Babylonian Slaves: 3 (2024-05-19)

Created by: Englund, Robert K.

An alabaster plaque with an inscription of a ruler (ca. 2700 BC)

Even more striking than the well-modeled bas-relief of the artifact’s flat surface is the fact that it carried on its opposite, convex side an inscription that is the earliest of its kind in ancient Mesopotamia. Most of this inscription is taken up with the formulaic listing of placenames, followed by sexagesimally counted persons represented by the sign LU2 (Sumerian ‟human,” ‟man”) crossed by the sign EŠ2 (Sum. ‟rope”), credibly interpreted by Steinkeller to stand for ‟bound men,” or ‟prisoners.” This sign combination is in fact reminiscent of the designation SAG+MA that the Berlin Uruk Project participants Hans J. Nissen, Peter Damerow and Robert K. Englund understood to be ‟slaves bound by a cord.” We will visit the Late Uruk texts, in which this designation was found, in a set of slides to be presented later in our current series. CDLI entry: Q004867

credit: Englund, Robert K.