum, the penalty is given as two
shekels; if the woman die, one- third mana of silver was
required. The Sumerian code makes no class distinction, but
requires no added penalty if the assaulted woman die. Code
S 209 may have been derived from the first of these two
1 Cone B & C. D6c. pi. LII Col. XI, 1. 28 f.
2 GI— cf. OBW 2835.12 Possibly an analogy with French enceinte.
3 YBT Vol. I, p. 20, Laws I & 2. Cf. also OLZ XVII 1—3.
— 88 —
Sumerian laws; according to Jastrow's analysis §§ 209, 210
are among the earlier elements of the Code, the others relating
to this matter being a later development.
Eleven laws of the Code, §§ 215 — 225 relate to the practice
of surgery; laws intended to standardize fees and establish
severe penalties not only if the patient died, but even if the
treatment were unsuccessful, doubtless arose primarily from
moral indignation at maltreatment, but secondarily in an attempt
to protect the helpless from carelessness and overcharge.
§ 148 is intended to protect a wife who is afflicted with
disease; while it allowed the man to take a concubine, it pro-
vided that the husband maintain the first wife in his own house
as long as she lived.
Concerning the treatment of foreigners in residence we have
very little material. § 40 of the Code shows that in Babylonia
an alien could hold property, and from the business documents
of the later Babylonian time we are assured that they entered
freely into the business competition of the community.
In the evidence of a development of a strong class distinc-
tion we may trace a moral retrogression among these peoples.
In the Sumerian law fragments there are no special fines or
regulations for certain classes of society. The reforms of
Urukagina are directed against just that sentiment, but the
Hammurapi Code contains many laws which make for in-
equality between the social groups. While Jastrow believes that
the laws which are based on the lex talionis principle are
among the earliest of the laws compiled under Hammurapi,
he also believes that those dealing with class distinction are
late, especially those relating to the muskinu. Law required an
amelu to pay a larger fine for theft, § 8, a larger fee for divorc-
ing his wife, § 140, a larger fee for surgical service §g 215—223.
But in the laws regarding assault, injury to a man of amelu
rank is punished by similar treatment inflicted on the offender,
while attack upon the muskinu and warad was compensated
by money payment, §§ 195 — 214. Such laws are strong evi-
dence of a class distinction which existed not merely because
of social practice, but which also had legal sanction.
\| From this analysis of certain sociological features of the
'■ Sumerians and Babylonians, we find that even at the present
\ time, when our knowledge of these peoples presents so many
- 89 -
unsettled problems, we have been able to trace in some in-
stances moral evolution. Since laws which are based on customs
express the moral ideals existent at the time they are estab-
lished and are often more conservative than actual practices,
we are fortunate in having as a basis for study not only laws,
but contracts and letters, each of which may serve as a check
on the others. Nevertheless we have found in our study -no
persistent instances of contracts showing legal decisions made
in direct opposition to the legal codes. Our knowledge of this
society, based almost entirely on the written records it has
left us, begins with a time when society was no longer a tribal
or clan organization, but presents the picture of city-state
communities. These communities showed their solidarity in
their conflict with one another. Life within the community was
regulated by laws based upon moral concepts of right and
wrong; the breaking of these laws met with severe punishment.
Westermarck maintains^ that "punishment, in all its forms, is
essentially an expression of indignation in the society which
inflicts it", the immediate aim being to cause suffering. The
indignation, followed by the desire for revenge is shown not
only in the Sumerian Family Laws, but more specifically in
the laws of the Code which, on the lex talionis principle,
represent an attempt at requiring quantitative equivalence,
as for example the laws relating to the infliction of bodily
injury. But in the same Code, along with the lex talionis
idea are found laws which require that in certain instances
the intent of the offender must be considered, as in § 206.
Property right was strongly maintained, as the early struggles
over boundary stones, the severe penalties against stealing, the
laws of inheritance, transfer of property, and indeed the many
laws dealing with all kinds of business transactions show. That
a people who maintained so high a moral standard in their
business relations, who had severe laws against adultery and
incest, and who granted women great social freedom, should
have so thoroughly woven into their social fabric such gross
practices as those connected with the Ishtar cult,* is, from an
1 Westermarck : The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideals, London
1908, I, l69ff.
2 Cf. Westermarck II, 445.
— go —
ethical point of view, of primary interest in the study of an-
cient civilizations. The widespread practice of prostitution in
Babylonia is to be explained only as a survival sanctioned by
religion, the result of the worship of fertility among the primi-
tive Semites of the desert. The moral ideals of Babylonians
as we learn of them from their customs, their laws, and their
gods, show that they evolved an ethical code, which, though
it apparently displays great inconsistencies, nevertheless presents
us with a picture of a people who attempted to establish
justice and moral righteousness.
VITA
I, Beatrice Allard/) the daughter of Frank Ellsworth Allard
M. D. and Ada (Booth) Allard, was born in Boston, Massachu-
setts, December lO, 1893. I was prepared in the public schools
of Boston, being graduated from the Prince Elementary School
in 1907, and the Girls' Latin School in 191 1. In 1915 I received
the degree of Bachelor of Arts from Mount Holyoke College.
From 1915 — 1919 I studied in Bryn Mawr College; as Scholar
191 5 — 1 91 6, 191 8 — 1 919, and Fellow in Semitic Languages
1916 — 1918. In 1918— 1919 I held the Mary E. Woolley Fel-
lowship of Mount Holyoke College. The year 191 9 — 1920
was spent in research at Harvard University, while holding the
Alice Freeman Palmer Fellowship of Wellesley College. My
interest in the Semitic field was stimulated by Professor MARY
INDA HUSSEY, of Mount Holyoke College, to whom I would
express my appreciation of her continued interest.
To Professor GEORGE A. BARTON, who has awakened
my interest in Assyriology, and under whose direction all my
graduate work has been done, it gives me great pleasure to
express my sincere gratitude for his unfailing helpfulness and
sympathetic interest.
♦) Married in August 1920 to Mr. Edwin M. Brooks.
Printed by W. Drugulin, Leipzig
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