WP10: Documents as tools of domination and manipulation

Description

Eanna was subject to economic and administrative pressure from the state, to which it responded i.a. by shifting part of the burden downward, onto its own subordinates and collaborators. Bureaucratic procedures and documents were employed in this context as tools of domination and manipulation. The state interfered in the temple accounting practice, among others by introducing new tablet formats (Pirngruber 2021), and it kept the right to inspect texts of the Archive. On its end, Eanna sought access to documents of its dependents but at the same time enforced data collection in its own registers. Both institutions – the palace and temple – had to cope with forgeries, creative accounting, legal fiction, and even difficulties when serving documents. At the current state of research, evidence for the enforcement (or lack thereof) of obligations that were in the books is inconsistent, especially in agriculture and animal husbandry. Pertinentent evidence will be investigated in the Dossiers of legal documents for pertinent evidence; in particular, WP10 will try to elucidate further the impact of (shifting) accounting and administration practices and hierarchies on Eanna’s dependants. In the same vein, a study will be conducted regarding what evidence there is in Eanna Letter Corpus for different forms of coercion.

WP-Lead

Warsaw

Tablets