TABLE OF CONTENTS

Editors Foreword V
Tabula Gratulatoria VII
Bibliography of Krystyna yczkowska XI
List of Abbreviations XVI
Piotr Bieliski
Some Cylinder Seal Impressions on Pottery from Tell Arbid 1
Jan Braun
Pelasgian and Thracian Personal Names in Tyrsenian Language 9
Albertyna Dembska
Lamentation 13
Olga Drewnowska
Figurines and Statues in the Cult of Nanja 23
Krystyna Gawlikowska
Birds on Sasanian Glass 31
Micha Gawlikowski
Crossing to Kane 44
Magdalena Kapeu
Amelia Hertz as Assyriologist 53
Zdzisaw Kapera
Jewish Rebellion in Cyprus in 116/117 AD and Mesopotamia 69
Pawe Kociszewski
The Rod and the Ring. A Few Reflections about Creating Reality 85
Rafa Koliski
On the Organization of the Old Assyrian Long Distance Trade 97
Edward Lipiski
uwala 115
Dorota awecka
North-Babylonian Motifs in Early Dynastic Mesopotamian Glyptics 121
Piotr Michaowski
Aur during the Ur III Period 149
Piotr A. Miglus
Zwei Nergal-Tempel. Zwischen babylonischer und assyrischer
Tradition 157
Stefan Nowicki
Acquiring of the Ritual Purity by Mechanical and Magical Means
in the Ancient Near Eastern Rituals 171
Maciej Popko
Ein unbekanntes Textbruchstck zu CTH 627? 189
Andrzej Reiche and Magorzata Sandowicz
Neo-Babylonian Seal from the Potocki Collection
at the National Museum in Warsaw 195
Hanna Roszkowska-Mutschler
Einige Bemerkungen zu den Annalen Hattusilis I.
und den Zehnjahr-Annalen Mursilis II. 221
Marek Stpie
Why Some Kings Become Gods. The Deification of Narm-Sn,
the Ruler of the World 233
Aleksandra Szymku and Dorota Wanacka
Two Sumerian Bricks from a Private Collection 257
Piotr Taracha
Why attuili chose the Storm-god of Nerik
and auka of amu a 261
Stefan Zawadzki
The Archive of the Rab-a-Ninurta Family from Babylon.
Business and Family Relations as Revealed by BM 55482 271
 AUR DURING THE UR III PERIOD
Piotr Michaowski
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

It is a great pleasure to dedicate this short piece to Prof. Krystyna

yczkowska, who first introduced me to the Akkadian language, the
cuneiform script, and the terrors of Assyriology. Her favorite subjects
were always of the Old Assyrian variety; I cannot contribute anything
in her area, so I hope that she will be pleased with a study that is only
marginally related to her specialization.
Modern opinions on the boundaries of the Ur III state have fluctuated over
the years as scholars have changed their opinions on certain philological
matters. In the middle of the last century, it was commonly thought that the
House of Ur-Namma extended its reach all the way to the Mediterranean
Sea, and that the cities of Ebla and Byblos were ruled by governors ap-
pointed by Ur (e.g. Sollberger 1959-1960). By the time that D. O. Edzard
and G. Farber published the standard compilation of Ur III place names in
1974, the scope of the state had been reduced to Babylonia, the Diyala, and
Susiana, but a look at P. Steinkellers (1987: 31) map, which has often been
reproduced, shows Aur in the north in the hands of the state, as part of the
periphery. Most recently, in an overview of the early history of Northern
Mesopotamia, W. Sallaberger (2007: 434) stated: the northernmost prov-
ince of the Ur empire was Aur with the well-known governor Zarriqum.
No other principality that far up the Tigris was controlled by Ur; Nineveh
and Simanum were allies, as were a number of smaller polities, but none of
them, Aur aside, were ruled by governors appointed from the south. Seen
in this light, the Aur situation is an anomaly that requires reinvestigation.
In the political language of Ur III times, there was only one terrestrial
l u g a l king, while all other earthly potentates, no matter how powerful,
were designated with the word e n s i2. Because this was the same term that
was used to describe the governors appointed by the Ur government to rule
over each province, it has created a certain amount of scholarly confusion,
150 Piotr Michaowski

