Desertion during the Old Babylonian period: An irregular or frequent practice? Practical analysis based on the texts from the Mari and the Šemšāra archives

Authors

  • Patricia Bou Pérez Maison de l’Orient et de la Méditerranée, Archéorient, Université Lumière Lyon 2
  • María Teresa Ventura Herrera Arqueóloga y divulgadora

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.53351/ruhm.v7i14.428

Keywords:

Deserter, pāṭerum, Šemšāra, Mari, archives, Old Babylonian period

Abstract

This paper aims to analyse the image and the presence of deserters in the armies of the Old Babylonian period (c. XX – XVI cal. B.C.E.), somewhat underrepresented in the Akkadian public texts, as public inscriptions or literary texts. As an example, we can evoke the Epic of Gilgameš, a text dating from an older period but that we can classify as a timeless document, because it is present in all the periods since its literary creation. If we consider that the aim of these societies was to show to foreigners that they were invulnerable and powerful, we can then consider this characteristic of these sources as normal and as a guideline. Therefore, to achieve the objectives of this paper, we will analyse different documents from the royal archives of Mari (Tell Hariri) and from the šemšāra archives (Tell šemšāra), which correspond to letters sent by the upper ranks of the armies, like Baḫdî-Lîm, and the kings, like Samsî-Addu or Kuwari. We will expose all these texts translated from Akkadian to Spanish, in order to provide a better approximation to them; also, we will offer its corresponding transcription. However, before proceeding to expose the subject from the selected documents, we have considered opportune to include a brief historic context of the Old Babylonian period and a concise summary of the two archives from which the tablets come; furthermore, we have decided to do an analysis of all the Akkadian words which were used to refer the desertion or the deserter. With all of this, we intend to achieve a better comprehension of both selected documents and the representation of the desertion and the deserter. The final purpose of all these analysis is to prove that desertion was a regular practice within the irregularity with which was represented in the Old Babylonian sources.             

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

  • Patricia Bou Pérez, Maison de l’Orient et de la Méditerranée, Archéorient, Université Lumière Lyon 2

    Patricia Bou Pérez, graduada en arqueología por la “Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona” y máster en “Mondes Anciens – Assyriologie” por la “Université Lumière Lyon II”. Actualmente es doctoranda en asiriología en la Université Lumière Lyon 2 y en la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Forma parte del laboratorio de investigación “Archéorient” en la “Maison de L’Orient et de la Méditerranée”, en la Université Lumière Lyon 2. Su tesis doctoral se centra en el estudio de la vida cotidiana de los soldados en época paleobabilónica a partir de los corpus de tablillas cuneiformes, objeto de estudio que queda enmarcado en la denominada “New Military History”.

  • María Teresa Ventura Herrera, Arqueóloga y divulgadora

    María Teresa Ventura Herrera, graduada en arqueología por la “Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona” y máster en “Arqueología y Patrimonio Virtual: Documentación, Preservación y Difusión del Patrimonio Cultural” por la “Sociedad Española de Arqueología Virtual”. Su trabajo de fin de máster se centró en la narrativa virtual como herramienta para el cambio de paradigma de la difusión de la historia militar en el Próximo Oriente antiguo mediante la revisión de la historiografía relativa a este campo de estudio.

References

Bibliografía

Philippe ABRAHAMI: L’armée à Mari, Tesis doctoral, Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, 1997.

Philippe ABRAHAMI y Laura BATTINI: Les armées du Proche-Orient ancien (IIIe-Ier mil. Av. J.-C.), Oxford, John and Erica Hedges Ltd., 2008.

Dominique CHARPIN: “Les archives d’époque assyrienne dans le palais de Mari” en MARI 4, 1985, pp. 243-268.

Dominique CHARPIN y Nele ZIEGLER: Florilegium Marianum V: Mari et le Proche-Orient à l’époque amorrite. Essai d’histoire politique (Mémoires de N.A.B.U. 6), París, SEPOA, 2003.

Dominique CHARPIN: “Histoire Politique du Proche-Orient amorrite (2002-1595)”, en Dominique CHARPIN et al. (ed.), Mesopotamien. Die altbabylonische Zeit, Fribourg, Academic Press, 2004, pp. 2-480.

