-
The Old Assyrian Trade in the light of Recent Kultepe
Archives
Cecile Michel
To cite this version:
Cecile Michel. The Old Assyrian Trade in the light of Recent
Kultepe Archives. Journal of theCanadian Society for Mesopotamian
Studies, 2008, pp.71-82.
HAL Id: halshs-00642827
https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00642827
Submitted on 18 Nov 2011
HAL is a multi-disciplinary open accessarchive for the deposit
and dissemination of sci-entific research documents, whether they
are pub-lished or not. The documents may come fromteaching and
research institutions in France orabroad, or from public or private
research centers.
Larchive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, estdestinee au depot et
a` la diffusion de documentsscientifiques de niveau recherche,
publies ou non,emanant des etablissements denseignement et
derecherche francais ou etrangers, des laboratoirespublics ou
prives.
-
At the beginning of the second millennium BCE, inhabi-tants from
the city-state of Aur, on the Tigris River,organized large-scale
commercial exchanges with Anatolia.Their city lies at a strategic
position on the main roads fromsouthern Mesopotamia and Iran to
Syria and Turkey. Peoplefrom Aur exported tin and textiles to
Central Anatolia andbrought back gold and silver. They settled down
in a foreigncountry, far away from their home. Their trade was
favouredby treaties with local Anatolian rulers. This regular trade
isvery well-documented by the Assyrian merchants archives,mostly
dated from the nineteenth century BCE discovered atKani, near
Kayeri, in Turkey.
On the basis of the data given by the Old Assyrian archivesfrom
Kani, I would like to explain the mechanisms and struc-tures of the
trade within its geographical and political context.The
decipherment of new important texts and the study ofcomplete
private archives allow us to present an up-to-dateview of the Old
Assyrian trade.
1. Aur and Kani at the beginning of the secondmillennium BCEAur
was built on a rocky headland on the western bank ofthe Tigris,
about one hundred kms south of Mosul, in thenorth of Iraq. The
excavations of ancient Aur started morethan a century ago, and
lasted more than 30 years. In 1903, aGerman architect, Walter
Andrae, inaugurated a new archaeo-logical method and drew a precise
topographic map of thetown. At the end of the 1970s, some
restoration work wasdone by the Iraqis on the surrounding walls of
the city, theziggurat and the temple of the god Aur. Germans and
Iraqisworked together on a salvage project in 2000 and 2001because
the site was threatened by a large dam project locatedat modern
Makhoul. In June 2003, Aur was classified byUNESCO among the World
Heritage Sites of Humanity andadded to the list of the World
Heritage Sites in peril. SinceMarch 2003, the site has been well
protected and does notseem to have suffered from the looting that
took place in otherplaces in the south.
Michel: The Old Assyrian Trade in the light of Recent Kltepe
Archives 71
The Old Assyrian Trade in the light of Recent Kltepe
Archives*
Ccile MichelCNRS, Nanterre
AbstractAt the beginning of the IInd millennium BCE, inhabitants
from the Aur city-state, on the Tigris, organized large scale
commer-cial exchange with Anatolia: they exported tin and textiles
in Central Anatolia and brought back gold and silver. They
settleddown in forty Anatolian localities, in krum and wabartum;
their main settlement being at Kltepe, near Kayseri, in Turkey,
theplace of the ancient Kani. This regular trade is very
well-documented by the Assyrian merchants archives, mostly dated
from theXIXth century BCE and discovered at Kani. Since fifteen
years, an international group of researchers is in charge of the
publica-tion of the Kltepe tablets; the decipherment of new
important texts and the study of complete private archives allow
presentingan up to date view of the Old Assyrian trade.
RsumAu dbut du IIme millnaire avant J.-C., les habitants de la
cit-tat dAur, sur le Tigre, organisrent des changes longuedistance
avec lAnatolie : ils exportaient de ltain et des toffes en Anatolie
centrale et rapportaient chez eux de lor et delargent. Ils se sont
installs dans une quarantaine de localits, dans des krum et des
wabartum ; leur principal comptoir decommerce se trouvait Kltepe,
prs de Kayseri, en Turquie, nom de lancienne Kani. Ce commerce
rgulier et pendulaire estdocument par les archives des marchands
assyriens dcouvertes Kani et datant principalement du XIXe sicle
avant J.-C.Depuis plus dune quinzaine danne, un groupe
international dassyriologues est en charge de la publication des
tablettes deKltepe ; le dchiffrement de nouveaux textes importants
et ltude darchives prives compltes permettent de mettre jour
nosconnaissances sur le commerce palo-assyrien.
* A.K. Grayson Lecture on Assyrian History and Culture given on
Tuesday, March 19, 2008. I wish to address my warmests thanks toM.
Fortin, P.-A. Beaulieu and the Canadian Society for Mesopotamian
Studies who kindly invited me to give several conferences in
Montreal,Qubec and Toronto in March 2008.
-
The first occupation of Aur dates from the beginning ofthe third
millennium BCE. The town is mentioned in writtendocuments from the
mid-third millennium and successivelysubmitted to come under the
control of the Akkad and Ur IIIdynasties. With the fall of Ur III,
Aur became an indepen-dent city-state dominated by an oligarchy of
merchants. Thisperiod, which covers the three first centuries of
the secondmillennium, is conventionally called Old Assyrian.
Thetown then covered about forty hectares and its
populationamounted to a few thousand. The archaeological
discoveriesof this period remain rare and scattered. In general,
the OldAssyrian levels have not been excavated since they are
locatedunder later levels. The main constructions dated from the
OldAssyrian period (or earlier) are official and religious
build-ings; the surrounding walls, the old palace foundations,
tem-ple of the god Aur, and the ziggurat. The Old Assyrian har-bour
has not been identified. It could be located under themodern
cemetery.
