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Terrestrial Cartography in Ancient Mesopotamia

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Terrestrial Cartography in Ancient Mesopotamia TERRESTRIAL CARTOGRAPHY IN ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA BY ELIZABETH RUTH JOSIE WHEAT A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY The Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity College of Arts and Law University of Birmingham September 2012 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. The eagle spoke unto him, to Etana, saying: “Look my friend, how does the land appear?” — The Legend of Etana Translated by J. V. Kinnier Wilson ABSTRACT Over one hundred and seventy maps and plans are preserved from the ancient Near East, drawn on clay tablets or inscribed in stone, though a full study of all the available cartographic material from Mesopotamia has never before been undertaken. This thesis offers a critical analysis of these maps and plans, with particular focus on their graphic conventions, typology and function in Near Eastern society. The text on many of these maps is also undeciphered and a number of examples are translated here for the first time, including an unpublished map of an irrigation network in the Schøyen Collection. By examining all this material in a single study, it becomes clear that there was a coherent documentary genre in Mesopotamia which was cartographic in nature, and which served a variety of administrative and planning purposes. The Near Eastern cartographic corpus is also contextualised within the wider history of cartography, so that its place in the global development of graphic mapping can be better understood. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would first like to thank my supervisor Alasdair Livingstone, and also Birgit Haskamp, for their encouragement and guidance while writing this thesis; without their support it could not have been written. Conversations with Dr I. Finkel and Prof. A. R. Millard have also enriched my understanding of the material studied here, and I thank them for both their time and interest in this project. Prof. A. R. George has also been incredibly generous in allowing me to use his line drawings of the unpublished Schøyen Collection irrigation network map in this thesis, and I offer my thanks to him here. Financial assistance for this project was provided by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and Roberts Funding, without which this research could not have been undertaken. I would also like to thank my friend and colleague Erika Johnson, with whom I have attended many conferences and shared a number of European adventures. Deborah Kerr has been unwavering in her support and, with Matthew Somerville, has very generously lent me her house in Birmingham many times. I would also like to thank all my friends at the Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity Forum and the journal Rosetta, including Emma Southon, Phoebe Child, Laura Snook, Matt Kears and Frank Simons. I would like to thank my family, including Simon Wheat who assisted in constructing a new illustration of the Tepe Gawra vase and advised on matters related to structural engineering, while Sian Ashton and Sullivan Wheat often provided a welcome distraction from this work. And finally, thanks to whom I probably owe the most, my mother Fran Wheat. In memory of my father, Paul Wheat TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES…………………………………………………………………………...1 LIST OF PLATES………………………………………………………………………….....8 ABBREVIATIONS…………………………………………………………………………..10 CHRONOLOGY OF THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST………………………………………..12 INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………………....13 CHAPTER ONE: THE CONTEXT OF NEAR EASTERN CARTOGRAPHY……...……..15 DEFINING ‘MAPS’…………………………………………………………………………………..15 PREVIOUS SCHOLARSHIP………………………………………………………………………...16 ANCIENT TERMINOLOGY AND TEXTUAL EVIDENCE………………………………………..18 ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN CARTOGRAPHERS…………………………………………………20 TECHNICAL DRAWING AND CARTOGRAPHIC CONVENTION………………………………21 PREHISTORIC ‘CARTOGRAPHY’ IN THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST……………………………..27 CHAPTER TWO: FIELD AND AGRICULTURAL ESTATE PLANS…………………….34 INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………………………...34 THE OLD AKKADIAN PERIOD…………………………………………………………………… ..35 THE UR III PERIOD…………………………………………………………………………………. .52 THE MIDDLE BABYLONIAN PERIOD……………………………………………………………..63 THE LATE BABYLONIAN PERIOD………………………………………………………………...69 CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………………………...75 CHAPTER THREE: CANAL AND WATERWAY PLANS……………………………….79 INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………………………...79 THE SCHØYEN COLLECTION IRRIGATION MAP……………………………………………….81 THE NIPPUR FIELD AND CANAL NETWORK MAP……………………………………………..96 THE SIPPAR WATERWAY MAP………………………………………………………………… 104 THE ARAḪTUM CANAL FRAGMENT…………………………………………………………….107 CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………………………..110 CHAPTER FOUR: BUILDING PLANS…………………………………………………...112 INTRODUTION………………………………………………………………………………………112 THE OLD AKKADIAN PERIOD…………………………………………………………………….115 THE UR III PERIOD………………………………………………………………………………….129 THE OLD BABYLONIAN PERIOD…………………………………………………………………149 THE MIDDLE BABYLONIAN PERIOD…………………………………………………………....164 THE LATE BABYLONIAN PERIOD…………………………………………………...