Dominique CHARPIN: “Le Prix de rachat des captifs d’après les archives paléo-babyloniennes” en Zoltan Csabai (ed.), Studies in Economic and Social History of the Ancient Near East in Memory of Péter Vargyas, Budapest, L’Harmattan, 2014.

Jean-Marie DURAND: “Unités et diversité au Proche-Orient à l’époque amorrite”, en Dominique CHARPIN y Francis Joannès (ed.), La circulation des biens, des personnes et des idées dans le Proche-Orient ancien: actes de la XXXVIIIe rencontré assyriologique internationale, París, éditions Recherche sur les civilisations, 1992, pp. 97-128.

Jean-Marie DURAND: Les documents épistolaires du palais de Mari (LAPO 17), París, Les éditions du Cerf, 1998.

Jesper EIDEM y Jørgen LÆSSØE: The Shemshara archives 1. The letters, Copenhage, Kongelige Danske videnskabernes selskab, 2001.

Andrew R. GEORGE: The Epic of Gilgamesh: The Babylonian Epic Poem and Other Texts in Akkadian and Sumerian, Londres, The Folio Society, 2010.

Andrew R. GEORGE: “The poem of Erra and Ishum: A Babylonian Poet’s View of War”, en Hugh KENNEDY (ed.), Warfare and Poetry in the Middle East, Londres, I.B. Tauris, 2013, pp. 39-72.

Lester L. GRABBE: “Introduction and Overview” en Lester L. GRABBE y Alice Ogden BELLIS (ed.), The Priests in the Prophets: The Portrayal of Priests, Prophets, and Other Religious Specialists in the Latter Prophets, Londres, T&T Clarck International.

Michaël GUICHARD: Florilegium Marianum XIV: L’Épopée de Zimri-Lîm (Mémoires de N.A.B.U. 16), París, SEPOA, 2014.

Katrien de GRAEF: “An account of the redistribution of land to soldiers in late Old Babylonian Sippar-Amnānum”, en Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 45:2, 2002, pp. 141-178.

Wolfgang HEIMPEL: Letters to the King of Mari, Indiana, Eisenbrauns, 2003.

N. J. C. KOUWENBERG: Gemination in the Akkadian Verb, Países Bajos, Van Gorcum, 1997.

Bertrand LAFONT: “Relations internationales, alliances et diplomatie au temps des rois de Mari” en Jean-Marie DURAND et Dominique CHARPIN (dir.), Amurru 2, Mari, Ébla et les Hourrites, Dix ans de travaux, París, 2001, pp. 213-328.

Mario LIVERANI: El Antiguo Oriente. Historia, Sociedad y economía, Barcelona, Crítica, 1995, pp. 299-321.

Jean-Claude MARGUERON: Mari, Métropole de l’Euphrate au IIIe et au début du IIe millénaire av. J.-C., París, Éditions A. et J. Picard, 2004, pp. 31-37.

Leticia ROVIRA: “Ḫapirum y munnabtum: identidades “en fuga” a partir de las fuentes de Mari (siglo XVIII a.C.)”, en Jordi VIDAL (dir.), HISTORIAE, vol. 13, 2016, pp. 21-30.

Marten STOL: “Wirstschaft und Gesellschaft in Altbabylonischer Zeit” en Dominique CHARPIN et al. (ed.), Mesopotamien. Die altbabylonische Zeit, Fribourg, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Göttingen, 2004.

Marc VAN DE MIEROOP: “Review Jesper Eidem, The Shemshara Archives 2: The Administrative Texts” en Journal of the American Oriental Society, 1994, pp. 497-498.

Marc VAN DE MIEROOP: “Credit as a Facilitator of Exchange in Old Babylonian Mesopotamia” en Michael HUDSON y Marc VAN DE MIEROOP (ed.), Debt and Economic Renewal in the Ancient Near East, Bethesda, CDL Press.

Jordi VIDAL: “Mercenarios en los ejércitos paleobabilónicos”, en Antonio ESPINO (ed.), Nuevas fronteras de la Historia de la Guerra, Zaragoza, Libros Pórtico, 2014, pp. 1-14.