Aur played an important role in large-scale trade fromthe third
millennium, because of its strategic position. At thebeginning of
the second millennium, political decisions weretaken by the rulers
of Aur in order to increase trade.Iluumma took some economic
measures to improve the rela-tions between Aur and southern
Mesopotamia (RIMA 1:18): I established the addurrum of the
Akkadians and theirsons, I washed their copper, from the border of
the
marshes (?), Ur, Nippur, Awal, Kismar, Dr of the god Itaranuntil
the City (of Aur). I established their addurrum. Withsuch measures,
the king wanted to attract traders from theSouth to Aur, by giving
them some privileges: cancellationof debts or abolition of taxes;
addurrum usually means returnto the original situation. This may
have stimulated the importof copper and Akkadian textiles from the
south. His successor,Erium I (19741935 BCE), set up a free traffic
of somegoods traded by inhabitants of Aur (RIMA 1: 22): I
estab-lished the addurrum of silver, gold, copper, tin, barley,
andwool, down to bran and chaff; references to gold and tin
indi-cates a link with the overland trade.
At the end of twentieth and beginning of nineteenth centu-ry
BCE, under the reigns of Iknum (19341921 BCE) andhis son Sargon I
(1920-1881 BCE), the Assyrian merchantsdeveloped long-scale trade
to central Anatolia, settled thereand organized colonies. The two
last kings of this first period,Puzur-Aur II (18801873 BCE) and
Narm-Sn(18721829/1819 BCE) at the middle of the nineteenth centu-ry
are not well attested, but during their reign the Assyrianmerchants
of the colonies were asked to participate financiallyin the repairs
of walls of the town of Aur.
During the second half of the nineteenth century BCE,trade with
Anatolia slowed down and then started up again afew years later,
around 1832 BCE, according to the MiddleChronology. am-Addu, king
of Ekalltum, dominated the
72 CSMS Journal Vol. 3
-
whole of northern Mesopotamia from ubat-Enlil, in theHabur
triangle. He shared his kingdom with his two sons:Ime-Dagn, at
Ekalltum on the Tigris, and Yasmah-Addu atMari, on the Middle
Euphrates. Aur did not hold the statusof a capital city but still
played a pre-eminent economic role.According to a recently
discovered list of Aur eponyms cov-ering most of the second part of
the Assyrian merchantsactivities in Anatolia, the Old Assyrian
period ended afterIme-Dagn disappeared. The town passed under the
authorityof a local dynasty, then to the kings of the Mittani. At
the mid-dle of the fourteenth century BCE, Aur became the capitalof
a territorial state, which, under almaneser I and Tukult-Ninurta I
extended from the Euphrates to the Zagros.
For the Old Assyrian period, Aur has yielded very fewtablets,
only 24 pieces, scattered in later-level archives andsome royal
inscriptions, around 30, mostly from temples. It isthus not
possible with the only documents found in this placeto reconstruct
the history of Aur at the beginning of the sec-ond millennium BCE
nor the commercial activities of itsinhabitants.
This gap of documentation from Aur is happily filled withthe
numerous private archives of merchants settled in AsiaMinor, mostly
in Kani. In fact, the great majority of the writ-ten documentation
comes from Kani. Among the 22,700 OldAssyrian texts enumerated up
to now, 99% come from Kani.All that we can reconstruct today about
the history of Aur asfar as its institutions and its trade results
from this documenta-tion found more than a thousand kms away from
Aur.
Kani was discovered in the second half of the nineteenthcentury
BCE and its tablets first appeared on the antiquitiesmarket in
1881. The texts, dated from the beginning of thesecond millennium
BCE, written in Assyrian dialect, werefound in a place called
Kltepe, 21 kms north east of modernKayeri. Some French and Czech
explorations were undertak-en at the site before the official
excavations started in 1948,with the support of the Turkish
Historical Society under thescientific direction of Tahsin zg from
Ankara University.After the death of T. zg in October 2005, the
excavationscontinued under the direction of Fikri Kulakolu. Each
year
the archaeologists have found new Old Assyrian tablets. Thetotal
number of texts discovered in Kani, 22,460 (in 2006)places this
site among the richest source of cuneiform textsfrom the whole Near
East, and the source continues!
Kltepe was occupied from the middle of the third millen-nium
BCE. The city was divided into two major sectors: thecitadel and
the krum. The latter word means "merchant har-bour" as well as the
organization of these merchants with itsadministrative building.
This krum shows four levels ofoccupation, but it seems that only
level II (ca. 19451835) andIb (ca. 18321700) yielded written
documentation. TheCitadel, on the top, has been much destroyed by
illicit diggers.A huge palace of 60 rooms has been recovered, its
last periodbeing dated to level Ib of the Krum. Today, one can see
onlythe stone foundations of this palace. This building had
beenemptied before being destroyed by fire, which means thatalmost
no tablets were found in it. On the whole, only 41cuneiform tablets
were found in the Citadel, dated from bothlevels II and Ib. We did
not recover the official archives of thelocal ruler.
The krum where the merchants lived is located north-eastof the
Citadel. Its main level, level II, corresponds to the occu-pation
by the Assyrian merchants mainly during the nineteenthcentury BCE.
The krum was divided into quarters separated
by large streets andopen spaces. The hous-es show mainly
threeparts: the office, theresidence and the ware-house where the
tabletswere found. They werestored in groups of 20to 30 units in
baskets,boxes or clay jars withsealed clay labels. Onlythe tablets
discovered inthe houses allowedidentification of the eth-nic origin
of their own-ers.
Michel: The Old Assyrian Trade in the light of Recent Kltepe
Archives 73
View of the krum and a paved street (1994)
-
One can see that Anatolians lived south of the krum; theywere
involved in the trade, but did not play a role in theadministration
of the colony. The Assyrians settled in thenorth. In the houses the
excavators found domestic furniture,mainly pottery of a purely
Anatolian style. Many rhytons,with geometrical designs and original
animal shapes, had cul-tic uses. Weapons, metal vases, statuettes
and jewels werefound in graves, under the floors of some houses.
TheAssyrians used local products. If tablets had not been
discov-ered, it would have been almost impossible to detect the
pres-ence of the Assyrians in Kani. At the end of Krum level IImany
houses were burned, which baked the tablets, helping topreserve
them.
Krum level Ib is a little smaller, but seems to have had asmany
inhabitants as during the previous period; this level didnot yield
as many archives as level II. Krum level Ib was alsodestroyed by
fire.
