Children, Donkeys and Eponyms at Dūr-Katlimmu

Abstract

Abstract The Middle Assyrian herding texts from Dūr-Katlimmu are brought into a temporal order by following the animals from year to year, with new insights into the management of the herds. The use of percentages is confirmed. Three new joins of published texts are found. Based on the lists of serfs and rations the prosopography and ethnography of the šiluḫlu community is refined. Taken together, this leads to substantial corrections of the eponym sequence under Salmānu-ašarēd (Shalmaneser) I and Tukultī-Ninurta I. The texts show the impact of an epizootic and of three wars, in particular ups and downs in the war against Babylonia. The destruction of the šiluḫlu community under Tukultī-Ninurta I is described and an interpretation for it proposed.