The Participation of Marginal and Liminal Groups in Secondary State Formation under the Third Dynasty of Ur
-
Steven Garfinkle
Abstract
The Ur III period (2112–2004 BC) provides rich opportunities to evaluate the contributions of marginal and liminal groups to the political economy of the era, and to re-assess our understanding of what constituted such groups in an era of early state formation. These opportunities arise in part from the well preserved and detailed administrative corpora at major provincial centers like Umma and Ĝirsu, as well as from significant centers of royal activity like Puzriš-Dagan and Iri-sagrig. These archives document many of the activities of the two groups on which this article focuses: the large body of marginalized dependent laborers (Sumerian ĝuruš) who performed a great deal of the agricultural work in Mesopotamia, and the liminal figures who frequent our records, often associated with pastoralism, and who are identified as Amorites (Sumerian Mar-tu). The former group I identify as “insiders” who were socio-economically marginalized, and the latter group I identify as “outsiders” who occasionally had the opportunity to become privileged insiders. Our tendency in the study of early agrarian societies to regard pastoralists as “outsiders” allows for a critique of how we identify and describe liminal groups; and this has added significance for how we understand the state building projects of the Third Dynasty of Ur.
References
Adams, R. 2008. “An Interdisciplinary Overview of a Mesopotamian City and its Hinterlands”. CDLJ 2008: 1–23.Suche in Google Scholar
Burke, A. 2020. The Amorites and the Bronze Age Near East: The Making of a Regional Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/9781108856461Suche in Google Scholar
Cohen, Y. 2020. “Who’s Who is the “House of Ur-Meme”. Reconfiguring Old Babylonian Literature and Ur III Historical Sources.” Kaskal 17: 23–52.Suche in Google Scholar
Garfinkle, S. J. 2012. Entrepreneurs and Enterprise in Early Mesopotamia. A Study of Three Archives from the Third Dynasty of Ur. CDL Press, Bethesda.Suche in Google Scholar
Garfinkle, S. J. 2014. The Economy of Warfare in Southern Iraq at the End of the Third Millennium BC. In: Neumann, H., Dittmann, R., Paulus, S., Neumann, G., and Schuster-Brandis, A. (Eds.), Krieg und frieden im alten vorderasien, 52nd Rencontre Assyriologiue International, Münster, 17–21. Juli 2006. Ugarit-Verlag, Münster, 353–62.Suche in Google Scholar
Garfinkle, S. J. 2015. “Ur III Administrative Texts: Building Blocks of State Community.” In Texts and Contexts, the Circulation and Transmission of Cuneiform Texts in Social Space, edited by P. Delnero and J. Lauinger, 143–65. Berlin: de Gruyter.10.1515/9781614515371-006Suche in Google Scholar
Garfinkle, S. J. 2021. The Kingdom as Sheepfold: Frontier Strategy Under the Third Dynasty of Ur; A View from the Center. In Ur in the Twenty-First Century CE, Proceedings of the 62nd Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale at Philadelphis July 11–15, 2016 edited by G. Frame, J. Jeffers, and H. Pittman, 245–51. Eisenbrauns, University Park.10.5325/j.ctv1g80954.20Suche in Google Scholar
Molina, M. 2022. “Il corpus della documentazione economico-amministrativa.” In Il regno della Terza Dinastia di Ur, edited by F. Pomponio, 39–87. Rome: Studi Semitici.Suche in Google Scholar
Michalowski, P. 2011. The Correspondence of the Kings of Ur, An Epistolary History of an Ancient Mesopotamian Kingdom. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns.10.1515/9781575066509Suche in Google Scholar
Owen, D. I., ed. 2011. Garšana Studies. Bethesda: CDL Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Steinkeller, P. 2002. “Money Lending Practices in Ur III Babylonia: The Issue of Economic Motivation.” In Debt and Economic Renewal in the Ancient Near East, edited by M. Hudson, and M. Van De Mieroop, 109–37. Bethesda: CDL Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Steinkeller, P. 2003. An Ur III Manuscript of the Sumerian King List. In Literatur, politik, und recht in Mesopotamien: festschrift für Claus Wilcke edited by W. Sallaberger, K. Volk, A. Zgoll, 267–92. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden.Suche in Google Scholar
Steinkeller, P. 2004. “A History of Mashkan-shapir and Its Role in the Kingdom of Larsa.” In The Anatomy of a Mesopotamian City: Survey and Soundings at Mashkan-Shapir, edited by E. C. Stone and P. E. Zamansky, 26–42. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns.10.1515/9781575065465-005Suche in Google Scholar
Steinkeller, P. 2013. “Corvée labor in Ur III Times.” In From the 21st Century BC to the 21st Century AD, Proceedings of the International Conference on Neo-Sumerian Studies held in Madrid, 22–24 July, 2010, edited by S. J. Garfinkle and M. Molina, 347–424. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns.10.1515/9781575068718-021Suche in Google Scholar
Steinkeller, P. 2015. “Labor in the Early States: An Early Mesopotamian Perspective.” In Labor in the Ancient World, edited by P. Steinkeller and M. Hudson, 1–35. Dresden: Islet Verlag.Suche in Google Scholar
Verderame, L. 2009. “Mar-tu nel III millennio: Fonti e interpretazioni.” Revista degli Studi Orientali 82: 229–60.Suche in Google Scholar
Zettler, R. L. 1984. “The Genealogy of the House of Ur-Me-me: A Second Look.” AfO 31: 1–9.Suche in Google Scholar
© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Outside the Pale: Marginality and Liminality in the Bronze Age Near East. Introduction
- Defining Marginality and Liminality for the Study of the Ancient Near East
- Not Marginal, But Marginalised. The ‘Pan-Grave’ Archaeological Culture, Pharaonic Egypt, and Egyptology
- Marginal Communities and Cooperative Strategies in the Kerma Pastoral State
- The Negev in the Intermediate Bronze Age: Questions of Subsistence, Trade, and Status
- Debt and Credit: Entangling the Marginal and Liminal in the Non-monetary Economies of Bronze Age Ugarit
- Sacred Spaces and Liminal Behavior in Levantine Temples in Antis
- Liminal People(s) in the Late Bronze Age Levant? A New Light on Sherden (šerdanu)
- The Participation of Marginal and Liminal Groups in Secondary State Formation under the Third Dynasty of Ur
- Hard Times for Sippar Women: Three Late Old Babylonian Cases
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Outside the Pale: Marginality and Liminality in the Bronze Age Near East. Introduction
- Defining Marginality and Liminality for the Study of the Ancient Near East
- Not Marginal, But Marginalised. The ‘Pan-Grave’ Archaeological Culture, Pharaonic Egypt, and Egyptology
- Marginal Communities and Cooperative Strategies in the Kerma Pastoral State
- The Negev in the Intermediate Bronze Age: Questions of Subsistence, Trade, and Status
- Debt and Credit: Entangling the Marginal and Liminal in the Non-monetary Economies of Bronze Age Ugarit
- Sacred Spaces and Liminal Behavior in Levantine Temples in Antis
- Liminal People(s) in the Late Bronze Age Levant? A New Light on Sherden (šerdanu)
- The Participation of Marginal and Liminal Groups in Secondary State Formation under the Third Dynasty of Ur
- Hard Times for Sippar Women: Three Late Old Babylonian Cases