Jordi VIDAL: “Dioses en los campos de batalla del Próximo Oriente en época paleobabilónica”, en Borja ANTELA y Jordi VIDAL (ed.), Guerra y Religión en el Mundo Antiguo, Zaragoza, Libros Pórtico, 2015, pp. 1-12.

Jordi VIDAL: “La guerra de asedio en el período paleobabilónico según los textos de Mari”, en Borja ANTELA y Jordi VIDAL, Fortificaciones y Guerra de Asedio en el Mundo Antiguo, Zaragoza, Libros Pórtico, 2012, pp. 21-38.

Downloads

Published

2018-07-11

Issue

Vol. 7 No. 14 (2018): La lógica de la guerra “irregular” en la Antigüedad

Section

Dossier

License

Copyright (c) 2018 University Journal of Military History

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License

By exercising the Licensed Rights (defined below), You accept and agree to be bound by the terms and conditions of this Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License ("Public License"). To the extent this Public License may be interpreted as a contract, You are granted the Licensed Rights in consideration of Your acceptance of these terms and conditions, and the Licensor grants You such rights in consideration of benefits the Licensor receives from making the Licensed Material available under these terms and conditions.

Section 1 – Definitions.

  1. Adapted Material means material subject to Copyright and Similar Rights that is derived from or based upon the Licensed Material and in which the Licensed Material is translated, altered, arranged, transformed, or otherwise modified in a manner requiring permission under the Copyright and Similar Rights held by the Licensor. For purposes of this Public License, where the Licensed Material is a musical work, performance, or sound recording, Adapted Material is always produced where the Licensed Material is synched in timed relation with a moving image.
  2. Copyright and Similar Rights means copyright and/or similar rights closely related to copyright including, without limitation, performance, broadcast, sound recording, and Sui Generis Database Rights, without regard to how the rights are labeled or categorized. For purposes of this Public License, the rights specified in Section 2(b)(1)-(2) are not Copyright and Similar Rights.
  3. Effective Technological Measures means those measures that, in the absence of proper authority, may not be circumvented under laws fulfilling obligations under Article 11 of the WIPO Copyright Treaty adopted on December 20, 1996, and/or similar international agreements.
  4. Exceptions and Limitations means fair use, fair dealing, and/or any other exception or limitation to Copyright and Similar Rights that applies to Your use of the Licensed Material.
  5. Licensed Material means the artistic or literary work, database, or other material to which the Licensor applied this Public License.
  6. Licensed Rights means the rights granted to You subject to the terms and conditions of this Public License, which are limited to all Copyright and Similar Rights that apply to Your use of the Licensed Material and that the Licensor has authority to license.
  7. Licensor means the individual(s) or entity(ies) granting rights under this Public License.
  8. NonCommercial means not primarily intended for or directed towards commercial advantage or monetary compensation. For purposes of this Public License, the exchange of the Licensed Material for other material subject to Copyright and Similar Rights by digital file-sharing or similar means is NonCommercial provided there is no payment of monetary compensation in connection with the exchange.
  9. Share means to provide material to the public by any means or process that requires permission under the Licensed Rights, such as reproduction, public display, public performance, distribution, dissemination, communication, or importation, and to make material available to the public including in ways that members of the public may access the material from a place and at a time individually chosen by them.
  10. Sui Generis Database Rights means rights other than copyright resulting from Directive 96/9/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 1996 on the legal protection of databases, as amended and/or succeeded, as well as other essentially equivalent rights anywhere in the world.
  11. You means the individual or entity exercising the Licensed Rights under this Public License. Your has a corresponding meaning.

Section 2 – Scope.