2. The Old Assyrian archivesBesides Aur, where 24 Old Assyrian
tablets have beenfound, and Kani, which yielded 22,460 tablets,
other NearEastern sites also produced some texts: Hattua, the
capital ofthe later Hittite Empire, Aliar, another Old Assyrian
colony,
Yorghan Tepe, ancient Gasur (later Nuzi) and Sippar. In
all,about 200 Old Assyrian texts were found outside Aur
andKani.
From Kltepe, the old town of Kani, among the 22,460tablets found
up to now, about 22,000 came from level II ofthe krum and 420 from
level Ib; only 41 tablets were discov-ered in the Citadel. All
these tablets are still being decipheredby fewer than a dozen
specialists from Denmark, France,Germany, the Netherlands and
Turkey. Only 23% of thetablets discovered have been published up to
now.
These tablets constitute the private archives of
Assyrianmerchants settled in Kani. Between one third and two
fifthsof an archive consists of private letters exchanged between
theAssyrian merchants in Kani, their families and colleagues inAur
or settled in other Assyrian colonies in Anatolia. Theseletters
were protected during their transport by clay envelopes;they give
precious information about the organization of thetrade but also
domestic matters and daily life. A second groupof texts consists of
loan contracts, judicial documents, trialverdicts, proceedings,
various contracts concerning mainlycommercial and financial
matters. The last category, about 20-30%, includes all the tablets
that are not letters or legal docu-ments: lists, private notices,
memoranda, etc. One has to addto these three categories the bullae
or clay labels and seal andsealings, some of them bearing
inscriptions.
74 CSMS Journal Vol. 3
Rhytons and metaltools from the krum.
Old Assyrian tablets discovered during the 1993 excavations in
the house of an Assyrian merchant family.
-
3. The Old Assyrian trade in Anatolia.The Old Assyrian tablets
document the regular trade estab-lished by Assyrian merchants
between Aur and Kanibetween the twentieth and the eighteenth
centuries BCE.Inhabitants of Aur exported tin and textiles to Asia
Minorand brought back gold and silver. The tin was produced
inUzbekistan, far to the east, and was clearly brought to Aurby
Elamites. The tin exported to Anatolia was used for thelocal bronze
industry. In fact, some workshops have beenfound in Kani with
dozens of moulds for bronze weaponsand tools.
Textiles came both from local production and fromimports. The
local textile production seems to be mostly pri-vate; there is no
attested weaving establishment in the palaceor temples. The weaving
was done by women at home. TheAssyrian fashion was especially
appreciated in Minor Asia. Infact, merchants gave a lot of advice
to their spouses how toimprove their production, as, for example,
explained in a letteraddressed by Lamass to Pu-kn (BIN 4 10 =
LAPO19 303): As to the textiles about which you wrote to me inthe
following terms: they are (too) small, they are not good;was it not
on your own request that I reduced the size? Andnow you write
(again), saying: process half a mina (of wool)more in your
textiles. Well, I have done it.
Textiles imported from Southern Mesopotamia werebrought to Aur
by Babylonians. Some of the textiles wereused to wrap the tin and
the other textiles.
The regular trade in tin and textiles was sometimes
com-plemented by rare products like lapis-lazuli and iron.
Themerchandise travelled to Anatolia, under seal, on donkeyloads.
The donkeys were bought near Aur and chosen fortheir robustness;
each donkey could carry up to 75 kilos. ThusAur does not produce
much except textiles and donkey har-nesses, but works as a port of
trade in an international tradingsystem.
When coming back from Kani, Assyrians brought withthem gold and
silver. The gold came from the Mardin area. InAur the metal was
usually hoarded but could be used to buythe tin from the Elamites.
The silver extracted in the TaurusMountains was refined and
controlled both in Kani andAur. It constituted the privileged means
of payment. The sil-
ver was immediately reinvested in new caravans. TheAssyrian
vocabulary uses the expression hungry silver forcapital which does
not grow. The important amounts of silverin Aur attracted the
foreign merchants selling tin and tex-tiles.
A merchant often owned three donkeys carrying some5 talents of
tin and more than a hundred textiles. Small groupstravelled
together to form huge caravans containing dozens oreven hundreds of
donkeys. The merchant responsible for thewhole caravan hired some
harnessers and donkey drivers totake care of animals and goods. The
harnesser received work-ing capital, while the donkey driver was
paid a salary. Thevalue of the merchandise was converted into tin.
A smallamount of tin remained unsealed and was entrusted to the
con-veyor; it was used for all the expenses during the travel:
fod-der for the animals, the salary of the donkey drivers and
taxes(BIN 4 24): 2 talents 10 minas of sealed tin, 10 minas
ofhand-tin, 4 black textiles: the packing, 1 black donkey, and
itsharness all this, Uur-a-Aur, son of Aur-bl-awtim, isbringing to
you Give the tin and the textiles to Uur-a-Aur, let him bring it to
Buruhattum, exchange it for silver,and let him bring the silver to
me with his caravan.
From Aur, caravans went along the Tigris to the northand passed
through the towns of Qaar, Razam and Apum.From there, they reached
Eluhhut and Nihrya and then wentacross the Euphrates in the area of
Hahhum. They thenreached Timilkya, the first Anatolian stopover,
before arriv-ing in Kani where merchandise was unloaded. The
distancecovered by Assyrian caravans between Aur and Kanireached
more than 1,200 kms, across steppe lands and moun-tains, and lasted
about six weeks. At the intervening differentkingdoms on the route,
the caravans had to pay taxes on boththe merchandise and staff. In
exchange, the local rulers pro-tected the roads. Travel was not
possible during the winter;roads were closed for four months and
traffic stopped. So thecaravans could make two round trips each
year.
Before leaving Aur, the head of the caravan paid theTown Hall an
export tax. During the travel, he had to pay cus-tom duties in each
kingdom on the goods and people travel-ling with the caravan. In
Kani, the merchandise was clearedin the palace by the payment of an
import tax, and this institu-
Michel: The Old Assyrian Trade in the light of Recent Kltepe
Archives 75
Gold and lapislazuli objects from Kltepe
-
tion was allowed to buy a percentage of the textiles at areduced
price. Taxes were also paid to the krum authoritiesand to the Town
Hall on the silver and gold brought back toAur.