which is why independent kings of places such as Ebla and Byblos were
thought to be in the orbit of the Mesopotamian state. While we no longer
consider this to be true, the Sumerian terminology does invite some confu-
sion. Currently, it is thought that the core of the Ur III state consisted of nine-
teen or more provinces governed by e n s i2s that spanned the area from
the Persian Gulf to Sippar (Steinkeller 1987, Sharlach 2004: 6-7), as well as
Susa.1 To the east, up the Diyala and through Susiana, there was a frontier
zone that was mostly ruled by a series of generals, or military governors.
All of these places contributed various kinds of taxes to the central coffers
in labor and in kind. As already noted above, the information on Aur does
not fit well into this picture.
All the Ur III information on this city is associated with the person of
Zarriqum, who ruled there during this period. The information on this indi-
vidual was first collected in a pioneering study by W. W. Hallo (1956).
Hallo established that one Zarriqum, who is known from an inscription
found in Aur, was the same person as Zarriq of contemporary texts from
Drehem, Umma, and Girsu. He concluded that Zarriqums career began as
a military officer during ulgis reign, whereupon he was appointed as gov-
ernor of Aur, but transferred to the same office in Susa in the fourth year
of Amar-Sn. His conclusions have been widely accepted, most recently by
Dahl (2007: 2, n. 8), who summarizes some of the previous literature, even
if Maeda (1992: 149-150) had expressed some disquiet about this reconstruc-
tion, although in the end he accepted the identity of the two. In addition,
R. Kutscher (1979) fleshed out Zarriqums career, claming that he was first
the governor of Susa, then served as captain at Ur, was then appointed to
Aur, and finally moved back to Susa. Histories of Assyria likewise assert
that the city was under Ur III control (e.g. Cancik-Kirschbaum 2008: 31).
The notion that this individual was a captain, and then served as a gov-
ernor of two cities at the remote extremes of the Ur III state appears highly
unlikely, and deserves a new investigation, bolstered by sources that have
been published in recent years. It is important to preface any such discus-
sion with the observation that a number of different individuals named Zar-
riq appear in the documents from the time, including a sailor (m a2 - l a h4,
1
Among these, only Ur and Uruk did not have an e n s i2 as they were governed directly
by the royal family. Steinkeller (1987: 28, n. 56) lists the cities that paid provincial taxes to
the state, among them Aur, but this must now be revised, as it refers to a different place
located in the Diyala region (e.g. Trouvaille 54: r. ii 5).
Aur during the Ur III Period 151

CT 10 20 i 26), a farmer (e n g a r, MVN 14 208: 4), an animal fattener

(k u r u d a, BPOA 1 591: 8), a messenger (s u k k a l, SNAT 271: 30),
and even a slave (CUSAS 3 1464 r. 38), etc.2 There was also a military offi-
cial by the same name who served in the rank of captain (n u - b a n d a2) in
the Diyala region, and he must likewise be identified as someone different
than the governor who is the subject of this study, as already observed by
Maeda (1992: 150).3
If we set aside all of these other individuals, the trajectory of Zarriqums
career is narrowed down to his tenure as governor of Aur and then of Su-
sa. The evidence for this is as follows, setting aside all undated texts:4

Susa (za-ri(2)-iq e n s i2 u i nki)

33.04.00 RTC 329: 3 (u r - k i - u m e n s i2 u i nki)
40.11.- TIM 6 6: 45
41.7.- AUCT 1 954: 3 (dam)
AS04.6.- RT 37 134: 2
AS04.12.- PDT 1 557: ii 20
Judging from this, Zarriq(um) became governor of Susa sometime be-
tween 33 and 40, and served there at least until the middle of AS4. Noth-
ing is known about the governorship of Susa for the next five years, until
Bli-ariq, the last Ur III official to control the city, is first attested in this
role in S8.1.- (TCTI 3561: 3).

