Kültepe'de 1992'de bulunan Su-İ?tar arşivi
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Date
2012
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Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü
Abstract
The present thesis contains a study of the arhive of ?u-İ?tar found in the 1992 excavation season at Kültepe. The study divided into two parts, which includes a detailed analysis of a total of 649 pieces of written documents from that archive. The study opens up with an introduction to the family of ?u-İ?tar in its all aspects in chapter 1. First it offers an interpretation of the archeological data of the 1992 excavation, looking at findspots of the tablets and which trader they belong to. It continues with a chronological analysis of the archive and the types of texts it contains. This analyses shows who were the members of ?u-I?tar?s family and presents the information about these people attained from the tablets. It also discusses the trading activities of the family company, including commercial relationships, established partnerships and traded commodities.The second part of the study analyses 175 texts that we can be sure belonged to ?u-I?tar?s family, some of which are in bad conditions, but give important informations about the family. Finally, it presents photographs of over 20 texts which are considered particularly important.As seen from the recorded eponyms in the tablets, the archive of ?u-I?tar covers a period of at least 56 years between Middle Cronology 1894-1838 B.C. The information obtained from the archive enables us to draw a detailed family tree of the relations of ?u-I?tar. Thus, ?u-I?tar?s father was A??ur-b?ni. He had at least three brothers named A??ur-malik, ?u-Su?en and Luzina, and five sons named A??ur-imitt?, Ili-imitt?, Kurub-I?tar, A??ur-b?ni, and A?a?uwa. Apart from these men, we can identify a number of people as being ?u-I?tar?s nephews and grandsons, who appear many times in the texts. Actually, it can be said that these people were more engaged in ?u-İ?tar?s commercial busieness than his brothers and sons. ?u-I?tar?s wife was Had?tum, who lived in Assur with their daughter ?imat-I?tar, and the Anatolian woman Azu, who lived with ?u-I?tar in Kani? was his second wife.It can be assumed that ?u-I?tar?s firm was a prominent trading actor in its era. The family firm mostly traded tin and textiles in Anatolia brought from Assur. According to suplied information form the archive, at least 56 biltus, 30 minas and 5 ?eqels (± 1 ton 690 kg.) tin and 1695 textıle were exported to Anatolia. On the other hand, at least 11 minas 54 ?eqels (± 6 kg.) gold and 269 minas, 27 ?eqels (± 135 kg.) silver were brought back to Assur. It is also seen that the family played an active role in the copper that inside Anatolia. The sum of copper recorded in the archive is 25 tons. Apart from these goods, ?u-I?tar also engaged in the am?tum/a?ium trade.There are also some records about commercial partnerships, such as be?ul?tum, ebu??um, and naruqqum, established by some of the family members with other traders. It is clear that ?u-I?tar maintained at least one naruqqum-partnership. We learn from both the archive itself, and from other Kültepe texts, that he was not able to repay his debts to some of his creditors who invested money in his naruqqum. Because these debts were inherited by his sons, especially A??ur-imitt? and A??ur-b?ni suffered great economic loss to satisfy the sons of ?u-İ?tars creditors.After the death of ?u-I?tar, his oldest son, A??ur-imitt?, took over the house and its archive from the father. We know about him that he was a priest of the god Sin, and lived in the house until the end of the Kani? lower town level II, i.e. over 20 years. Nevertheless, compared to the number of tablets related to his father?s activities, very few texts remain from A??ur-imitt?. Most of them are correspondence and judicial records related to his father?s unpaid debts.
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Kültepe, Su-İ?tar arşivi