After having been cleared at the local palace, tin and tex-tiles
could be sold. Assyrians then had two possibilities: eitherthey
could sell their merchandise for cash in Kani or sell it oncredit
to agents for a fixed period. These agents travelled toother
Anatolian colonies in order to sell the goods at the high-est
possible price. The exchange of the merchandise for goldand silver
was either immediate or indirect, by transactions ofwool and
copper. According to its quality, the tin was sold attwice its
price in Anatolia with the most common textile beingsold three
times its price in Kani. Many donkeys were alsosold, as only a few
animals travelled back to Aur with theprecious metals the merchants
had acquired. Each year, aboutone hundred kilos of silver and gold
were thus imported intoAur; some merchants made huge fortunes with
their invest-ments. Part of the precious metals were used to buy
tin, tex-tiles and donkeys and thus to finance new caravans.
Theremainder was used for repayments and gifts or converted
intoreal estate.
4. PartnershipsThe main activities of the Assyrians were
commercial, basedon exchange, and financial, by means of loans with
interest.
As it was impossible for a merchant to cover the whole
tradeoperations from Aur to Kani, the Assyrians organized acomplex
network of mutual and contractual representativeswith each
participant having a specific task.
The contractual relationships are of different kinds. Some,like
the loans, are very well attested by the cuneiform tabletswhatever
the period. Others, in contrast, are more knownthrough association,
being specific to merchant societies. Allobey rules which delineate
the responsibility of each party,both their duties and rights.
Most of the loan contracts discovered in Kani concerncommercial
loans; they deal with goods put at the disposal ofa merchant.
Instead of selling their goods for cash, theAssyrians preferred to
entrust them on credit to agents andretailers who contracted to pay
them later. Merchandise wasthen exchanged for a credit certified
with the sealing of thedebtor. The value of the debt was estimated
in silver, and adate of payment was fixed. Naturally, this
operation implied arisk for the owner of the merchandise; tablets
sometimes men-tion that an agent disappeared with the entrusted
goods, andthere are many occurrences of outstanding claims. In
suchloan contracts, there was interest only on overdue
payments,while current interest was normally fixed on the other
loans.The current interest, fixed by the krum at Kani, amounted
to30% per year. This high rate can be explained by the commer-cial
nature of the loans and the high value-added of the silverbetween
Anatolia and Aur.
Beside the simple hiring contract of employees, Kani
doc-umentation shows different types of partnerships or
collectiveenterprises in which one or more creditors provided the
neces-sary capital for any operation. There were mainly two kinds
ofinvestors. The shareholders of Aur, called umminum, cor-responded
to the heads of the rich families of Aur. Theyacted as a lending
bank and invested important amounts of sil-ver in the caravans
leaving Aur. The word tamkrum, trans-lated as merchant, corresponds
to various realities headof the Anatolian branch of the firm,
retailer of the exportedgoods in Anatolia, commercial agent they
also often appearas creditors. Tablets refer to people going to a
tamkrumhouse in order to borrow money. The Old Assyrian tamkrumis
well documented and clearly independent of the
Assyriangovernment.
Law protected the creditors in special circumstances.
Forexample, when an agent died in Anatolia, all his belongingswere
brought to Aur and first the creditors got back theirinvestments
before the family could inherit anything (RA 88,1994, 121): The
moment Hurnum died, his creditors(tamkr) entered (his house) and
sealed (his) strong-room.This is the reason we did not write to you
when he died. Wethought: Let his creditors settle the accounts.
Then we shallwrite them our detailed report. His creditors have
remittedthe (default) interest and have been fully paid with the
silverdue to them. They devoured both tablets and debtors andhave
been fully satisfied.
There were many different types of contractual relationsthat
dealt with commercial cooperations. These collective
76 CSMS Journal Vol. 3
Which tax? Where? To which institution? How much?
watumexport tax Aur
bt lim / Town Hall
1/120 of the awtum of
the caravan
dtum caravan tax En route local authorities
10 % of the awtum of
the caravan
qaqqadtumpersonal tax En route local authorities
10-15 shekels oftin by person
nishatumimport tax Kani local palace
3% of the tin and5% of the textiles
irtum tithe Kani local palacepurchase of 10%
of textiles atreduced price
adduatumtransport tax Kani
krumauthorities
1/60 of the valueof gold + silvergoing to Aur
nishatumimport tax Aur
bt lim / Town Hall
4% of theimported pre-cious metal
-
enterprises might be distinguished by their length;
besidelong-term associations, we find agreements concluded for
spe-cific operations on a limited-time basis for one journey
thereand back. Among short-term enterprises, the tapptum
part-nership is well known from Old Babylonian sources. In thiskind
of partnership one of the associate put capital at the dis-posal of
his partners to start a specific commercial operation.When
finished, the partners made up the accounts, paid theirdebts and
shared the profits in equal parts. Thus, thetapptum was punctual,
and the aim was well defined (ICK1 1 = Innya 125): Innya,
representative of the creditor, youfor yourself, Kaluwa, son of
Puzur-Adad, for Hanunu, son ofilli-Itar and Alahya, son of Nunu,
for Album, son ofAur-malik, the four of you have created a tapptum
parn-ership. Nobody among you has invested money, but
Innya,representative of the creditor gave you 20 minas of silver,
sil-ver of the capital, to buy meteoric iron. But this specific
part-nership came to nothing: very few iron was bought, and
thecapital was wasted by one of the partners. Some associateswere
jailed because of conflict with local authorities.
Another short-term enterprise is called elltum, which alsomeans
caravan. Several investors joined their goods for asingle journey
to Kani and back. Equipment, salaries andexpenses were proportional
to the different owners. At the endof the travel they shared the
gain according to their invest-ments.
A different kind of partnership, very common in the
Kanidocumentation, was the long-term naruqqum-contract. It wasa
kind of mixed-liability company always created in Aurwhere the
contract was written. Several creditors entrusted toan agent the
bag, called naruqqum, in which they gatheredsubstantial capital
amounting to a number of gold minas. Inthe example shown, 30 minas
of gold are entrusted to an agentby 15 individuals for a period of
12 years. The tablet dealingwith the inception of this partnership
gives the list of theinvestors, the investments in gold, the name
of the agent andthe term of the contract. The agent was hired for
many years
to participate in trade and make as much profit as he could.
