I il rlil !.,F 1 h TI{E LANP OF ASSUR I 8L., Trmrrt Yor<p\z oF AssuR Srurms oNAssvrun , 197r-2005 FiF ffi' *t '':, 'm ',i, POSTGATE ,illJi:i NICHOLAS ' Ji{ :'i ru r,'rliiffi ; ,I.. ;iFt l*rr,ffi i Publishedby Oxbow Books, Oxford @ Oxbow Books, Nicholas Postgate2007 rsBN 918-r-842r7-216-2 A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library This book is available direct from Oxbow Books. Oxford www.oxbowbooks.com und The David Brown Book Company PO Box 511, Oakville,CT 06779,USA (Phone: 860-945-9329;Fax: 860-945-9468) Front cover: two strips from the bronze ornamentation of gates erected at the Temple of Mamu at Imgur-Enlil (modern Balawat) by king Assur-nasir-apli II in the early 9th century BC. The cuneifurm captions tell us that the upper strip shows the King receiving the tribute of Kudunu the ruler of Suhu, and the lower strip has him standing before the gates of Imgur-Enlil receiving further tribute from the same ruler. Drawing by Marjorie Howard; see the forthcoming volume on The Balawat Gates of AshLrrnasirpal II by R. D. Barnett et al. (British Museum Press). The strips were conserved at the Britsh Museum and placed on display in the Mosul Museum but were mostly looted in 2003. Printed in Great Britain by CPI Anthony Rowe Chippenham The invisible hierarchY: Assyrian military and civilian administration . in the 8th and 7th centuriesBC' : Introduction the Assyrian empire functioned remains obscure because the roya-l How 'we , such irrr"ripiionr, of which have many, are not concerned to convey *i ttt" ua-inistrative teits and archives we have are neither as ili;il;;;: history' voluminousnor as transparent as in some other periods of Mesopotamian 'il;;;;irt,q.tfirrt sight-ilre it .""1nr-'ur though the written wold and an elaborate bureaucratic relativelyunirfrfort*t. under rhe Neo-Assyrig kin^q1i"1":1^:h* 'an some aspectsoI iollows attempt is made to iest _this impressionby examining Neo-Assyrian administrative procedure of Bv hierarchv, I mean both the personnel tlUo"g! whom the activities ;ir.;;;;1''*"r" "J-inirt"i"a, and^the chain of aithority and command which out |iu..J-oni official below or above another,thus obliging one person to carry itt"-i*t ""tl*i- oi another by virtue of their respective positions in the system' This is I hope not u tontiovJrsial definition, but it is worth noting that it already 'words, "instruction" "authority", some ;;;; ;;il like or which presuppose aspectsof the system worthy of further investigation' Before we can understand-iu-ppotid how the hierarchy firnctioned, we have to remind ourselveswhat it *^ to be doing.' As the rePresentativeof the -god king Assur,the king was in "fti!" of the adminisirationof the land of Assur'The ;;;"rd;bie for ihe prSsperity of the land, and in the coronation ritual is rextend just (ina "^pfiiitf'y-."quired to enlirge^it: your land with yo'r sceptre" the ei)rti h'a1yi-iamqt-ka rappii).| Accordinglyaspects.o{ th,e.govemmentof country of direct "on""*'io it" king will-have lncluded: defence of the realm, * Empire held at The origin of this text is my contribution to a conference on Palace, King and for the publication of the carsten Niebuhr lnstitute in rrauy 1999. This was revised and enlarged version, updated iii" pt""""Oi.gs in 2000 and minor changes made in 2003. The cunent of the conference bibliographical-ly but not signlficantly otherwise,-is published here- in advance prof. abbreviations volumi by kind permission-of iilogens Trolle Larsen. Normal Assyriological letters are where ".. ur.a in W. von Soden,Akkadischis Handwdrterbucft); note that although ias reference possible .it.d uft., their edition in the Srale Archives of Assyria (SAA) series, the ABL the ABL numbers' iras often been left in to facilitate comparison with earlier literature which uses I Muller 1937. t3311 The invisible hierarchv construction of public buildings and inigation works, agricultural reforrn" judicial administration,and observanceof ritual conformity. If we ask how the king carried out these responsibilities, or from a different standpoint,how the establishmentused the monarchyas an instrument of rule, we have to look both at the reality, and at the ideological vocabulary: how was the king's will converted into action by his subjects on the ground, and how was the chain of command described, i.e. what terminology was in use to describe the formal hierarchical structure, and what everyday vocabulary was applied to its functioning? One of the frustrating but familiar aspectsof Assyria is that in the inscriptions which are the closest our Assyrian informants come to writing history we have few statementsabout anything other than the actions of the king himself, and we are obliged to glean hints from the letters and administrative documents which were themselvescomponents of the machineryof govemment. Royalor state sector Before examining the administration in detail, we