Aur (za-ri2-iq l u2 a - u r5ki)

44.9.29 MVN 13 706: r. 18
46.10.15 SAT 2 551: 86
47.10.25 CST 193: 4
AS5.12.[25] Amorites 18: r. i 8
2
I am not interested in these peoples careers here, and therefore provide only one refer-
ence for each.
3
Documented as early as AS1.3.13 (Babyl 7 [1913/23] 19 3: 15); he served in the Diyala at
least until IS2.4.29 (CT 32 19 ii 18). He is part of a group of military officials from the
frontier zone who deserve a separate study.
4
See also Maeda 1992: 149-150. In Ur III documents the name is Zarriq (za-ri(2)-iq); in
the mans own inscription from Aur, it is Zarriqum (za-ri-qum).
5
Only za-ri2-iq e n s i2, but context makes it clear who is involved.
6
With his son, ulgi-il; see d u l g i - i3-li2 d u m u za-ri2-iq (CTNMC 11: 2).
152 Piotr Michaowski

In addition, Goetze (1963: 29) lists two unpublished references, but un-
fortunately omits the month from the date: Nebraska (AS5) day 22, za-ri-
iq l u2 a - u r5ki, and Miss. 1 (AS5) day 17 za-ri2-iq l u2 a - [u r5ki]; in
his rendition L[L.RIMki]).7 Manuel Molina informs me that the former is
probably Amorites 18 (= Frde 1967, no. 58), transliterated by Owen 1993:
146-148; the latter was copied by Goetze and will be published in the forth-
coming YOS 15 as no. 158. The year formula is broken and the line reads:
za-ri2-iq l u2 a - [] (courtesy Piotr Steinkeller).
From these references one must conclude that Zarriqum ruled Aur for
a period of time that included the years between 44 and AS5. If we com-
pare this with his namesakes term of office in Susa, it becomes clear that
they were contemporaries, and therefore could not have been one and the
same person.
The disentanglement of the careers of different people named Zar-
riq(um) raises the question as to whether the man from Aur was actually
appointed by the Ur III government. In the Drehem texts he is always re-
ferred to as the man (l u2) of Aur, and never carries another title. A sur-
vey of the texts from the Puzri-Dagan archives confirms that this manner of
reference (l u2 GN) is used primarily to designate rulers of foreign states, Eb-
la, Uru, and Mari in Syria, Mardaman, Simanum, and Habura on the upper
Tigris, as well as various principalities in Iran, including small ones like Ku-
mi, as well as larger ones such as Anan. It can also be used to describe their
envoys, and is occasionally used to designate the origin of people in Babylo-
nia. Thus, the Drehem occurrences of Zarriqum of Aur would suggest that
he was an independent ruler, and not an officer of the Ur III state.
But Hallo, and those who followed, based their view on the evidence of
the mans own inscription, which will be analyzed below, and on the infor-
mation from an Ur III document that mentions za-ri2-iq e n s i2 a - i rki,
which was interpreted as Zarriq(um), governor of Aur. The tablet, YBC
7278, remains unpublished, but according to the passage transliterated by
Hallo (1956: 22), it includes a record of the disbursal of flour to the man
from the north and his entourage of fifty-five men (l u2 u s2 - s a - n i), who
receive two s i l a3 each; although the date is lost, Hallo assigned it to 48
on prosopographical grounds. More recently, M. Molina published a
7
Goetze (p. 25) refers to the first as an unpublished tablet in the collection of the Univer-
sity of Nebraska; it remains unpublished and I have not been able to locate it.
Aur during the Ur III Period 153

fragment of a very similar text that mentions [za-ri2-i]q e n s i2 a - i rki,

[ l]u2 u s2 - b i 2 s i l a3 (MVN 18 659: 3-4); this document must come
from the same archive as the Yale text, and undoubtedly refers to the same
visit of Zarriqum to the south. There is the only one other text that refers to
the man from Aur as e n s i2, the unlocated tablet from Mississippi cited
by Goetze (1963: 29, see above). The name of the city is broken in that tab-
let, but it begins with a rather than with a ; the two texts just and both
use the signs a and i r in the name of the city, a convention that is
otherwise unattested in Ur III, and both assign the same amount of flour to
the members of his entourage. The place that they all visited is not speci-
fied, but I would suggest that both tablets were probably written in Umma,
and if the Mississippi tablet belongs with the other two, the date of the visit
would be AS5. It may be pure coincidence, but after dedicating a temple in
the name of Amar-Sn, and visiting the center of the Ur III state, he disap-
pears from the records altogether.
The large number of followers is unusual. One needs to compare this
with the entourage of over a hundred men who accompanied Ti-atal, the
king (l u2) of Nineveh (Whiting 1976: 179), when he came to Sumer to take
a vassalage loyalty oath in u-Sns time (Steinkeller 2007: 15). The facts
are hardly unequivocal, but all of this leads to the conclusion that Zarriqum
was an independent ruler who was a vassal of the Ur III state. Like his
neighbor from Nineveh, he visited Sumer on an official mission, perhaps to
swear a loyalty oath, six years earlier.
But the principal piece of evidence for the contrary view, that Zarriqum
was an officer in the Ur III administration, is apparently deduced from an
inscription inscribed with the mans name, found during excavations in
the very city of Aur. Although this short text has been edited many
times most recently by Grayson (1987: 9), Frayne (1997: 278), Behrens
(1998), and De Clercq (2004: 35) our discussion requires still another
investigation.
e2 dnin.e2.gallim be-la-ti-u a-na ba-la-a damar.den.zu da.nim
lugal uri5ki.ma u3 lugal ki-ib-ra-tim ar-ba-im za-ri-qum ki.nita2
d
a-ur3ki arad2-u a-na ba-la-i-u i-pu-u
Temple that, for Blet-ekallim, his mistress, for the wellbeing
of Amar-Sn, king of Ur, king of the four corners of the uni-
verse, Zarriqum, ruler of Aur, his servant, made.
154 Piotr Michaowski