Hemight not have the authorization to manage
severalnaruqqum-contracts simultaneously, but his own contractmight
be renewed several times, and could last his whole life.The agent
always had to be able to guarantee his creditor onethird of the
profits. Reliable relationships were very impor-tant, and investors
preferred to use the services of agents witha good reputation.
According to the advice given by Aur-idto his son, carrying a
naruqqum bag was a kind of socialrecognition (CCT 4 2a = LAPO 19
221): Come here to(Aur). People less important than you administer
anaruqqum bag, and people less important than me haveinvested 10
minas of gold (in such partnerships). Come andtake over a naruqqum
bag and only then leave again. Thecreditors regularly received
dividends on the selling of goodsin Anatolia. At the end of the
partnership, the agent kept one-third of the profits and gave the
other two thirds to the credi-tors, who shared them according to
their investments. Thesecontracts, which governed the relationships
between the credi-tor in Aur and the merchants in Anatolia,
represented themain funding mode of Assyrian trade in Minor
Asia.
Most of the inhabitants of Aur were involved in thistrade.
Better than contracts in which merchants were lookingfor trusted
associates, family links gave the bases for profes-sional
relationships it was harder to rob a family memberthan a foreigner!
The large merchant families were organizedinto firms in which each
member in Aur or Anatolia playeda precise role. The father or the
older brother ran the enter-prise from Aur; he invested capital in
merchandise and orga-nized the caravans to Kani. The eldest son, an
inhabitant ofKani, led the Anatolian branch of the family firm.
Hereceived the caravans and organized the selling of the goods.The
other sons were settled in different colonies to representthe
enterprise, and the youngest son travelled and transportedthe goods
between Aur and Anatolia. They were the linkbetween the different
members of the family. When the fatherdied, the eldest son took
over the direction of the firm. Thewomen participated in the family
trade by their textile produc-tion. In exchange, they received
precious metal and jewelsthat they used to manage their household
and bring up theirchildren. Thus, the family vocabulary was used
for profes-sionel links: abum, the father, was also the boss, ahum,
thebrother,was the associate, uhrum, the youngster, was
theemployee. But one must keep in mind that even if the familyin
the Old Assyrian commercial system was very important,we should
notice that all capital was individually owned.
5. Trade and InstitutionsThe merchants acted privately and
independently of the insti-tutions, but their commercial activities
were controlled by theauthorities by means of taxes and perhaps
restrictions on someproducts. At the beginning of the second
millennium BCE,Aur was a city-state governed mainly by three
institutions:the ruler, the city and the eponym (lmum). The ruler
had sev-eral titles: rubum the big one, waklum overseer and
Michel: The Old Assyrian Trade in the light of Recent Kltepe
Archives 77
6 minas of gold investments, 1 1/2 mina : Irium,2 minas :
Iddin-Aur, 2 1/2 minas : Alhum,2 minas : -Labn, 2 minas :
Ikupp-Itar,2 minas : Il-dn, 1 1/2 mina : Aur-malik,1 1/2 mina :
Aur-id, 1 1/2 mina : the creditor,1 mina : Abu-alim, 1 mina :
Hinnya,4 minas : Amur-Itar, thus in all 30 minas of gold (in)
thebag-naruqqum of Amur-Itar.Since the eponym Susya, he will trade
for 12 years.On the profits, he will enjoy one third and he will
guaran-tee one third.The one (among the investors) who would take
the moneybefore the term of the contract will take only the 4
investedminas of silver, he will get no profit. (Kayseri 313 = ArOr
67, p. 557 565)
-
iiak dAur, the divinely appointed governor of the city-godAur. I
already mentioned the economic measures taken bysome of these kings
to improve commercial relationships withthe south, the east and
Asia Minor. The palace did not seem toplay a specific role in the
trade.
In judicial and other administrative matters, the king sharedhis
power with the assembly, usually called the City (lum).The assembly
functioned as a court of law and made politicaldecisions. The
orders of the assembly became laws that mightaffect trade. For
example, the policy of Aur favoured theaccumulation of gold. A
letter by the ruler of the cityinformed the colonial authorities of
Kani that the sale of goldto non-Assyrian people of greater
Mesopotamia was prohibit-ed (Kt 79/k 101 = LAPO 19 2): The tablet
with the verdict ofthe City, which we sent you, that tablet is
cancelled. We havenot fixed any rule concerning gold. The earlier
ruling concern-ing gold still obtains: Assyrians can sell gold
among eachother but, in accordance with the words of the stele,
noAssyrian whosoever shall not give gold to an Akkadian,Amorite or
Subarean. Who does so will not stay alive!
The Akkadians were the Babylonians, the Amorrites livedon the
Euphrates bend and the Subareans were the Hurriansnorth of Aur
along the Tigris. This protectionist law wasintended to prevent
possible competition. In fact, the gold wasusually not used to buy
goods in Aur apart from tin andlapis lazuli from the Elamites who
are not mentioned in thisletter. It was hoarded by the town and the
temples. Anotherdecision of the city assembly was intended to
protect the tex-tile trade. In a letter addressed to Pu-kn, two
colleagues inAur write (VS 26 9 = LAPO 19 199): Here (in Aur) it
hascome to a lawsuit concerning saptinnum- and pirikannum-tex-
tiles, woolen products, and many people have been fined. Youtoo
have been obliged to pay 10 minas of silver; you must payone mina
each year Please do not get involved in (the tradein) saptinnum and
pirikannum-textiles, dont buy themthe ruling of the City is
severe.
These textiles are in fact traded by Assyrians only
insideAnatolia; their price is low from 1 to 3 shekels for
apirikannum. Their trade was made to the detriment of the nor-mal
imported textiles, the kutnum. Once again it was a pro-tectionist
law to favour Assyrian textile production, but wasperhaps issued as
an edict for difficult times.
The third institution, the lmum, involved a sorting by lotamong
the major families of Aur; the eponym gave its nameto the year. The
lmum governed the Town Hall or Houseof the Eponym for one year.
