Four 7th-Century BCE Neo-Assyrian Slave Sale Records from Marqasi (Kahramanmaraş) in the Erimtan Museum (Ankara) and Elsewhere

Abstract

The city of Kahramanmaraş, in southeastern Turkey (ancient Marqasi), was the capital of the Luwian kingdom of Gurgum, annexed by Šarru-ukīn (Sargon) II to the Assyrian empire in 711 BCE. Four tablets stemming from diggings at the city fortress and its environs are presented here: two of them were previously published in Gökçek 2005, the other two were previously unpublished. Three of them are kept at the newly established Erimtan Museum of Archaeology and Art (Ankara). The tablets record slave sales, and are dated to the reign of Aššur-bāni-apli (Ashurbanipal) (r. 668-c. 630 BCE) and, perhaps, the reign of Aššur-aḫḫe-iddina (Esarhaddon) (r. 681-669 BCE). The texts contain a number of previously unattested personal names, some of them of clear Luwian extraction. In addition, they attest to the existence of a sanctuary to the god Nergal (perhaps identified with the Luwian god Runtiya) in Marqasi.Keywords: Neo-Assyrian, slave sale, Marqasi, KahramanmaraşThe purpose of this article is, firstly, to present three Neo-Assyrian sale records from the collection of the newly established Erimtan Museum of Archaeology and Art (Ankara), one of which is published for the first time.1 The tablets are reported to come from uncontrolled excavations at the fortress of Kahramanmaraş (or Maraş, ancient Marqasi), and this provenience is confirmed by the contents of one of the tablets.2 The majority of tablets from those excavations (thirty-six) are now kept at the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations (Ankara); ten tablets are in the Kahramanmaraş Museum, three in the Erimtan Museum (published here), and two tablets are from a private collection accessioned by the Gaziantep Museum (published by Jiménez / Fıstıkçı / Adalı 2015). 3 Other tablets have turned up in small private collections in Turkey and elsewhere.One such text was available for purchase on the art market already in 1998. In addition to the three contracts from the Erimtan Museum, this article presents this tablet in an edition by K. Radner, based on photographs made available to her in 1998. Its close connection with one of the Erimtam Museum texts (Marqasi 2) demonstrates that tablets from uncontrolled excavations at the Kahramanmaraş fortress were already in circulation some twenty years ago. Jiménez is responsible for the introduction and editions of