The inscription was found in the Itar temple in Aur, but the place that
it was intended for cannot be established, because it was discovered in a
secondary context, inserted into the flooring, apparently during the time of
Tukulti-Ninurta I (De Clercq 2004: 35, n. 165).8 There is no other evidence,
to my knowledge, of a temple of Blet-ekallim in that city, and one can
very well inquire if it was not meant for a different place. The object on
which the text was inscribed is a stone plaque measuring 42x33 cm, and
5.55 cm. thick, of a type that is otherwise unattested after the Early Dynas-
tic III period (Hansen 1963: 149). This kind of votive object was meant to
identify donors, and therefore it has been assumed that either the temple in
which it was found was originally dedicated to the Blet-ekallim, or that the
latter was an epithet of Itar in early times. But the stratigraphy of the vari-
ous buildings in the Itar temple site is extremely complex, and it is im-
possible to discern which one could be assigned to the time of Zarriqum.9
This is not the only votive object dedicated to a deity other than Itar that
was found in this complex: a copper spear-head from the time of the Old
Akkadian ruler Manitusu, offered to the deity be-al-SI.SI was also discov-
ered in the temple (Grayson 1987: 8). It is therefore likely that the Zarriqum
inscription was designed for a construction that was located at another loca-
tion in the city, or even perhaps elsewhere.
The pivotal word in the inscription is akkanakkum (KI.NITA2). This
title has been generally taken to mean general, or military governor,
and while this would conform to Ur III usage (Goetze 1963), it is more
probable that this is simply the local word for king. It is true that in later
times the independent rulers of Aur were considered governors
(iiakum) on behalf of the god Aur, but during the period contemporary
with the Ur III kings, and even later, the royal title akkanakkum was com-
monly used at Mari and elsewhere in northern Mesopotamia and Syria
(Kupper 1967), and therefore most probably also in Aur.
As is so often the case in such matters, the documentation is fragmentary
and can be interpreted in different ways, but given what we have at our dis-
posal, the facts strongly suggest that Aur was not the seat of an Ur III
8
The only other Ur III period antiquities found at Aur were three heirloom reused cy-
linder seals, discovered in Old Assyrian contexts, two of them in a grave; see, most recent-
ly, Harper et al. 1995: 60-62, with earlier references.
9
For a reexamination of the stratigraphy of the early levels of the Itar temple see Bar
2003a and 2003b.
Aur during the Ur III Period 155

province, and that the man who ruled there was, for all practical purposes,
an independent monarch. He clearly recognized the overlord status of Ur
in Amar-Sns time, at least but was not a local representative of the
Crown. The city disappears from Ur III texts after Amar-Sns fifth year,
and when a few years later u-Sns armies attacked Simanum and Habura,
further up the Tigris but in the vicinity of Aur (Astour 1987: 43-44), the
latter is not named in the inscriptions that describe this campaign. These
were also independent polities that were allied to Ur, but were not part of
the kingdom (Michalowski 1975). But while the people of Simanum re-
belled against the local dynasty that maintained dynastic ties to the south,
nothing like that seems to have happened in Aur, which was destined for
greater glory in later times.
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