Instances of Mobility among Mari Artisans

Abstract

I shall return it to you all." Perhaps the best parallel is found in the letter of Biridiya of Megiddo (near Taanach) to the Pharaoh: ui zurata laqf-mi kaspe iptersu ina qdtisu / ba-de-u,26 " And Zurata received his ransom (bribe) price in his hand / in his hands." 27The failure of the docket to record the exact amount of the payment is surprising. However, the omission is understandable if the payment were in fact a bribe agreed upon by the principals, or if the payment were a predetermined sum, a fine, levy, or even a temple impost. INSTANCES OF MOBILITY AMONG MARI ARTISANS JACK M. SASSONIt should require no more than a hurried glance through the thirteen volumes of the Archives royales de Marin to render it quite evident that Mari society was indeed an active one. As a city strategically located on the Euphrates, Mari played an important role in the distribution of goods among the ancient powers. These included the CyproMinoan west, shipper of the elegant pot and the rough copper; the Syro-Anatolian north, exporter of woods, stones, minerals, and some agricultural products; the Mesopotamian south, manufacturer of finished commodities; and the Elamite east, distributer of tin. For this reason, it surprises us little to discover that Mari's community had achieved a significant division of its labor force. This paper will focus on a class of workers possessed of a certain skill which, as a rule, was obtained after a period of apprenticeship. Further, our attention will be directed to that portion of this class which seems to have, willingly or otherwise, shuttled from one city, one region, or even one country to another. The positions held by these ambulating artisans will vary enormously, ranging from those of Salomes, who performed with seven veils (ARMT XIII: 22: 41), to those of diviners. Except for the purpose of presenting what seems to be a curious-but perhaps incidental-phenomenon, there will be no attempt at differentiating between the Samsi-Adad and Zimri-Lim periods. Messengers, army personnel, or merchants whose professions naturally required extensive travelling will not be considered.It is possible to arrange the documents at our disposal in three categories. The first deals with single individuals whose talents were sought involves groups of workers, usually not as skilled as the members of the within the confines of Mari and its immediate dependencies. The second 26 We are to read the gloss /badew/<bayadehfi, "into his hands." One may also read "from his hands," in spite of Akk. ina qatisu. bd is not infrequently used in this sense at Ugarit. E.g., see PRU V, 59: 18, 21 "take (Iqh) from the hand of PN." South Canaanite ladew may also have been ambiguous. 46I shall return it to you all." Perhaps the best parallel is found in the letter of Biridiya of Megiddo (near Taanach) to the Pharaoh: ui zurata laqf-mi kaspe iptersu ina qdtisu / ba-de-u,26 " And Zurata received his ransom (bribe) price in his hand / in his hands." 27The failure of the docket to record the exact amount of the payment is surpr...

A lead figurine from Toprakhisar Höyük: magico-ritual objects in the Syro-Anatolian Middle Bronze Age

“…The material evidence pointing to the presence of metallurgical activity and stone-carving industries shows that the Toprakhisar community had the required level of technological knowhow to produce a mould-made lead object. However, whether it was produced by a travelling craftsperson (Zaccagnini 1983;Sasson 1968; or a local workshop is uncertain.…”

Human mobility at Tell Atchana (Alalakh), Hatay, Turkey during the 2nd millennium BC: Integration of isotopic and genomic evidence

“…The Near East during the 2 nd millennium BC is a particularly promising arena to explore many of the questions targeting mobility patterns and effects, as it has often been discussed as an era of high levels of interregional connectivity in areas such as trade, diplomacy, and artistic expression, documented by both the material and textual records [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. The wide-ranging social, cultural, and economic contacts of this period have long been understood to involve high levels of individual mobility on a broad scale and across a wide area, as the exchange and movement of traders, artisans, and representatives of kings is well documented [9][10][11][12][13]. However, there have been limited studies of individuals' life histories and broader demographic trends during this time period which are based in bioarchaeology, particularly in the Levant (though much of the isotopic work done on humans has been in both earlier and later periods [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25]; for 3 rd millennium BC Mesopotamia, see also [26]).…”

Human mobility at Tell Atchana (Alalakh) during the 2nd millennium BC: integration of isotopic and genomic evidence

“…The Near East during the second millennium BC is a particularly promising arena to explore many of the questions targeting mobility patterns and effects, as it has often been discussed as an era of high levels of international connectivity in areas such as trade, diplomacy, and artistic expression, documented by both the material and textual records [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. The wide-ranging social, cultural, and economic contacts of this period have long been understood to involve high levels of individual mobility on a broad scale and across a wide area, as the exchange and movement of traders, artisans, and representatives of kings is well-documented [9][10][11][12][13]. However, there have been limited direct studies of life history and broader demographic trends during this time period, particularly in the Levant (where much of the isotopic work done on humans has been in later periods [14][15][16][17][18][19][20]), limiting the degree to which this can be effectively tested, although isotopic work done in second millennium BC contexts in Egypt [21,22], Crete [23,24], Greece [25,26], Anatolia [27,28], and Arabia [29] have indicated differing levels of individual mobility ranging from populations composed primarily of local individuals to those with very high levels of non-locals.…”