ARM 27 003 o.7-12

Sowing sesame in Qaṭṭunān

by Grégory Chambon and Anne-Isabelle Langlois

LineText originalText translated
o. 7še-em ši-ib-ša-am ša qa-aṭ-ṭu2-na-anki[geogr=Qaṭṭunān]
o. 8 uš-ta-ad-di-in
o. 9 še.i3.giš[glossary=šamaššammū] e-ri-iš I sowed sesame[glossary=šamaššammū]:
o. 10 50gana2 a.ša3 ši-ir-ḫa-am 50 ikū (180 km²) of land in traditional cultivation zone
o. 11 u3 20gana2 a.ša3 si2-ip-ḫa-am e-ri-iš and 20 ikū (72 km²) in disseminated land.
lo.e. 12 še.i3.giš da-am-qu2 The sesame is good.
Commentary

Edition of the text in Birot 1993: 42. See other references on the Archibab website.

This letter was sent to Zimrī-Lîm by Ilūšu-nāṣir[individual=Ilūšu-nāṣir]. He was the governor of the district of Qaṭṭunān[geogr=Qaṭṭunān] between the 1st and the 4th years of Zimrī-Lîm’s reign. He has to administer the cultivation system based on “plough teams” and collect the income from arable lands, like other governors in the Mari kingdom.

The letter was first interpreted as evidence that the growers did not use seeder plough exclusively but also broadcast sowing (van Driel 2000 and van Koppen 2001: 484). But the most plausible interpretation according to the available documentation is that of Durand and Marti (2003); the sipḫum-fields were disseminated, that is to say, they were set out of the traditionally cultivated land (šer’um-fields), belonging to an irrigation district.

The šibšum-tax is a tax collected on the harvest, which the commoners (muškēnum) had to pay to the palace in exchange for land use rights. In this case, it concerns winter crops (like barley), harvested in June/July (Months III/IV of the Mari calendar), when sesame began to be sown and cultivated: see comments in Reculeau 2009: 28 and Chambon 2018: 58.

Bibliography

  • Birot 1993 = Birot, Maurice (1993): Correspondance des gouverneurs de Qaṭṭunān. Archives royales de Mari 27. Paris: Recherche sur les civilisations.
  • Chambon 2018 = Chambon, Grégory (2018): Les archives d'Ilu-Kân. Gestion et comptabilité du grain dans le palais de Mari. Mémoires de NABU 16. Florilegium marianum XV. Paris: SEPOA.
  • Durand & Marti 2003 = Durand, Jean-Marie; Marti, Lionel (2003): Chroniques du Moyen-Euphrate 2. Relectures de documents d'Ekalte, Émar et Tuttul, in: Revue d’assyriologie et d’archéologie orientale 97, 141-180.
  • Reculeau 2009 = Reculeau, Hervé (2009): Le point sur la « plante à huile »: réflexions sur la culture du sesame en Syrie-Mésopotamie à l'âge du Bronze, in: Journal des médecines cunéiformes 13, 13-37.
  • van Driel 2000 = Driel, Govert van (2000): The Mesopotamian North: Land Use, an Attempt, in: Jas, Remko M. (ed.), Rainfall and Agriculture in Northern Mesopotamia. MOS Studies 3. Publications de l'Institut historique-archéologique néerlandais de Stamboul 88. Leiden and Istanbul: Peeters, 265-299.
  • van Koppen 2001 = Koppen, Frans van (2001): The Organisation of Institutional Agriculture in Mari, in: Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 44, 451-504.