This institution was the mainadministrative and financial
institution of the city. It wasinvolved in trade: it sold
merchandise to the traders, collectedtaxes, controlled the caravans
and also played a role as a pub-lic warehouse. Most of the
references concern debts of mer-chants due to this institution,
some of whom received penal-ties.
The Assyrians settled in about forty colonies in Anatolia,which
were destinations of their goods and production ortransformation
centres of metals. The central colony adminis-tration lay in Kani,
but the official building, the bt krim,has not yet been found. The
colony-assembly prerogativeswere economic, judicial and political.
This institution leviedtaxes on caravans, fixed the rate of
interest on loans, managedthe credit invested by its members and
the deposit made at theoffice, as well as organizing a periodical
settlement ofaccounts two or three times a year. The colonial
assembly
78 CSMS Journal Vol. 3
-
worked as a court of law, even for disputes in other
colonies,and rendered verdicts. The office of the krum colony, a
kindof extension of the government of Aur, protected the inter-ests
of its merchants against Anatolian officials and was incharge of
diplomatic contacts and treaties with the localrulers. The main
merchants of the colony (qil dtim) sub-scribed by paying important
amounts of silver to the krum,which gave them some privileges.
There were about 20 otherAssyrian krum in Anatolia and the same
number of smallercolonies called wabartum; all these colonies
received ordersfrom the krum Kani.
6. Commercial TreatiesAssyrian trade in Anatolia was made
possible because peace-ful relationships with the local people were
based on mutualcommercial interests. The resources of the local
palace camefrom its land production and metallurgical copper
centres. Fortin and textiles it depended on the Assyrian trade. The
struc-ture of the Anatolian kingdoms and their administration
wasvisible only through the contacts they had with the
Assyrianmerchants. The prince was surrounded by many officials
incharge of the different administrative sectors.
Since Anatolia was far away from Aur, the trade wasbased on
treaties and conventions with the local rulers madein order to
limit risks. Assyrians and Anatolians concludedsworn agreements
recognizing the mutual and complementaryinterest of the two parts.
The content of the treaties was main-ly commercial. The Anatolian
rulers granted to the Assyriansthe rights of crossing, protection
of the caravans against rob-bery and brigandage, with compensation
of losses and pay-ment of blood money within a kings territory. The
merchantshad extra-territorial rights, locally exercised by the
adminis-tration of the colonies. In exchange, the merchants granted
tothe local authorities the payment of taxes on caravans at
cus-toms or in the Anatolian palaces. They had to respect the
rightof pre-emption of ten percent of the textiles and to observe
therestrictions on some luxury products. We have very fewtreaties.
One, badly preserved and dated to level Ib, was foundin Tell
Leilan. Another one is a draft of a treaty with a townencountered
en route and dated to level II (Kt n/k 794 =LAPO 19 87): In your
country, rope (and) peg, no losses ofan Assyrian shall occur. If
they occur you shall search andreturn them to us. If bloodshed
occurs in your country, youshall hand over to us the killers so
that we can kill them. Youshall not let Akkadians come up (to you);
if they come up toyour land, you shall hand them over to us so that
we can killthem. You shall not ask anything (extra) from us. Just
likeyour father, from every caravan which goes up you shallreceive
12 shekels of tin and from the one going down youwill obtain 1
shekels of silver per donkey. You will not takeanything extra. If
there are hostilities and hence no caravanscan come, one will send
you from Hahhum 5 minas of tin If we violate the oath to you, our
blood may be poured outlike (the contents of this) cup! The
expression rope (and)peg simply refers to not even the loss of a
peg or rope.With this treaty, the Anatolian ruler, in exchange for
taxes
received from the Assyriancaravans in both direc-tions, promised
to protectindividuals and goods. Incase of murder he woulddeliver
the murderer, andif goods were lost he hadto replace them. If
trafficwas stopped, then hereceived the promise to getsome tin. An
importantprovision was the protec-tionist clause meant to pre-vent
competition byBabylonian traders (namedAkka dians). Anatolianrulers
were eager to signthese treaties in order toget some profit out of
thetrade. The systems workedpretty well for more than acentury.
Two treaties discovered in 2000 have been published in2004; they
both belong to the krum level Ib and were con-cluded with the
rulers of Kani and Hahhum. Both concernmainly bilateral issues. The
stipulations in the treaty withKani deal with imported textiles,
lapis lazuli and iron, murderand losses (among which textiles),
handing over of indebtedpeople and appropriation of possessions,
fugitive debtors,administrative and legal measures, trade during
war, and oathprocedures. The treaty with Hahhum, a town located on
theborder of the Euphrates, is badly preserved. It concerns
con-fiscation and seizure, administration of justice, losses due
tothe sinking of ferries, acquisition of textiles from a
caravanwhich arrives from Aur, acquisition of imported tin by
thelocal elite, consequences of war between Hahhum and thecities of
Timilkiya and Badna, prerogatives to acquire goodsfrom caravans
travelling to Anatolia, and bloodshed and loss-es in Hahhums
territory
Despite these treaties, there are numerous disputes
betweenAnatolian rulers and Assyrian merchants. The first
delayedtheir payments for merchandise they bought, while the
otherssmuggled goods in order to increase their profits. In fact,
theheavy tax system imposed on caravans reduced the profitsrealized
by the merchants. Not without risk, they took narrowroads to avoid
customs or registered only part of the merchan-dise in order to
reduce the import tax; the surplus was thentransported secretly
(BIN 4 48 = LAPO 19 176): If the nar-row track is safe, my tin and
textiles of good quality, as muchas he had brought across the
country, should indeed come tome with a caravan by way of the
narrow track. If howeverthe narrow track is not appropriate, they
should ship the tinto Hurrama and then either the native
inhabitants of Hurramabring all the tin in quantities of 1 talent
each into the town, orlet one make packets of 10 to 15 minas each,
and let the per-sonnel (of the caravan) bring them into the town
under their
Michel: The Old Assyrian Trade in the light of Recent Kltepe
Archives 79
-
loincloths. Only after they have safely delivered 1 talent
arethey allowed to bring another 1 talent into the town. As soonas
some of the tin has safely arrived in town you should sendit on to
me each time with the first caravan leaving. Thussome merchants did
not hesitate to leave written proof of thedifferent methods they
used to smuggle goods. Other mer-chants, jealous of their
neighbours, wrote letters of denuncia-tion. To deal with such
incriminations, the authorities orga-nized repressive measures such
as fines, warnings or even jail.
