After the conquest of the South by Ḫammurāpi[individual=Ḫammurāpi] in 1763, the region of Larsa[geogr=Larsa] was a place of food production for the Kingdom of Babylon[geogr=Bābilum], including dates, sesame and barley, intended to supply the capital. This dossier, based on the study of administrative texts and letters from the Larsa region, aims to present information on the agricultural management of the royal land, in particular sesame fields under the responsibility of Šamaš-ḫāzir[individual=Šamaš-ḫāzir] in charge of the royal land register, but also of his wife Zinû[individual=Zinû] in his absence. The correspondence between King Ḫammurāpi and Sîn-iddinam[individual=Sîn-iddinam], governor of Yamutbalum[geogr=Yamutbalum] province can be added to this dossier because some of these letters describe the management of sesame for Babylon. Šamaš-ḫāzir’s archives and, by extension, the correspondence between Ḫammurāpi and Sîn-iddinam, have been recently studied in detail in Fiette 2018a.
1. Sesame Cultivation and Land Management in the Region of Larsa
1.1. Time of Sowing and Cultivation of Sesame Seeds
The farming contract BIN 07 177 from Šamaš-ḫāzir’s archives is dated to Month III/June, corresponding to the time of barley’s harvest. As Fiette (2018a: 257) has observed, following Bedigian (1985: 165) and Reculeau (2009: 26-29), it is clear that the barley fields could now be used to cultivate sesame, because the harvest period is not the same.
1.2. Assigned Work for Sesame Crops
The farming contract BIN 07 177 records the allocation of several fields units (ikû) to different farmers on sesame plots under Šamaš-ḫāzir’s responsibility. The latter is also qualified as the “owner of the field” (lugal a-ša3-ke4, bēl eqlim). This text dates to the 32nd year of Ḫammurāpi’s reign (1761 BCE): would it refer to “assigned work” (iškārum) on different plots of land just after the conquest of Larsa region by the king? Indeed, Šamaš-ḫāzir is not attested during the reign of the previous king, Rīm-Sîn I[individual=Rīm-Sîn I], because his archives cover a period of fifteen years, from the conquest of the South by Ḫammurāpi until the rule of Samsu-ilūna (1763-1748 BCE).
The text refers to the area of Šamaš-ḫāzir’s sesame fields, which is 5 ikû (18,000 m²). Six farmers are in charge of collecting sesame in areas between 1 1/2 and 1/2 ikû of the field. According to the farming contract, they will keep two-thirds of produced crops while Šamaš-ḫāzir, as the owner of the field, will receive one-third.
| Farmers | Surface in ikû | Surface in m² |
| Utu-manšum[individual=Utu-manšum] | 1 | 3,600 |
| Šamaš-dayyān[individual=Šamaš-dayyān] and Sīrum[individual=Sīrum] | 1 1/2 | 5,400 |
| Lūmur-ša-Šamaš[individual=Lūmur-ša-Šamaš] | 1 | 3,600 |
| Bēlī-ašarēd[individual=Bēlī-ašarēd] | 1 | 3.600 |
| Lisatum[individual=Lisatum] | 1 | 1,800 |
| Total | 5 | 18,000 |
A significant interest of BIN 07 177 is that, as a contract, it makes farmers‘ legal responsibility clear. They not only have to deliver the right quantities of sesame, but also ensure the use of the field and its maintenance during the sesame growing period. In particular, they will have to plough[glossary=mayyāram maḫāṣum] the field and “irrigate” (mê šaqûm) it correctly: they risk prison if they let „the orchard die“ (kirâm dâkum).
1.3. Cultivation of Sesame Fields in Ašdubba
Three letters (AbB 11 168, AbB 04 156, and AbB 14 163) give information on sesame fields in Ašdubba[geogr=Ašdubba], on the outskirts of Larsa, that Zinû had to manage during her husband’s absences.
The sesame fields‘ size is mentioned in AbB 14 163. The area of barley fields under Šamaš-ḫāzir’s responsibility is 10 būr (180 ikû, ca. 64,8 ha), thus 5 more than the fields in the farming contract BIN 07 177. According to this latter, these 5 ikû of sesame fields were next to the “mouth of the canal” (i7.ka.ba), whose precise location is unfortunately unknown. In this case, the fact that this contract refers to an “orchard” (kîrum) and not a “field” (eqlum) maybe suggests a form of intercropping (a possible agricultural technique for sesame, as shown by Bedigian 2010: 9-10). It would mean that sesame was both planted on barley fields in Ašdubba and in orchards, where “date palms” (gišgišimmar) were grown, but also other fruit trees such as “apple tree” (gišḫašḫur), “fig tree” (gišpeš3) and “pomegranate tree” (nu.ur2.ma); see Fiette 2018a: 275-280.