  1. License grant.
    1. Subject to the terms and conditions of this Public License, the Licensor hereby grants You a worldwide, royalty-free, non-sublicensable, non-exclusive, irrevocable license to exercise the Licensed Rights in the Licensed Material to:
      1. reproduce and Share the Licensed Material, in whole or in part, for NonCommercial purposes only; and
      2. produce and reproduce, but not Share, Adapted Material for NonCommercial purposes only.
    2. Exceptions and Limitations. For the avoidance of doubt, where Exceptions and Limitations apply to Your use, this Public License does not apply, and You do not need to comply with its terms and conditions.
    3. Term. The term of this Public License is specified in Section 6(a).
    4. Media and formats; technical modifications allowed. The Licensor authorizes You to exercise the Licensed Rights in all media and formats whether now known or hereafter created, and to make technical modifications necessary to do so. The Licensor waives and/or agrees not to assert any right or authority to forbid You from making technical modifications necessary to exercise the Licensed Rights, including technical modifications necessary to circumvent Effective Technological Measures. For purposes of this Public License, simply making modifications authorized by this Section 2(a)(4) never produces Adapted Material.
    5. Downstream recipients.
      1. Offer from the Licensor – Licensed Material. Every recipient of the Licensed Material automatically receives an offer from the Licensor to exercise the Licensed Rights under the terms and conditions of this Public License.
      2. No downstream restrictions. You may not offer or impose any additional or different terms or conditions on, or apply any Effective Technological Measures to, the Licensed Material if doing so restricts exercise of the Licensed Rights by any recipient of the Licensed Material.
    6. No endorsement. Nothing in this Public License constitutes or may be construed as permission to assert or imply that You are, or that Your use of the Licensed Material is, connected with, or sponsored, endorsed, or granted official status by, the Licensor or others designated to receive attribution as provided in Section 3(a)(1)(A)(i).

  2. Other rights.

    1. Moral rights, such as the right of integrity, are not licensed under this Public License, nor are publicity, privacy, and/or other similar personality rights; however, to the extent possible, the Licensor waives and/or agrees not to assert any such rights held by the Licensor to the limited extent necessary to allow You to exercise the Licensed Rights, but not otherwise.
    2. Patent and trademark rights are not licensed under this Public License.
    3. To the extent possible, the Licensor waives any right to collect royalties from You for the exercise of the Licensed Rights, whether directly or through a collecting society under any voluntary or waivable statutory or compulsory licensing scheme. In all other cases the Licensor expressly reserves any right to collect such royalties, including when the Licensed Material is used other than for NonCommercial purposes.

Section 3 – License Conditions.

Your exercise of the Licensed Rights is expressly made subject to the following conditions.

  1. Attribution.

    1. If You Share the Licensed Material, You must:

      1. retain the following if it is supplied by the Licensor with the Licensed Material:
        1. identification of the creator(s) of the Licensed Material and any others designated to receive attribution, in any reasonable manner requested by the Licensor (including by pseudonym if designated);
        2. a copyright notice;
        3. a notice that refers to this Public License;
        4. a notice that refers to the disclaimer of warranties;
        5. a URI or hyperlink to the Licensed Material to the extent reasonably practicable;
      2. indicate if You modified the Licensed Material and retain an indication of any previous modifications; and
      3. indicate the Licensed Material is licensed under this Public License, and include the text of, or the URI or hyperlink to, this Public License.
      For the avoidance of doubt, You do not have permission under this Public License to Share Adapted Material.
    2. You may satisfy the conditions in Section 3(a)(1) in any reasonable manner based on the medium, means, and context in which You Share the Licensed Material. For example, it may be reasonable to satisfy the conditions by providing a URI or hyperlink to a resource that includes the required information.
    3. If requested by the Licensor, You must remove any of the information required by Section 3(a)(1)(A) to the extent reasonably practicable.

Section 4 – Sui Generis Database Rights.

Where the Licensed Rights include Sui Generis Database Rights that apply to Your use of the Licensed Material:

  1. for the avoidance of doubt, Section 2(a)(1) grants You the right to extract, reuse, reproduce, and Share all or a substantial portion of the contents of the database for NonCommercial purposes only and provided You do not Share Adapted Material;
  2. if You include all or a substantial portion of the database contents in a database in which You have Sui Generis Database Rights, then the database in which You have Sui Generis Database Rights (but not its individual contents) is Adapted Material; and
  3. You must comply with the conditions in Section 3(a) if You Share all or a substantial portion of the contents of the database.

For the avoidance of doubt, this Section 4supplements and does not replace Your obligations under this Public License where the Licensed Rights include other Copyright and Similar Rights.