7. The chronology of the tradeThe Old Assyrian trade in Anatolia
started and expanded in arelative peaceful context between the
Anatolian kingdoms. Itprospered because of a balance between the
Anatolian admin-istrative and military strength and Assyrian
commercial andeconomic power. The Assyrians were perfectly adapted
totheir new environment, and Anatolian participation in thetrade
steadily increased. Some of them became agents orretailers and even
creditors. They grew richer and integratedinto Assyrian firms by
mixed marriages. The mixing of theKani population is a proof of the
successful integration of theAssyrians. The Assyrian rulers
proclaimed protectionist lawsin order to block competition. Such
measures seem to havebeen very effective and explain, at least in
part, the monopolyretained by the Assyrians in Asia Minor.
Recently, new data has come from Kani which shedssome light on
Old Assyrian chronology. In 1998, KlaasVeenhof deciphered a lm list
covering the period of krumlevel II and called Kltepe Eponym List
(KEL A). This listcontains the succession of 129 lm names and the
reigns ofthe kings to which they belong. Since then, five more
frag-mentary tablets containing part of this list have been
found(KEL B-F). KEL allows comparisons with Old Babylonianarchives
using the Old Assyrian system of eponyms fromChagar Bazar, Mari,
Tell Bia, Tell Rimah and Tell Leilan.Most of the tablets from these
towns belong to the reign ofam-Addu and his son Ime-Dagn who are
contemporariesof the Kani krum Ib archives. The 2001 season at
Kltepeyielded many tablets of this level and another lm list
com-prising almost the whole level Ib period. This last list, KEL
G,was deciphered by Cahit Gnbatt . It comprises 143 namesand
overlaps the other lists with only twenty names missing;this means
that we now have a sequence of more than 250eponym names of Aur!
This new list for example fills upsome gaps of the Mari Eponym
Chronicle.
Another important text was excavated in 2001, a letteraddressed
by the messengers of Aur authorities to a localruler in Anatolia,
who previously wrote to ask for militaryhelp: the ruler of Harsamna
was at war with the ruler of Zalpa(Kt 01/k 217). The Assyrians
explained that the great kingam-Addu had recently died and had been
succeeded by hisson Ime-Dagn. Thus they were not able, and perhaps
did notwish, to give military help but proposed instead to send
manytextiles. When this tablet is published it will shed new light
onthe political situation of the beginning of Ime-Dagns reignpartly
known from the Mari tablets.
Thanks to the lm lists, it is now possible to arrange thetablets
of krum Kani according to a relative chronology, andto reconstruct
the careers of many individuals and the historyof their family
firms. The length of the level II of the krum isnowadays estimated
to have been a little more than a century.Most of the archives
discovered in Kani are dated to the firsthalf of the nineteenth
century, from the middle of Sargonsreign until the middle of of
Narm-Sns rule, and the lasttwenty years are not well documented.
The actual reconstruc-tion of three generations of a family firm
whose tablets werediscovered in 1993 confirms this remark. There
could be sev-eral explanations for this phenomenon. Assyrian
merchantsleft Kani taking with them their valuables (metals and
pre-cious stones) and their most important documents loancontracts,
still valid, proofs of property, claims, etc. The mostfamous
merchants known from the tablets had died before thislast stage or
had retired in Aur and the next generation set-tled in other
western Assyrian colonies stimulated by anincrease in exchanges.
Archaeology confirms the fact of thedesertion of Kani krum houses
several years before itsdestruction by fire.
Another and last point is to stress how the Assyrian tradepassed
away, perhaps first in Kani, and then in the othercolonies. There
is no proof that problems arose fromMesopotamia, but it is clear
that inside Anatolia the politicalsituation was deteriorating with
a progressive fragmentationof the administrative structures of
Central Anatolia during thesecond half of the eighteenth century
BCE. In fact, in spite ofthe increasing number of commercial
conventions with thedifferent Anatolian states, there are
increasing disputesbetween these some of them wanted to extend
their territo-ry in order to control more and more roads. It might
be thatthis political situation inside Anatolia put an end to the
flour-ishing Assyrian trade in this region. With the end of
theexchanges and the departure of the Assyrian merchants, writ-ing
disappears from Anatolia for a century.
80 CSMS Journal Vol. 3
-
BIBLIOGRAPHYeen, Salih and Hecker, Karl1995 Ina mtka eblum, Zu
einem neuen Text zum Wegerecht.
In Festschrift fr Wolfram Freiherrn von Soden zum 85.Geburtstag
am 19. Juni 1993, eds. Manfred Dietrich andOswald Loretz. Alter
Orient und Altes Testament 240.Mnster: Ugarit-Verlag, p. 3141.
Dercksen, Jan Gerrit1996 The Old Assyrian Copper Trade in
Anatolia, Publications
de lInstitut historique-archologique nerlandais deStambul 75.
Leiden: Nederlands Instituut voor het NabijeOosten.
2004 Assyrian Institutions, MOS Studies 4, Publications
delInstitut historique-archologique nerlandais de Stambul98.
Leiden: Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten.
2005 Metals according to documents from Kltepe-Kanish dat-ing to
the Old Assyrian Colony Period. In Anatolian MetalIII. ed. .
Yalcun. Der Anschnitt, Beiheft 18, Bochum:Deutsches Bergbau-Museum,
p. 1734.
Donbaz, Veysel2005 An Old Assyrian Treaty from Kltepe, Journal
of
Cuneiform Studies 57, p. 6368.Eidem, Jesper1991 An Old Assyrian
Treaty from Tell Leilan. In Marchands,
diplomates et empereurs. tudes sur la civilisation
mso-potamienne offertes Paul Garelli, eds. DominiqueCharpin and
Francis Joanns. Paris : ditions Recherchesur les Civilisations, p.
185207.
Forlanini, Massimo2006 tapes et itinraires en Aur et lAnatolie
des marchands
palo-assyriens : nouveaux documents et nouveaux pro-blmes,
KASKAL 3, p. 147176.
