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"Boivin, Odette"
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The first dynasty of the Sealand in Mesopotamia
The history of mid-2nd millennium Babylonia is marked by a dire lack of sources. The Sealand kings who controlled part of it were long known to us only indirectly. A palatial archive published recently now illuminates this elusive polity from the inside. This book explores its political, economic, and religious history, as well as the transmission of its memory. It forms a basis for interpreting future finds of that period in southern Iraq.
Book
The First Dynasty of the Sealand in Mesopotamia
The Sealand kingdom arose from the rebellion against Babylonian hegemony in the latter half of the 18th century BCE., forcing it to share power over Sumer and Akkad. Although its kings maintained themselves throughout the turmoil leading to the demise of the Amorite dynasty at Babylon, it remains one of the most poorly documented Mesopotamian polities. Until recently, it was known to us mainly through its inclusion into later king lists and chronicles, but the recent publication of well over 400 archival texts from a Sealand palace, soon followed by literary and divinatory tablets, finally makes it possible to study this polity from primary sources. This book proposes a history of the Sealand kingdom based on the new evidence and a reevaluation of previously known sources. The aspects examined are: the economy — mainly the palatial administration and transformation of agricultural and animal resources; the panthea and the palace-sponsored cult, which show that Sealand I kings may have positioned their rule in a Larsean tradition; the political history, including a discussion of the geography and the relative chronology; the recording and transmission of knowledge on the Sealand I dynasty in Mesopotamian historiography.
eBook
Agricultural Economy and Taxation in the Sealand I Kingdom
Administrative texts from the Sealand I kingdom, a second-millennium polity that emerged in the southern Mesopotamian area lost to Babylonian control during Samsu-iluna's reign, show that a palatial system of agricultural taxation was in place around the palace town that produced this archive. The imposts collected by the palace are known from the preceding Old Babylonian and the following Middle Babylonian periods, with somewhat differing meanings and methods of recording. The present article examines the Sealand I evidence within the second-millennium Babylonian administrative continuum, in particular the collection of the šibšu, the miksu, and the kiṣru.
Journal Article
The Many Arts of Writing a Babylonian National History
Any discussion about historiography in Mesopotamia leads sooner or later—and it is usually sooner—to the question of genre. This article explores aspects of this question by examining how, in the wake of political, intellectual and cultural developments which marked the late second and the beginning of the first millennium BCE, various streams of historiographic practice converged towards the writing of a Babylonian national history, or rather, national histories. In order to do so, three roughly contemporary sources, written in different milieus, are discussed as instances of this phenomenon: the Chronicle of Ancient Kings A, the Chronicle Concerning the Early Years of Nebuchadnezzar II, and the Imgur-Enlil Inscription of Nabopolassar. The contents, form, sources used, and intentions of writing of each of them are evaluated, and a number of shared themes and approaches are identified and proposed as elements of seventh/sixth century national history writing in Babylonia.
Journal Article
ACCOUNTING FOR LIVESTOCK: PRINCIPLES OF PALATIAL ADMINISTRATION IN SEALAND I BABYLONIA
The Sealand I dynasty ruled in southern Mesopotamia in the latter part of the Old Babylonian and at the beginning of the Middle Babylonian period. Unprovenanced archival documents dating to the middle years of this dynasty were published by Dalley in 2009. Most of these documents pertain to the palatial administration of resources. The present article aims at establishing a number of accounting principles and practices that were in place at a Sealand I palace. The administration of animal husbandry is examined in depth and its underlying principles of resource management are presented; these suggest that this palace functioned as an extended household providing resources for its own needs and for a number of temples.
Journal Article
The First Dynasty of the Sealand in History and Tradition
In the latter half of the eighteenth century B.C.E. (in the Middle Chronology), the southernmost regions of Mesopotamia started rebelling against Babylonian royal power, merely one generation after Hammurapi of Babylon had unified the land in annexing the small kingdoms that had emerged at the beginning of the millennium. This rebellion eventually resulted in the formation of a poorly documented kingdom, the Sealand, which would last as an independent state for over two centuries, maintaining itself long after the Amorite dynasty of Babylon fell. Because of the dire lack of sources, this entire period has remained for us largely in the dark, historically and culturally. Late Old Babylonian royal inscriptions are few and the year names become less evocative of political events, early Kassite evidence is even scarcer, and until recently Sealand I sources were near to non-existent. Our incomplete understanding of pottery sequences and the apparent abandonment of several urban centres in southern Babylonia in that period have made and kept this dynasty very elusive. Until now it was known to us almost exclusively through its inclusion into later king lists and chronicles. The publication in 2009 of well over four hundred archival texts bearing date formulae of Sealand I rulers, soon to be followed by a few literary and divinatory texts, finally made it possible to start filling this hiatus. This dissertation proposes a history of the Sealand I kingdom, based on this new evidence and on a reevaluation of the previously known sources. The aspects examined are: the recording and transmission of knowledge on the Sealand I dynasty in Mesopotamian historiography; the political history, including a discussion of the geography and the relative chronology; the panthea and the palace-sponsored cult, which show how the Sealand I kings positioned their rule in a Larsean tradition, but with supra-regional ambitions; the economy — mainly the palatial administration and transformation of agricultural and animal resources, which also reveal a very specific model of institutional integration between the palace and temples.
Dissertation