SOME COMMENTS ON THE EBABBARA IN THE NEO-BABYLONIAN PERIOD.

• Author: MACGINNIS, JOHN

The volume under review presents a detailed reconstruction of the administration of the Neo-Babylonian [check{S}]ama[check{s}] temple at Sippar, focusing on the senior officials, the prebendaries, and the craftsmen. There are many new insights, particularly as regards the functionings of the prebendary system.

THE WORK UNDER REVIEW REPRESENTS a landmark in Neo-Babylonian studies. It is based on the vast archives of the Ebabbara (the great majority of which are now to be found in the British Museum) and as such joins the renaissance of Neo-Babylonian Sippar alongside M. Jursa's Die Landwirtschaft in Sippar in neubabylonischer Zeit (Vienna: Institut f[ddot{u}]r Orientalistik, 1995) and the reviewer's own Letter Orders and the Administration of the Ebabbara in the Late Babylonian Period (Poznan: Bonami, 1995), as well as numerous articles by S. Zawadzki, G. van Driel, M. A. Dandamayev, and M. Weszeli. Other work in progress includes the dissertations being prepared by C. Waerzeggers in Gent on the archive of Marduk-r[bar{e}]manni and by R. Da-Riva in Erlangen on the earlier material (up into the reign of Nebuchadnezzar). Somewhere between five and six thousand of these texts have now been published and many hundreds more are available in unpublished copies. It is clear that Bongenaar has personally seen many more doc uments and, in addition to innumerable citations of unpublished material, he gives copies of six new texts and editions of others from the copies by Bertin held by the British Museum. The work surveys many categories of temple personnel in impressive detail, concluding each section with exhaustive prosopographical listings. [1]

Chapter one is an introduction outlining the history of the excavation and publication of the texts and deals with the aims and methodology of the work. Chapter two deals with the officials of the Ebabbara. In addition to the [check{s}]ang[hat{u}], g[bar{i}]pu, scribes (up to six at a time), [check{s}]a r[bar{e}][check{s}] [check{s}]arri, and sep[bar{i}]ru, Bongenaar counts the rab quppi (or [check{s}]a muhhi quppi) and the ahu rab[hat{u}] among the senior officials. The activities of the [check{s}]ang[hat{u}] are divided into cultic duties, judicial and administrative tasks, and private business. Bongennar makes a strong case that holding an [bar{e}]rib b[bar{i}]ti prebend was a prerequisite for filling the post of [check{s}]ang[hat{u}] (pp. 148-49). I had elsewhere argued that the [check{s}]ang[hat{u}] was a primus inter pares among the scribes; it now appears that this is not substantiated by the prosopographical data (p. 12, n. 27), i.e., that the [check{s}]ang[hat{u}] was not chosen from the ranks of th e scribes, though on a functional level the original statement holds true. Note also that Dandamayev has argued that the [check{s}]ang[hat{u}] was the effective governor of Sippar (review of Jursa, Landwirtschaft, Orientalia 66 [1997]: 203).

A few additions may be made to the prosopography of the office:

[check{S}]ama[check{s}]-z[bar{e}]r-uk[bar{i}]n [2] Nbk 20/12/31 BM 72789 rev. 3'-4'

[check{S}]ama[check{s}]-z[bar{e}]r-uk[bar{i}]n Nbk 18/1/32 BM 61618 obv.2-3

[Mu[check{s}]allim]-Marduk Nbk 20/6/33 BM 66554 rev.2

Mu[check{s}]allim-Marduk Nbk 11/6/34 BM 79578 rev.1-2

Mu[check{s}]allim-Marduk Ner -/8/3 BM 63239 obv.3-4

The next senior office was that of q[bar{i}]pu. There is little doubt that the q[bar{i}]pu was a royal appointee--many of the names of q[bar{i}]pus were compounded in [check{s}]arru (p. 34) and he could receive orders directly from the king. We learn a lot about the involvement of the q[bar{i}]pu in economic affairs of the temple; but contrary to the [check{s}]ang[hat{u}]'s case, texts from Sippar do not inform us about the private business of the q[bar{i}]pu. The q[bar{i}]pu paid an annual audience gift (nawu[check{s}]tu) to the temple of five sheep, one cow, and two lambs (p. 40). The q[bar{i}]pu had a gang of fifty laborers under his direction and he was in day-to-day charge of the temple oblates ([check{s}]irk[bar{u}]) with their chief overseer (the rab [check{s}]irk[bar{e}]) and sectional supervisors (rab e[check{s}]irti). [3] Prosopographical data show that on occasions there were more than one rab [check{s}]irk[bar{e}] and that a rab e[check{s}]irti--lit., "leader of ten"--might in fact have up to thi rteen men under his charge. [4] Initially, starting in Nebuchadnezzar year 33, the q[bar{i}]pu had two Aramaic scribes (sep[bar{i}]ru) under him, but in Cambyses year 6 an important administrative reorganization took place with the functions transferred to the main temple staff and with the number reduced to one (p. 46). [5]

Bongenaar is not of the opinion that Neriglissar was a q[bar{i}]pu of the Ebabbara. The central text on this issue is BM 55920. The text was first referred to in print by D. Wiseman, who read the name of the q[bar{i}]pu Neriglissar ([[blank].sup.md]U.GUR-LUGAL-[check{S}]E[check{S}]) (Chronicles of Chaldean Kings [London: British Museum, 1956], 38, n.10). After the publication of the text as CT 55 673 Zawadzki proposed a reading [[blank].sup.md]U.GUR-LUGAL-[bul.sup.!]-[less than]lit[greater than], guided to that reading by the fact that a q[bar{i}]pu named Nergal-[check{s}]ar-bullit is well known in the early years of Nabonidus. When I collated the text I was happy to find that Wiseman's original reading was correct (MacGinnis, "Neriglissar, q[bar{i}]pu of the Ebabbara," NABU, 1994/33: 31-32). Bongenaar however, who also collated the text, disputes this revived reading (p. 47). All I can say is that after collating the text once more I am still happy that the tablet has...