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Some Comments on Archive Keeping at Mari

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

J. M. Sasson
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Extract

In approaching the problem of Archive keeping at Mari, it might be profitable to inspect, at the outset, the archaeological evidence. On doing so, one is immediately struck firstly by the heterogeneous arrangement of objects in storage and secondly by the apparent lack of a noticeable system in organizing the archives. A spot check of other second millennium palaces which produced appreciable quantities of texts reveals this observation to be generally applicable. In almost every major segment of the Mari palace, a cluster of chambers, really store-rooms, contained a collection of tablets, varying in size. In addition, a text or two would be uncovered here and there at unexpected quarters. For this scattering, Hammurapi's victorious troops were often blamed. This accusation is contradicted, however, by the evidence, documented with archival tags, that after its initial victory, Babylon attempted to preserve Mari's archives under a modicum of order.

In the south-east section of the palace, dubbed by Parrot as the “Eastern” and “Workshops and Store-rooms” Quarters, at least twelve chambers sheltered tablets, many of which dated to the days of Yaḫdun-Lim and his (son (?) and) successor Sūmū-Yamam. On the opposite end, tablets were found in four rooms and in one large chamber of the Administrative Quarters. More to the centre of the palace, and around the vast open courtyard no. 106, the largest proportion of tablets were stored. Rooms 115 to the east, 110 to the north-west, and 108 to the west came the closest to being strictly archival in character.

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Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 34 , Issue 1 , Spring 1972 , pp. 55 - 67
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1972

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References

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4 Cf. Laessøe, J., Shemshāra, pp. 25–28Google Scholar; CAD ṣ, 187 (s.v. ṣiliānu).

5 MAM II/1, pp. 162–163; 102; Rutten, M., RA 35 (1938), 36–70Google Scholar.

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7 Baltimore, 1965, p. 278.

8 ARM XIII: 41: 8, 12; SAL.DUB.SAR VII: 206:11; TEM IV: iv: 19–27.

9 MAM II/1, Chapter IX, pp. 187–192. Note ARM VII: 101, a text which declares that “In the month of Eburum, at the end of the 10th day, Masiḫa was registered as scribe” (a-na ṭup-šar-ru-tim/[in-]na-di). On the peculiarity of this tablet see Bottéro, J., ARMT VII, § 38, 20Google Scholar; § 54.

10 AS 16, 253–256.

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13 RA 48 (1954), 64Google Scholar.

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15 Cf. Studia Pohl, no. 3, pp. 9–10.