As pointed out by Fiette (2018a: 257-258), AbB 04 156 indicates that sesame was usually planted on barley fields once the harvest is done: 50 gur (=15.000 litres) of barley are entrusted to Sîn-mūštal[individual=Sîn-mūštal], maybe the chief merchant of Ur[geogr=Urim] and barley fields must be flattened[glossary=sapānum] to let grow sesame. The passage is, unfortunately, fragmentary, but it is probably a matter of planting sesame (Fiette 2018a: 257). Sesame cultivation was strategically organised around barley cultivation. It is thus only known through the prism of barley cultivation and harvest (as also shown in the letter AbB 14 163).
2. Sesame Harvest and Deliveries
During his absences, Šamaš-ḫāzir wrote letters concerning the management of sesame crops to Zinû (AbB 04 156 and AbB 14 163). Zinû not only replied to her husband (AbB 11 168) but also held a correspondence with Nūr-Ilabrat[individual=Nūr-Ilabrat], a man who was obviously in charge of the sesame crops (AbB 04 141). It seems that Zinû was responsible, in particular, for the sesame harvest.
2.1. Time of Harvesting Sesame
The text OECT 15 101 dates to Month IX/December; thus, this contract was written after the harvest, which theoretically occurred in Month VII/October. Sesame is known to require 3-4 months of growth, which could corroborate with data from Šamaš-ḫāzir’s archives (see BIN 07 177). Other documents record deliveries of sesame up to Month VIII/November in the Old Babylonian period, while Neo-Babylonian sesame deliveries may extend from Month VI/September to Month X/January ((Fiette 2018a: 282)). Perhaps it should be considered that sesame, once harvested, was taken over by farmers as stipulated in BIN 07 177, and then they took their share before delivering what was due to Šamaš-ḫāzir.
2.2. The Fear of Stolen and Moistened Sesame
As already seen, Ašdubba was a place where sesame grew, but also where it was certainly stored, according to AbB 14 163 (sesame must be locked up in Ašdubba). In AbB 11 168, Zinû writes to her husband that sesame might be stolen since he has not appointed someone to supervise it (Fiette 2018a: 260).
In the letter AbB 14 059, Nūr-Ilabrat, who is in charge of the sesame management for Šamaš-ḫāzir, alerts Zinû: the „rain must not reach the sesame“1See also in this respect lines 4-6 of AbB 14 059, a letter dating from the reign of Rīm-Sîn[individual=Rīm-Sîn].. Sesame seeds do not tolerate humidity well, and rain affects the quality of the harvest. It is for this reason that they were dried.
2.3. Deliveries of Sesame after the Harvest
Three deliveries of sesame received by Zinû, under the responsibility of Šamaš-gāmil and Šamaš-dayyān, are recorded in text OECT 15 101. Šamaš-dayyān is a farmer mentioned in BIN 7 177 who has to deliver the most significant quantity of sesame from the 1 1/2 ikû entrusted to him in the year Ḫammurāpi 32.
| Delivery in kur | Equivalence in litres | |
| First delivery | 2,2.4.0 | 760 |
| Second delivery | 6,3.0.3 | 1,983 |
| Third delivery | 6,0.4.1 | 1,841 |
| Total | 15,1.2.5 | 4,584 |
Unfortunately, OECT 15 101 does not specify whether the three deliveries strictly depended on the crops of the two farmers or whether they were responsible for bringing all on behalf of the others. If the delivery concerns the area of 5 ikû of Šamaš-ḫāzir’s sesame fields, this gives an average yield of 3 kur per ikû, according to BIN 7 177. If it is, on the contrary, the delivery of 1 1/2 ikû of field corresponding to the share of Šamaš-dayyān in BIN 7 177, the yield is approximately 10 kur per ikû. These calculations are strictly theoretical insofar as yields should depend on climatic conditions and potentially be different each year.
The operation of pounding[glossary=napāṣum] sesame is only documented in our dossier by the letter AbB 04 141. It mentions that 3 kur of sesame are enough for pounding sesame. According to the farming contract BIN 07 177 and the receipt OECT 15 101 seen above, this corresponds approximately to 1/5 of the expected harvest of a sesame field; it means that 1/5 of the production was used to produce oil in Larsa at that time. Sesame had to be transported directly to Babylon to supply the capital (AbB 02 022).