Table Of ContentS L A V E R Y IN
B A B Y L O N I A
FROM NABOPOLASSAR TO ALEXANDER
THE GREAT (626—331B C]
MUHAMMAD A. DANDAMAEV
REVISED EDITION
TRANSLATED BY VICTORIA A. POWELL
EDITED BY MARVIN A. POWELL
DAVID B. WEISBERG, CO-EDITOR
Northern Illinois University Press
Copyright ©1984,2009 by Northern Illinois University Press
Published by the Northern Illinois University Press, DeKalb, Illinois 60115
Manufactured in the United States using postconsumer-recycled, acid-free paper.
First printing in paperback, 2009
ISBN-10: 0-87580-621-X (paperback, acid free paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-87580-621-1 (paperback, acid free paper)
All rights reserved
The preparation of this work was made possible by a grant from the Translations Program
of the National Endowment for the Humanities, an independent Federal agency.
The jacket and frontispiece photographs reproduced in this volume are from the British
Museum and are reproduced here by permission of the Trustees of the Museum.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Dandamaev, M. A.
Slavery in Babylonia.
Translation of: Rabstvo v Vavilonii.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Slavery—Babylonia—History. I. Powell, Marvin A. II. Weisberg, David B. III. Title.
HT863.D2513 1984 306'.362'0935 84-10225
ISBN: 0-87580-104-8
DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF MY MOTHER
PATIMAT
pi
CONTENTS
EDITORIAL PREFACE ix
ABBREVIATIONS xv
AUTHOR'S PREFACE I
A BRIEF SURVEY OF THE SOURCES 6
THE MOST IMPORTANT CONTRIBUTIONS
TO THE PROBLEM 30
A SKETCH OF THE POLITICAL AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC
HISTORY OF BABYLONIA IN THE SEVENTH TO THE
FOURTH CENTURY B C 36
I. SLAVERY IN PRIVATE HOUSEHOLDS 67
II. TEMPLE SLAVERY 469
HI. ROYAL SLAVES 558
IV. DEPENDENT SOCIAL GROUPS 585
SUMMARY 647
APPENDIX: SELECTED TEXTS IN TRANSCRIPTION 662
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WORKS CITED 720
INDEX OF DOCUMENTS TRANSLATED 771
INDEX OF ANCIENT SOURCES CITED 775
GENERAL INDEX 821
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EDITORIAL PREFACE
Muhammad Dandamaev*s work on slavery in the era of
the Chaldean and Achaemenid kings was published in
1974. It attempted to bring to bear upon this key
problem in the socio-economic history of antiquity all
of the relevant data contained in published Babylonian
documents from that era. This important work of
historical synthesis has suffered the oblivion of most
works on antiquity written in Russian. We offer this
English edition in the hope of promoting international
scholarly communication.
Preparation of this English edition began in the
fa ll of 1975. At that time it seemed strange that so
few works of this kind are translated from Russian.
Nine years later the reasons for this are clear. This
English edition has required the investment of literal
ly thousands of hours. Since author, translator, and
editors had no rational economic motives for entering
into or continuing this project, it can appropriately
be termed the result of extra-economic forces.
Finding a publisher for such a book has been an
illum inating experience. One university press, which
considered publishing the book in 1975, came to the
conclusion that - in spite of its value - it was eco
nomically unfeasible under any circumstances. The
present edition has been printed from camera-ready copy
processed - except for the bibliography, which was
entered by M.A. Powell - by the Word Processing Center
of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences of Northern
Illinois University using Altos Microcomputers with a
Word Star word-processing program, and it has been
printed out on an NEC Spinwriter 5510. Neither the
program nor the printer - though good enough in their
own way - was designed to handle the kind of complex
intermixture of ita lic with roman type and the diacrit
ics that characterize most Assyriological publications.
We have, therefore, eliminated all italics and inserted
x Slavery in Babylonia
by hand all diacritics that could not be printed.
Since there are hundreds of these» there w ill inevita
bly be blunders here and there, for which we beg the
Assyriological reader’s indulgence.
