Due to the lack of evidence from the centre of the Mitannian kingdom, we have to reconstruct Hurrian society and economy in the fifteenth century bc from the texts found in the Syrian city of Alalah (level IV), and in Nuzi (Yorghan Tepe), east of the Euphrates (Figure 17.2). In both cities, society was structured in relation to its proximity to the palace. The administrative structure of Alalah is fairly clear. The population
Figure 17.2 Mitannian artefacts: 1—4: seal impressions (from the Kirkuk tablets); 5—8: palace pottery from Alalah.
Was divided into four categories: the maryannu, the military elite of charioteers; the ehele, lower ranking palace functionaries; the hupsu, free farmers; the haniahhu, poorer farmers. For each village, the state administration knew the number of members belonging to each class and the names of the heads of households who had to provide certain services and tributes.
Nuzi society had a similar structure, although its legal documentation is more focused on specific issues and problems. The city of Nuzi was not large. A palace and some private households occupied a large portion of the city. Nuzi was a rural administrative centre. Therefore, in the hierarchic structure of the time, it was a third-class settlement. The city was part of the kingdom of Arrapha (modern Kirkuk), which had a king and a royal palace. In turn, Arrapha depended on the great king of Mitanni. Mitanni/Hanigalbat is mentioned in the Nuzi texts as a distant entity from which messengers and other palace guests arrived, as well as horses, armour and specific types of clothes. However, Nuzi functionaries were rarely required to travel to Mitanni. Similarly, the king of Arrapha is rarely mentioned in the texts. This indicates that the Nuzi archives are fairly local in nature.
The tablets from the palace and the temple area are mainly concerned with the economic issues of the central administration. These were, for instance, the storage and distribution of military equipment (weapons, armour and horses), textile production, and the management of the palace’s lands. Alongside lands belonging to the palace, there were lands allotted to palace functionaries in exchange for their services. However, the majority of lands were generally privately owned by families. Similarly, the majority of sources from Nuzi do not come from the palace archives, but from private archives. These belonged to wealthier citizens, actively involved in the acquisition and management of properties.
The archives concern the whole territory of Nuzi, made of villages grouped into districts (dimtu) and separated by pasturelands and uncultivated areas. Agriculture partly relied on irrigation, but was predominantly rainfed. The Nuzi texts provide considerable information on cultivation, from yields (generally on a ratio of 1:5 to 1:8, with a theoretical 1:10 ratio used in legal clauses) to the shape and dimension of fields (similar to the ones found in Lower Mesopotamia), the various crops cultivated, transhumance and so on. The vast majority of texts, however, are mainly concerned with the legal and economic relations of Nuzi society. The latter had reached a state of advanced disintegration, with an increasing separation of families and lands, labour and ownership. The class of small owners of family lands, generally living in village communities, formed the main part of Nuzi society. This class was experiencing a profound debt crisis. One measure implemented to cope with this debt crisis was interest loans (50 per cent). These were usually stipulated on an annual basis and repaid from the harvests. Another measure was the personal loan (tidennutu), repaid through one’s service (in the form of prolonged slavery, although not for life) or pledging one’s land (Text 17.1a). Failed repayments must have been frequent, since interest loans were already difficult to repay. The third measure was the selling of one’s land. However, the former owners, now disowned, generally tended to stay on their lands as farmers working for the new owners.
World History
