Lagaš II Girsu

The Palace Archive of Gudea and His Dynasty

by Walther Sallaberger ORCID

Gudea of Lagash (ca. 2130-2110) is one of the most famous rulers from Early Bronze Age Mesopotamia because of his statues and cylinder inscriptions that have come down to us. His written legacy suggests an image of a wealthy ruler with far-reaching economic and political relations. Since neither his inscriptions nor his year dates deal with political matters, the length, as well as many details of his reign and the relationship to the contemporary kingdom of Uruk and other states, remain unknown (Carroué 1994, Carroué 1997, Sallaberger/Schrakamp 2015: 120-22).

Gudea ruled the city-state of Lagash from its capital, the city of Girsu (modern Tello). Beside the much larger collections of archival tablets from the Presargonic and Ur III periods (see Archives Presargonic Emunus, Ur III Girsu) the French archaeologists and local treasure hunters found some 600 tablets dated to the dynasty of Gudea, the so-called „Lagash II“ dynasty.

Maiocchi & Visicato 2020 provided a compilation of the texts from this archive with transliterations and basic translations, but without philological or archival commentary. This deficit is partly compensated by Lehmann 2016 : he edited and discussed all tablets related to the archive’s key persons Šara-isa and Ur-Bagara, together with a meticulous review of the scholarly literature concerning the archive, the individuals and the items.

The archive from Gudea’s palace at Girsu deals with objects of the ruler’s treasure, namely silver and gold and other metals and textiles (Sallaberger 2013a, Sallaberger 2018), as well as food delicacies. Beyond these palatial goods, the archive is also concerned with basic staples such as grain, fat, or fish. The transactions cover the internal management of goods and expenditures including those to deities or to visitors from various countries.

1. Oils and fats in Gudea’s Palace Archive

Regarding oils and fats, Gudea’s palace features an exceptionally rich variety, with butter (i3-nun[glossary=i3-nun]) as the most widespread variety, rarely called „butter from cows“ (i3 ab2[glossary=i3 ab2]) or „butter from goats“ (i3 ud5[glossary=i3 ud5]), as well as „sesame oil“ (i3-ĝeš[glossary=i3-ĝeš]), and „fat from sheep“ (i3 udu[glossary=i3 udu]), „lard“ (i3 šaḫa2[glossary=i3 šaḫa2]), and special oils like „olive oil“ (i3 se2-er-dum[glossary=i3 se2-er-dum]) and „almond oil“ (i3 ši-iq-dim[glossary=i3 ši-iq-dum]). Oil is measured in dug gal[glossary=dug gal], dug[glossary=dug], dug tur[glossary=dug tur] (of 60, 30 and 15 sila/litres, respectively) and in sila3 „litres“, but it is handed over to guests in small a2-gam[glossary=a2-gam]-spoons(?) (mostly sesame oil) and handled in the standard „oil jar“ (saman4[glossary=saman4]). Aromatized oils (i3 (…) du10-ga[glossary=i3 du10-ga]) were made from butter (i3-nun du10-ga, Kaskal 15 17 42, PPAC 5 0967, RTC 215), lard (i3 udu du10-ga, Kaskal 15 20 62, RTC 229), or almond oil (RTC 215). RTC 109 offers an exceptional variety of oils flavoured with different woods and aromatics. More often the texts note only i3 „oil/fat“ instead of identifying it.

The highest attested amount of sesame seeds is 150 Akkade-gur (= 45,000 sila/litres; RTC 191). The Sesame milling women (geme2 ĝeš-i3[glossary=geme2 i3-sur]) are known from a list only (MVN 06 492).

Bibliography

  • Carroué 1994 = Carroué, François (1994): La situation chronologique des Lagaš II: Un Elément du Dossier, in: Acta Sumerologica 16, 47–75.
  • Carroué 1997 = Carroué, François (1997): La chronologie interne du règne de Gudea, partie I, in: Acta Sumerologica 19, 19–51.
  • Lehmann 2016 = Lehmann, Ulrich (2016): dšára-ì-sa6 und ur-ba-gára. Untersuchungen zu den Verwaltungstexten der neusumerischen Lagaš II-Periode aus Girsu. Alter Orient und Altes Testament 430. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag.
  • Maiocchi & Visicato 2020 = Maiocchi, Massimo; Visicato, Giuseppe (2020): Administration at Girsu in Gudea's Time. Antichista 27. Studi orientali 10. Venezia: Edizioni Ca'Foscari.
  • Sallaberger 2013a = Sallaberger, Walther (2013): The Management of Royal Treasure. Palace Archives and Palatial Economy in the Ancient Near East, in: Hill, Jane A.; Jones, Philip; Morales, Antonio J. (eds.), Experiencing Power, Generating Authority. Cosmos, Politics, and the Ideology of Kingship in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 219-255.
  • Sallaberger 2018 = Sallaberger, Walther (2018): Il tesoro reale e il suo significato economico e politico nell’Antico Oriente, in: Vallerani, Massimo (ed.), Valore delle cose e valore delle persone. Dall’Antichità all’Età moderna. Roma, 1-24.
  • Sallaberger/Schrakamp 2015 = Sallaberger, Walther; Schrakamp, Ingo (2015): Philological Data for a Historical Chronology of Mesopotamia in the 3rd Millennium , in: Sallaberger, Walther; Schrakamp, Ingo (eds.), Associated Regional Chronologies for the Ancient Near East and the Eastern Mediterranean 3: History & Philology. Turnhout: Brepols, 1-136.