need to define which sector of society we are talking about. One importantdistinction is made for us in a letter to the king concernedwith how he shoulddeal with people who had appealedto him for justice - ia a-bat iar-ra-a-te liz.karilnil.2 The writer defines two categoriesof person who might have made an appeal: a slave of the king, or a slave of an Assyrian (iumma iR ia LUCer ... iumma ur-du ia ai-iur-a-a). While all subjectsof "slaves", thekingmustin one sensehave beenhis this passagemakes it clear that one sectorof the populacewas consideredto be employeesof the king.3 Exactly what this implies is not inunediately self-evident. To us it seems reasonableto "state" make a distinction between those in employment,charged with carrying out the civil administration of the counfy as a whole, and those employed as membersof the royal household.In this letter the writer is surely thinking of state, rather than royal, servants. This seems to follow from his expectation that the "slave of the king" would have made his appeal either to his "captain" or to his provincialgovernor(ina [UGU] LrJ.iak-ni-iu inatJGlJLU.NAM-JI iq-1i-bi). These are two ranks in the upper echelon of state administration, not falling within the royal household. Neverthelessa royal sector of some nature and size must have existed. Kings, or at least their families, had personalidentities independent of their state function, which would involve the possessionor at least the occupationof buildings,i.e. palaces,the private ownership of land, the ownership of slaves, not to mention a "free" harem, and the employment of staff (i.e. not slaves) for a variety of purposes which were not part of state administration. It is likely they also "weavers engagedin productive activities. When we come across of the king",4 there is a temptation to assumethat they served the king himself, rather than the z CT 53,78+426.A first attemptat an editionin Postgate1980b. "Assyrian" 3 The precisedefinition of an remainsto be established(see Postgate 1980b); one might be temptedto say that we seehere three categoriesof Assyrian subject: free Assyrians, their slaves,and stateor royal slaves.But provisionally,it is not certain that the free Assyrians werenot themselves"slaves of the king". 4 tvti.uS.sln.MESia LUcAL (sAA l, 33:24). 13321 The invisible hierarchY were many other state as a whole, and it would not be surprising .if ih3r9 It whetherr"iui.. or craftsrnen,who fall into this category' em'loyees, fe.sonnet"priv.ate" distinct in ilil;';;; ii-k;itt-tturit.ti was a royal sectorwhich was distiriguiihedin theory,but this is trard to prove, for our present ;;;;.;-";J .and to.be purposes,it is not rp";tdlt ilport'ant Obviouslywe cannotalways expect ableto determine*h;i1'"f; ffiie frofessionaltiile, or a particularadministrative ili"", fell within u r"putut" rdyal'sectoror formedpart of-state administration' Weshallbe dealingin iltih; pio""Our"runf|ttror u..iik"^lyto havebeen similar' "royal" instancesderive from contexts ;;ilf1i.illi tht stale-sector,but if some it will notgreatly matter' andcivilian Military the The statesector must have comprised an extensivecadre of officials to whom tax king'sduties of statewere de^legated.5 Quite apart from military field officers, andrecruitment officErs were needed,and t\1 provincial-governorates ioii".totr and ;q;ifi;i"ii aaminisiiaiotiio.to*n andcountryside' The supplyof cl-othing equipmenttot ttr" ut y andpublic works, ivhether through the iikaru sysjetl other of all or from someother toui.i, hitt ttiu. requirednanagers' and the activities (not all can.have itr.r. otti.iuts requlred-monitoringand remuneratinglysomeone tt"iaffil. G? issuewhich needs t6 be addressedimmediately beenallocared land "-ilit*y UVttre woiai andcivilian"-in.m-y title, whichmask an ir."*-"a"p government ;b6ilt; ul" *" lookingat onehierarchy or two? Did the Assyrian il;;"; singlesystern;iiv; -- separatebranches for the administrationof military of the I4 III Steinkellerhas unO .iuiiiin aifairs? i; the' case "Civil -l.qgt 9' ,r*nrt*attd a dual systemcomprising ^Oim.ftnta Service",6ased on the traditional ;;"fiiil mechanisnis-tv in ttt. city-states,and a. military. command' ttr. sosi,iiakkanat<kum, which was centrallyrun andco-existed ;;rri;;""";t Neo- with the civilian-empire regime in eachprovince.6 Hence the possibililr lnat in.the G;.i"r tlie military and civilian branchesof the administrationwere ri"r?i['ir "i. ;d; ;;; b"'seiioustyconsidered. This is obviouslva. fundamental qu'"rtionwhich needs to be resolvedbefore we canlook in moredetail at what me in administratiu.,yrt.* reallyconsistgd of, andat how it relatesto the buildings whichwe usuallyassume it operated. to Generally,we needto bearin mind that the bulk of the correspondencerel-ating sovemmLntadministiation tends to be aboutmilitary matters, or at leastthe spin- |ff it"* ,*rii-iffi;iil- Thir ir no doubtpartly because.