Popular power in ancient Near Eastern and archaic Greek polities A reappraisal of Western and Eastern political cultures Kristoffer Momrak, cand. philol. Dissertation for the degree philosophiae doctor (PhD) at the University of Bergen 2013 Dissertation date: 19.04.2013 2 Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor Prof. Jørgen Christian Meyer at the University of Bergen for his help and encouragement in the writing of this dissertation. I would also like to thank fellow historians Assoc. Prof. Ingvar Mæhle and Dr. Eivind Seland at the University of Bergen for their help. Thanks are due to Prof. Ingvild Gilhus, Prof. Einar Thomassen, Prof. Emer. Erik Østbye, PhD candidates Christian Bull and Pål Steiner, and the other participants at the Antiquity Research Seminar at the Department for Archaeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion at the University of Bergen, for stimulating discussions. I would also like to thank Prof. Jens Braarvig and former Assoc. Prof. Jon W. Iddeng at the University of Oslo for fruitful discussions and encouragement during the writing of this dissertation. I have benefited greatly from correspondence with scholars who kindly took of their time to read and comment on chapters. I am deeply grateful to Prof. Robin Osborne of Cambridge University, Prof. Hartmut Kühne of Freie Universität Berlin, Assoc. Prof. Ingvar Mæhle of the University of Bergen, independent researcher Dr. Erik van Dongen, Dr. Gojko Barjamovic of the University of Copenhagen, Dr. Eivind Seland of the University of Bergen, and PhD candidate Ole Christian Aslaksen of the University of Gothenburg, who all graciously offered their cogent remarks on a range of chapters as well as pointing me to literature I should consult. I would also like to thank the committee that turned down an earlier version of this dissertation, viz. Prof. Emer. Mogens Trolle Larsen of the University of Copenhagen, Prof. Robin Osborne, and Assoc. Prof. Ingvar Mæhle, for their comments and criticisms that have been a great help in revising my former thesis and writing the present dissertation. In the course of writing this dissertation, I have profited greatly from attending a number of conferences to present ideas and meet with scholars. I would like to thank 3 the organisers and participants of the Norwegian-Danish mini-seminar organised by the Phrontisterium at the Copenhagen University Amager February 2006, in particular Prof. Emer. Mogens Herman Hansen, for discussion and criticism of some central claims made in a paper presenting the ambitions for this dissertation. Thanks are also due to the organisers and participants at the Norwegian conference Fra palass til polis – den greske verden mellom bronsealdersivilisasjoner og bystatskultur [From palace to polis – the Greek world between Bronze Age civilization and city state culture] held in November 2006 at the Norwegian Institute at Athens, in particular former Assoc. Prof. Jon Iddeng of the University of Oslo for discussions on defining the polis. I also had the pleasure of attending the Melammu Symposia at the New Bulgarian University in Sofia, Bulgaria in 2008, and would like to thank the organisers and participants for making it a wonderful experience, in particular the organisers Prof. Mark Geller of the University College London and Assoc. Prof. Teodor Lekov of the New Bulgaria University, and Prof. Baruch Levine, Prof. Maria Grazia Masetti- Rouault, Dr. Erik van Dongen, and Dr. Jorrit Kelder for discussions and correspondence. During the writing of this dissertation, I spent a month doing research at the Norwegian Institute at Rome (2006), with a grant from the Norwegian Institute at Rome’s Fund, as well as a month at the Norwegian Institute at Athens (2009), with a grant from the Norwegian Institute at Athens. I would like to thank staff and fellow researchers in Rome and Athens for making these stays nice and interesting, in particular Prof. Panos Dimas, Director at the Norwegian Institute at Athens, for stimulating discussions on the Greek polis. I also spent five months of 2007 and 2008 at the Freie Universität Berlin doing research in the library of the Altorientalisches Seminar. I would like to thank Prof. Eva Cancik-Kirschbaum and Dr. Ariel M. Bagg for welcoming me and giving me access to library resources. My stay was kindly financed by the Meltzer Fund, Bergen. 4 Thanks are due to all colleagues, correspondents, organisers, and fellow conference participants for their criticisms, advice, and warnings. Errors or misjudgements in the present dissertation remain my own. I would like to thank friends and family, in particular my mother-in-law Inger Eielsen for her unwavering belief in the project and her generous support. I would like to thank my fantastic wife Ingvild Eielsen Risnes and adorable daughter Agathe Evrydike for their support and encouragement. This dissertation is dedicated to the memory of Prof. Bjørn Qviller of the University of Oslo, whose curiosity and intellectual irreverence remains a great inspiration. 