Word-processing systems facilitate making changes
in a text, but they also make it equally easy to
introduce new errors, which can easily become an
editorial nightmare. Susan (Spurrier) Hindenberg and
Susan Amaloo did the entry work up through chapter I
and part of the Akkadian text entry; Susan Amaloo also
taught M.A. Powell the essentials of Word Star; Cheryl
Fuller worked on the General Index; the other two
members of the staff, Crystal Swanson and Amber Oldham,
have also rendered assistance and advice. Karen
Blaser* Director of the College of Liberal Arts and
Sciences Word Processing Center, did the remaining
entry work and has done most of the corrections, the
Akkadian text entry, and the formatting - all very com
plex and time-consuming processes. To a ll these
persons - especially to Karen Blaser - M.A. Powell
wishes to express his sincere thanks for their consci
entious labor and for their patient and cheerful assis
tance throughout the past two and a half years.
We are particularly indebted to Northern Illinois
University Press for undertaking the publication of the
book. A number of people were instrum ental in
realizing this publication. M.A. Powell wishes to
thank especially the follow ing: his colleagues in
History, W. Bruce Lincoln and J. Carroll Moody; Mary
Livingston, Director of the NIU Press, for her interest
in the project and for providing excellent editorial
support in the person of Bruce A. Barron and other
assistance through members of the NIU Press staff,
whose help is gratefully recognized; and James R.
Norris, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and
Sciences, for provision of word processing and for
other professional support.
We are also indebted to the following professional
colleagues: to Erie V. Leichty, Ronald H, Sack, Piotr
1L.
It
ft.
Editorial Preface xi
Steinkeller, and Matthew Stolper, who supported the
publication of the book in various ways; to Erie
Leichty for collating five of the British Museum
tablets that appear in the Appendix and for providing
us with photographs of seal impressions on tablets in
the University Museum* University of Pennsylvania; to
Christopher Walker and the staff of the Department of
Western Asiatic Antiquities for facilita tin g the
collation of tablets in the British Museum; to Terrence
Mitchell* Acting Deputy Keeper of the same Department,
for help in securing photographs from the British
Museum; and to William W. Hallo for his offer of aid in
checking bibliography.
D.B. Weisberg wishes to thank in particular Dr.
Alfred Gottschalk, President of Hebrew Union College*
and William W. Hallo of Yale University. He also
expresses gratitude for their help to Betty Brady*
Miriam November, and Deborah Bram for various kinds of
essential secretarial and editorial assistance and to
Norma Nepomnyaschy for Russian translation assistance.
For help in checking bibliographical material he
particularly wishes to thank Bryan Beyer, David
Gilner, and Ulla Kasten.
The editors and translator owe a debt of thanks to
the International Research and Exchanges Board, which,
although in connection with other projects, made it
possible for them to spend time in the Soviet Union:
David Weisberg in 1974; Marvin Powell and V ictoria
Powell in 1974/75 and 1978; and Victoria Powell in
1983. We are also indebted to the National Endowment
for the Humanities for a grant [RL-20375-83] which
provided crucial assistance toward realization of this
translation.
The greatest debt of author and editors is to the
translator, who had the least to gain professionally
from this project and who has, by accepting months of
extra and unexpected responsibilities at the expense of
her own career, litera lly rescued us from oblivion.
She, in bringing this long task to an end, remembers
xii Slavery in Babylonia
gratefully the role of her departed friend Yuri E.
Borshchevskyf who was likewise a mutual friend of M.A,
Dandamaev and of M.A. Powell.
References to Marx» Engels» and Lenin Titles of
works by these authors are translated from Russian into
English in the body of the text. The references*
however, are to the Russian edition. The interested
reader w ill easily find these in the General Index.
About the Appendix Asterisks in the Appendix
r e fle c t colla tion s made by M.A. Dandamaev, E.V.
Leichty, or M.A. Powell.
About the Indices The text’ indices are arranged
much as they were in the Russian edition. The general
order in the Index of Ancient Sources Cited is
alphabetical, but Babylonian texts come before all
others. In the Index of Documents Translated the first
column with numbers in the form no.1, no.2, etc. refers
to the number of the transliterated text in the
Appendix. The second column refers to the page in the
text where the document in question is translated. For
obvious reasons, the General Index is selective and
exemplary, rather than mindless and exhaustive.
Babylonian Menology and Metrology Repeated
reference is made in the text to Babylonian months and
weights and measures. The general reader unfamiliar
with these may find the following tables with approxi
mate modern equivalents helpful.
