The Land grant to Marduk-apla-iddina kudurru is a grey limestone 0.7-meter tall ancient

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the ...

n ''narû'' or entitlement stele recording the gift of four tracts of cultivated land with settlements totaling 84 GUR 160 ''qa'' by

Kassite The Kassites () were people of the ancient Near East, who controlled Babylonia after the fall of the Old Babylonian Empire c. 1531 BC and until c. 1155 BC (short chronology). They gained control of Babylonia after the Hittite sack of Babylon ...

king of Babylon, Meli-Šipak (ca. 1186–1172 BC ), to a person described as his servant (arassu irīm: “he granted his servant”) named Marduk-apla-iddina, who may be his son and/or successor or alternatively another homonymous individual. The large size of the grant together with the generous freedom from all territorial obligations (taxation, corvée, draft, foraging) has led historians to assume he was the prince. There are thirty six kudurrus which are placed on the basis of art-history to Meli-Šipak's reign, of which eight are specifically identified by his name. This is the best preserved of all of them.

The stele

Museo de la Ciencia y el Cosmos 2018 042

The kudurru was recovered in 1899 from Susa, excavation reference Sb 22, by the French archaeological expedition under the auspices of

Jacques de Morgan Jean-Jacques de Morgan (3 June 1857, Huisseau-sur-Cosson, Loir-et-Cher – 14 June 1924) was a French mining engineer, geologist, and archaeologist. He was the director of antiquities in Egypt during the 19th century, and excavated in Memph ...

and brought to the

Musée du Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

where it still resides. The object is inscribed on three sides in seven columns and 387 lines. Like most kudurrus, it portrays Mesopotamian gods graphically in segmented '' registers'' on the stone. In this case the divine icons number twenty-four in five registers, rather more than usual. The bequest was for communal land of the city of Agade located around the settlement of Tamakku adjacent to the royal canal in Bīt-Piri’-Amurru, a province in northern Babylonia. In a passage granting exemptions from service and taxation to the residents of the transferred territory, a list of officials are forbidden from appropriating the land and levying labor with restrictions placed on their conduct. This includes the king himself, the ''šakin māti'' (the governor of the land), and the ''pīḫātu'' (rank uncertain) of Bīt-Piri’-Amurru, contradicting the image of oriental despotism sometimes portrayed concerning the period. The text concludes with an unusual series of blessings and curses including a rather gruesome curse of Gula, “may she place in his body her oozing (sores), a persistent carbuncle, of no release, so that, for as long as he lives, he may bathe in blood and pus like water!”, which seems to have been reproduced on the Stele of Meli-Šipak. There are no witnesses listed to validate the bequest, more evidence to suggest it was a gift between royalty.

The cast of characters

* Meli-Šipak, the king, donor * Marduk-apal-iddina, his servant, beneficiary The survey team: * Ibni-Marduk, "son (=descendant) of Arad-Ea", presumably the ''šādid eqli'', or field surveyor, as he appears as such on the

land grant to Ḫasardu kudurru The land grant to Ḫasardu kudurru, is a four-sided limestone ''narû'', or memorial stele, from the late 2nd millennium BC Mesopotamia recording the gift of 144 hectares of land on the bank of the Royal Canal in the Bīt-Pir’i-Amurru region ...

* Šamaš-nādin-šumi, son of Arad-nubatti, ''ša rēš šarri'' (^{lú

Lugh or Lug (; ga, label=Irish language, Modern Irish, Lú ) is a figure in Irish mythology. A member of the Tuatha Dé Danann, a group of supernatural beings, Lugh is portrayed as a warrior, a king, a master craftsman and a savior.Olmsted, Ga ...}SAG LUGAL), a court official * Šamaš-šum-līšir, son of Ultu-ilu, ''ḫazannu'', or mayor, of Bīt-Pir’i-Amurru province

Divine symbols

The iconic representations of the gods, where they are known, are given in the sequence left-to-right, top-to-bottom:

Principal publications

* pl. 21–24 translation and photographs * line art

References

External links