5 Notes on orthography Regarding the Greek and Akkadian orthography of names of persons, places, and institutions, I have found it difficult to maintain consistency. I do not follow all the standards of English usage for Greek names. Therefore, e.g. Aristoteles will be found as Aristotle, whereas Kleisthenes is written with K, not C. For Akkadian names, e.g. Assur is given without sh, whereas some personal names not common in general works on Mesopotamian history are transcribed with sh or š. Sumerian words are transcribed in capital letters, Akkadian and Greek words are transcribed in italics. Greek vowel quantity is only used in the transcriptions given in parentheses ( ), whereas Akkadian vowel quantity is indicated throughout for the sake of disambiguation. These choices have been made purely for the sake of readability, in order to assure a certain level of accuracy without an unnecessary cumbersome orthography. The transcriptions of Near Eastern political terms follow as close as possible the established usage in the editions consulted. These will be specified throughout the relevant chapters and are summarised in Sources (chapter 8). Regarding the capitalisation of titles of books and articles, I have capitalised the titles of books in the main body of the text, but not in the notes or the bibliography. Articles appear without capitalisation. 6 List of abbreviations AA: American Anthropologist AAASH: Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae ABSA: The Annual of the British School at Athens AJP: The American Journal of Philology AJS: The American Journal of Sociology AnBib: Analecta Biblica ANET: James B. Pritchard (ed.), Ancient Near Eastern Texts relating to the Old Testament (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press 1971 [1969]) Antiquity: Antiquity: an International Journal of Expert Archaeology AoF: Altorientalische Forschungen AR: Archaeological Reports ARM: Archives royales de Mari BASOR: Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research BCSMS: The Canadian Society for Mesopotamian Studies Bulletin Belleten: Belleten – Revue publiée par la société d’histoire Turque BMCR: Bryn Mawr Classical Review BO: Bibliotheca Orientalis CA: Current Anthropology CAD: Chicago Assyrian Dictionary 7 CAH: Cambridge Ancient History 2nd edition (Oxford University Press 1982) CANE: Jack M. Sasson (ed.), Civilizations of the Ancient Near East (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons 1995) Chi.-Kent. L. Rev.: Chicago-Kent Law Review ClAnt: Classical Antiquity ClQ: Classical Quarterly New Series HSCP: Harvard Studies in Classical Philology HUCA: Hebrew Union College Annual IPSR: International Political Science Review JAA: Journal of Anthropological Archaeology JANES: Journal of the Ancient Near Eastern Society JAOS: Journal of the American Oriental Society JCS: Journal of Cuneiform Studies JDAI: Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts JESHO: Journal of the economic and social history of the Orient J. Econ. Hist.: The Journal of Economic History JHS: The Journal of Hellenic Studies JMA: Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology JNES: Journal of Near Eastern Studies JRS: Journal of Roman Studies 8 LSJ: Liddel-Scott-Jones Greek-English Dictionary M.A.R.I.: Mari: Annales de recherches interdisciplinaires MEPC: Middle East Policy Council MHE: Mediterranean Historical Review NEA: Near Eastern Archaeology OJA: Oxford Journal of Archaeology OrNS: Orientalia, Nova Series PEQ: Palestine Exploration Quarterly PRU: Palais Royal d’Ugarit RA: Revue d’assyriologie et d’archéologie orientale REG: Revue des études Grecques SO: Symbolae Osloenses Syria: Syria: Revue d'art orientale et d'archéologie TPR: The town planning review TUAT: Otto Kaiser (ed.), Texte aus der Umwelt des Alten Testaments (Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus Gerd Mohn 1982-97) UF: Ugarit-Forschungen WO: Die Welt des Orients ZA: Zeitschrift der Assyriologie 9 Table of contents Acknowledgments 2 Notes on orthography 5 List of abbreviations 6 Table of contents 9 1. Popular power in ancient Near Eastern and archaic Greek polities – A reappraisal of Western and Eastern political cultures 1.1 Introduction 17 1.2 Popular power and the problem of Athenian democracy 18 1.2.1 The Athenian example: rule by the poor 19 1.2.2 Ancient democracy: rule by the people 21 1.2.3 A sliding scale of popular participation 25 1.3 East and West – separate worlds 28 1.4 Constitutions and strategies for power 47 1.4.1 The mixed constitution: kingship and popular power 51 1.4.2 Polities as networks of strategies for power 55 1.5 Corporations