…………...166 CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………………………..186 CHAPTER FIVE: CITY PLANS…………………………………………………………...189 INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………………….........192 THE URUK CITY PLAN FRAGMENT…………………………………………………………......194 THE NIPPUR CITY PLAN………………………………………………………………………......196 A PLAN OF THE TUBA DISTRICT IN BABYLON………………………………………………..207 A FRAGMENT OF A PLAN SHOWING PART OF AN UNKNOWN CITY………………………212 A PAIR OF OLD BABYLONIAN LABYRINTH TABLETS IN THE SCHØYEN COLLECTION………………………………………………………………….215 CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………………………..218 CHAPTER SIX: REGIONAL MAPS AND THE BABYLONIAN MAP OF THE WORLD…………………………………………………………………….221 INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………………………….221 THE GASUR MAP……………………………………………………………………………………223 AN ASSYRIAN MILITARY MAP……………………………………………………………….......230 THE LOUVRE ‘TABLET MAP’……………………………………………………………………..233 THE BABYLONIAN MAP OF THE WORLD………………………………………………………235 NAVIGATION IN THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST: ‘VERBAL’ MAPS AND THE LIMITS OF CARTOGRAPHY……………………………………………………......…249 CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………………………..253 CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………………………..256 APPENDICES………………………………………………………………………………262 APPENDIX I: CATALOGUE OF TABLETS………………………………………………………..263 APPENDIX II: ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN MENSURATION……………………………………276 BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WORKS CITED…………………………………………………....280 PLATES…………………………………………………………………………………….292 LIST OF FIGURES Fig. 1 ‒ Line drawing of part of a mathematical problem text illustrated with three concentric circles drawn with compasses. From Kilmer 1964: 144, fig. 1 Fig. 2 ‒ The inclined system of orientation used in Mesopotamia. Author’s illustration Fig. 3 ‒ The Çatal Hüyük ‘map’. Drawing, from Meece 2006: 2, fig. 1 Fig. 4 ‒ Photograph of the Tepe Gawra vase, with the second of its ‘landscape’ panels in the centre, from Tobler 1950: 150 Fig. 5 ‒ Photograph showing a detail from the Tepe Gawra vase. From Tobler 1950: 150 Fig. 6 ‒ The ‘wadis’ attached the river bank as elevation lines. By Simon Wheat after Tobler 1950: 150 Fig. 7 ‒ An ‘elevated’ view of the features on the Tepe Gawra vase. By Simon Wheat after Tobler 1950: 150 Fig. 8 ‒ Line drawing of an oriented Old Akkadian field plan fragment. From Thureau- Dangin 1897 (RA IV no. III) Fig. 9 ‒ A fragment of a field plan, possibly with canal. Line drawing from Thureau-Dangin 1897 (RA IV no. 67) Fig. 10 ‒ A fragment showing a series of estates. Line drawing from Thureau-Dangin 1897 (RA IV no. 69) Fig. 11 ‒ Fragment of a plan showing a series of three fields with their supporting irrigation system. Line drawing from Thureau-Dangin 1897 (RA IV no. 73) Fig. 12 ‒ Fragment of the obverse of a tablet showing a field and canals (left), with an inscription on its reverse (right). Line drawing from Thureau-Dangin 1897 (RA IV no. 68) Fig. 13 ‒ Fragment of a field plan with a caption providing a total area in nindan. Line drawing from Thureau-Dangin 1897 (RA IV no. 71) 1 Fig. 14 ‒ Fragment of a plan which references a surface area of 4 iku. Line drawing, from Thureau-Dangin 1897 (RA IV no. 70) Fig. 15 ‒ Plan fragment showing a field. Line drawing from Thureau-Dangin 1897 (RA IV no71) Fig. 16 ‒ Plan fragment showing a field belonging to the king. Line drawing, from Thureau- Dangin 1897 (RA IV no. 75) Fig. 17 ‒ Fragment of a plan showing a series of fields bordered by a canal or river. Line drawing, from Thureau-Dangin 1897 (RA IV no. 72) Fig. 18 ‒ Fragment showing an area bordered by a waterway with a circular estate. Line drawing, from Thureau-Dangin 1897 (RA IV no. 66) Fig. 19 ‒ A fragment of a field bordered by a river or canal with a partial area measurement. Line drawing, from Thureau-Dangin 1897 (RA IV no. 65) Fig. 20 ‒ Two fragments rivers or canals indicated by water-lining. Line drawing, from Thureau-Dangin 1897 (RA IV nos. 1 and 2) Fig. 21 ‒ A fragment showing a field bordered by canals depicted with undulating lines. Line drawing, from Thureau-Dangin 1897 (RA IV no. 3) Fig. 22 – A plan of a series of fields bordered by canals. Line drawing, from Thureau-Dangin 1903 (RTC no. 258) Fig.
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