Project group B: Conflict and Control, Project B4.II

Nomads and State – Changing balances of power in Mesopotamia:

Subject II: Between Pasture, Town and Palace: Nomads and Settled Population in the Mari Kingdom (19./18. C. B.C.)

Programme

The project of M. P. Streck and B. Jahn with the topic “Between Pasture, Town and Palace: Nomads and Settled Population in the Empire of Mari” encompasses the different relations and interactions of the nomadic tribes among themselves and to the Empire of Mari, which will be analyzed and synthesized into an overall picture. It will certainly be difficult to create a coherent picture from the different types of textual information, since the texts contain only fragmentary pieces of information about the nomadic way of life and offer only a one-sided account about nomads, which is from the perspective of the urban population.

The focus of this project is the texts of the Palace Archives of Mari, but also includes the other contemporary archives in North Syria, which contain evidence about different types of nomadic activities, which must be collected and evaluated. In addition to this, different methodical approaches will be considered. For example, ethnological research and models will be evaluated with respect to their usefulness in representing Amorite nomadism. 

Publications

Prof. Dr. Michael P. Streck

Die akkadischen Verbalstämme mit ta-Infix = Alter Orient und Altes Testament 303 (2003). xii, 163 S.

Das amurritische Onomastikon der altbabylonischen Zeit. Band 1: Die Amurriter. Die onomastische Forschung. Orthographie und Phonologie. Nominalmorphologie = Alter Orient und Altes Testament Band 271/1 (2000). 414 S.

Die Bildersprache der akkadischen Epik = Alter Orient und Altes Testament Band 264 (1999). 258 S.

Zahl und Zeit. Grammatik der Numeralia und des Verbalsystems im Spätbabylonischen = Cuneiform Monographs Band 5. Styx Publications, Groningen 1995 (= Dissertation München 1992). xxix, 293 S.

Britt Kärger (geb. Jahn), M.A.

I. Monographs

Leben in der amurritischen Welt. Nomaden und Sesshaft im Reich von Mari (19./18. Jh. v. Chr.) (PhD Diss. Leipzig 2010, publication in preparation)

II. Articles

The Migration and Sedentarization of the Amorites from the Point of View of the Settled Babylonian Population, in: M. Heinz / M. Feldman (eds.), Representations of Political Power. Case Histories from Times of Change and Dissolving Order in the Ancient Near East. Eisenbrauns. Winona Lake (Indiana). 2007. 193–209.

"Setze mich in das sugāgum-Amt ein!" – "Bis zum Kommen meines Herrn warte!". Kontrollmechanismen königlicher Verwaltung in Mari am Beispiel des sugāgum, in: K. Franz (ed.), Verwaltete Nomaden. Mobile Viehzüchter und Dienstleister zwischen Autonomie und staatlicher Anbindung = Mitteilungen des SFB "Differenz und Integration" 11. Schütze. Halle. 2007. 15–44.

III. Reallexikon der Assyriologie

Sumu-tabi (-„dabi“) (voraussichtlich 2008)

Sura-hammu (voraussichtlich 2008)

Sharra-El (in Druckvorbereitung)

Samu-Haddu (in Druckvorbereitung)

IV. Short Notices

N.A.B.U. 2006, 19, Agenda und Corrigenda zu: M. P. Streck (ed.), Sprachen des Alten Orients (2006)

V. Unpublished Thesis

„Die Urkunden der Manana’a Dynastie“ Magisterarbeit Leipzig (2003), 256 S.