Section 5 – Disclaimer of Warranties and Limitation of Liability.

  1. Unless otherwise separately undertaken by the Licensor, to the extent possible, the Licensor offers the Licensed Material as-is and as-available, and makes no representations or warranties of any kind concerning the Licensed Material, whether express, implied, statutory, or other. This includes, without limitation, warranties of title, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, absence of latent or other defects, accuracy, or the presence or absence of errors, whether or not known or discoverable. Where disclaimers of warranties are not allowed in full or in part, this disclaimer may not apply to You.
  2. To the extent possible, in no event will the Licensor be liable to You on any legal theory (including, without limitation, negligence) or otherwise for any direct, special, indirect, incidental, consequential, punitive, exemplary, or other losses, costs, expenses, or damages arising out of this Public License or use of the Licensed Material, even if the Licensor has been advised of the possibility of such losses, costs, expenses, or damages. Where a limitation of liability is not allowed in full or in part, this limitation may not apply to You.
  1. The disclaimer of warranties and limitation of liability provided above shall be interpreted in a manner that, to the extent possible, most closely approximates an absolute disclaimer and waiver of all liability.

Section 6 – Term and Termination.

  1. This Public License applies for the term of the Copyright and Similar Rights licensed here. However, if You fail to comply with this Public License, then Your rights under this Public License terminate automatically.

  2. Where Your right to use the Licensed Material has terminated under Section 6(a), it reinstates:

    1. automatically as of the date the violation is cured, provided it is cured within 30 days of Your discovery of the violation; or
    2. upon express reinstatement by the Licensor.
    For the avoidance of doubt, this Section 6(b) does not affect any right the Licensor may have to seek remedies for Your violations of this Public License.
  3. For the avoidance of doubt, the Licensor may also offer the Licensed Material under separate terms or conditions or stop distributing the Licensed Material at any time; however, doing so will not terminate this Public License.
  4. Sections 1, 5, 6, 7, and 8 survive termination of this Public License.

Section 7 – Other Terms and Conditions.

  1. The Licensor shall not be bound by any additional or different terms or conditions communicated by You unless expressly agreed.
  2. Any arrangements, understandings, or agreements regarding the Licensed Material not stated herein are separate from and independent of the terms and conditions of this Public License.

Section 8 – Interpretation.

  1. For the avoidance of doubt, this Public License does not, and shall not be interpreted to, reduce, limit, restrict, or impose conditions on any use of the Licensed Material that could lawfully be made without permission under this Public License.
  2. To the extent possible, if any provision of this Public License is deemed unenforceable, it shall be automatically reformed to the minimum extent necessary to make it enforceable. If the provision cannot be reformed, it shall be severed from this Public License without affecting the enforceability of the remaining terms and conditions.
  3. No term or condition of this Public License will be waived and no failure to comply consented to unless expressly agreed to by the Licensor.
  4. Nothing in this Public License constitutes or may be interpreted as a limitation upon, or waiver of, any privileges and immunities that apply to the Licensor or You, including from the legal processes of any jurisdiction or authority.

Creative Commons is not a party to its public licenses. Notwithstanding, Creative Commons may elect to apply one of its public licenses to material it publishes and in those instances will be considered the “Licensor.” The text of the Creative Commons public licenses is dedicated to the public domain under the CC0 Public Domain Dedication. Except for the limited purpose of indicating that material is shared under a Creative Commons public license or as otherwise permitted by the Creative Commons policies published at creativecommons.org/policies, Creative Commons does not authorize the use of the trademark “Creative Commons” or any other trademark or logo of Creative Commons without its prior written consent including, without limitation, in connection with any unauthorized modifications to any of its public licenses or any other arrangements, understandings, or agreements concerning use of licensed material. For the avoidance of doubt, this paragraph does not form part of the public licenses.

Creative Commons may be contacted at creativecommons.org.

How to Cite

Desertion during the Old Babylonian period: An irregular or frequent practice? Practical analysis based on the texts from the Mari and the Šemšāra archives. (2018). Revista Universitaria De Historia Militar, 7(14). https://doi.org/10.53351/ruhm.v7i14.428

Similar Articles

61-70 of 149

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.