Garelli, Paul1963 Les Assyriens en Cappadoce. Bibliothque
archologique
et historique de lInstitut franais darchologie dIstanbulXIX.
Paris: Institut franais darchologie dIstanbul.
Grayson, Kirk A.1987 Assyrian Rulers of the Third and Second
Millennium BCE
(to 1115 BCE), The Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia,Assyrian
Periods, vol. 1, Toronto.
Gnbatt, Cahit2004 Two treaty texts found at Kltepe. In Assyria
and Beyond.
Studies Presented to Mogens Trolle Larsen, ed. Jan
GerritDercksen. Publications de lInstitut historique-archolo-gique
nerlandais de Stambul 100. Leiden: NederlandsInstituut voor het
Nabije Oosten, p. 249268.
2008a An Eponym List (KEL G) from Kltepe. In Festschrift frKarl
Hecker zum 75. Geburtstag am 25. Juli 2008, ed.Guido Kryszat,
Altorientalische Forschungen 35,p. 103132.
2008b A List of Eponyms (KEL D) from Kltepe. In OldAssyrian
Studies in Memory of Paul Garelli, ed. CcileMichel, Leiden Old
Assyrian Archives Studies 4.Publications de lInstitut
historique-archologique nerlan-dais de Stambul 112. Leiden:
Nederlands Instituut voor hetNabije Oosten, p. 125135.
Hecker, Karl1999 In nova, Archv Orientaln 67, p. 557565.Kryszat,
Guido2004a Zur Chrolonologie der Kaufmannsarchive aus der
Schicht
2 des Krum Kane, Old Assyrian Archives Studies 2,Publications de
lInstitut historique-archologique nerlan-dais de Stambul 99,
Leiden, 2004.
Larsen, Mogens T.1967 Old Assyrian Caravan Procedures,
Publications de
lInstitut historique-archologique nerlandais de Stambul22,
Istanbul.
1976 Old Assyrian City-State and its Colonies, Mesopotamia
4,Copenhague
1999 Naruqqu-Vertrge (naruqqu-contracts), Reallexikon
derAssyriologie 9, p. 181184.
2002 The Aur-nd Archives, Old Assyrian Archives 1,Publications
de lInstitut historique-archologique ner-landais de Stambul 96,
Leiden.
2008 Archives and Filing Systems at Kltepe. In Old
AssyrianStudies in Memory of Paul Garelli, ed. Ccile Michel,Leiden
Old Assyrian Archives Studies 4. Publications delInstitut
historique-archologique nerlandais de Stambul112. Leiden:
Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten,p. p. 7788.
Michel, Ccile1991 Innya dans les tablettes palo-assyriennes,
Editions
Recherche sur les Civilisations, Paris.1994 Rglement des comptes
du dfunt Huranum, Revue
dAssyriologie 88, p. 121128.2001 Correspondance des marchands de
Kani au dbut du IIe
millnaire av. J.-C., Littratures du Proche-Orient ancien19.
Paris : ditions du Cerf.
2003 Old Assyrian Bibliography of Cuneiform Texts, Bullae,Seals
and the Results of the Excavations at Aur,Kltepe/Kani, Acemhyk,
Aliar and Boazky, OldAssyrian Archives Studies 1, Publications de
lInstitut his-torique-archologique nerlandais de Stambul 97. Leiden
:Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten.
2005 Le commerce priv des Assyriens en Anatolie modle ducommerce
archaque selon K. Polanyi. In Autour dePolanyi, vocabulaires,
thories et modalits des changes,eds. Ph. Clancier, F. Joanns, P.
Rouillard and A. Tenu.Paris : De Boccard, p. 121133.
2006 Old Assyrian Bibliography 1 (February 2003July 2006).Archiv
fr Orientforschung 51, p. 436449.
2008e The Alhum and Aur-taklku archives found in 1993 atKltepe
Kani. In Festschrift fr Karl Hecker zum 75.Geburtstag am 25. Juli
2008, ed. Guido Kryszat,Altorientalische Forschungen 35,p. 5367
[abstract in AoF35/2 (2008), p. 359].
Michel: The Old Assyrian Trade in the light of Recent Kltepe
Archives 81
-
zg, Tahsin2003 Kltepe Kani/Nea. The earliest international trade
center
and the oldest capital city of the Hittites. Istanbul: TheMiddle
Eastern Culture Center in Japan.
Veenhof, Klaas R. 1972 Aspects of the Old Assyrian Trade and its
Terminology,
Studia et Documenta ad Iura Orientis AntiquiPertinentia 10,
Leyde.
1995 In Accordance with the Words of the Stele Evidence forOld
Assyrian Legislation, Chicago-Kent Law Review 70,p. 17171744 .
1999 Silver and Credit in Old Assyrian Trade. In Trade
andFinance in Ancient Mesopotamia, MOS Studies 1, ed. JanGerrit
Dercksen. Leiden, p. 5583.
2003a The Old Assyrian List of Year Eponyms from KarumKanish and
its Chronological Implications. Trk TarihKurumu Yaynlar VI/64.
Ankara: Trk Tarih KurumuBasimevi.
2003b Archives of Old Assyrian Traders. In Ancient Archives
andArchival Traditions. Concepts of Record-Keeping in theAncient
World, ed. M. Brosius. Oxford, p. 78123.
2003c Trade and Politics in Ancient Aur. Balancing of
Public,Colonial and Entrepreneurial Interest. In Mercanti
etPolitica nel Mondo Antico, Saggi di Storia Antica 21, eds.C.
Zaccagnini et alii. Rome, p. 69118.
2008a The Old Assyrian Period. In Annherungen 5. ed.
MarkusWfler. Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 160/5, part I.
Fribourgand Gttingen: Academic Press Fribourg, 13264.
2008b Aspects of Old Assyrian Commercial Law Treaties
andLegislation. In I diritti del mondo cuneiforme(Mesopotamia e
regioni adiacenti, ca. 2500500 a.C.), eds.Mario Liverani and Clelia
Mora, Collegio di DirittoRomano 2006 Cedant, Pavia, p. 247269.
82 CSMS Journal Vol. 3