III. SUPPLY OF HORSES
III.2 Horses from ‘tax’
III.2.4 Horses of unknown origin or type of tax
Most of the horse lists, however, do not give us any further information on the source of the horses (whether they are from different types of taxes and dues, were captured during campaign, or were paid as tribute to the Assyrians), only simply register their number and their type. This characteristic of the written evidence makes the reconstruction of the logic, the structure and the volumen of the horse supply for the army very complicated. Since, as has been discussed above, the horses (in such large numbers) were not part of the private economic sphere (only if merchants brought them to the royal court), it can be stated with some confidence that the following corpus belonged to the military.
A distinct group of horse reports consists of shorter or longer notes, mentioning the number of horses and probably the person who had brought them or received them.1050These can be divided into three categories:
1) The first group of tablets consists of short texts, which note a certain number of horses and a single name (Fig. 49). Since the number of horses is large enough to furnish a cavalry or even a chariotry squadron, it seems possible that these texts are not short notes registering the incoming horses and the person who brought or received them, but short muster texts, registering the number of horses of a unit(commander), or a report of the state of the unit, that is, how many horses they possess. Edāiu is unknown from the military corpus, but the other three personnel are well established in the military archives (see Charts 1—16) of the period the fourth tablet identifies.
Šulmubēlilāmur is known as a ‘third man’ from the wittness list of a legal text dated to 684 B.C.1051 Several officers bearing the name Nabûšarruu%ur and serving the army in different positions are known from the corpus.1052There is, however, a certain Nabûšarruu%ur, who served in the army
1047For the detailed discussion of ṣibtu seePOSTGATE1974, 167-173.
1048PARKER1961, 28-31 (ND 2451), 14, 23.
1049PARKER1961, 28-31 (ND 2451), 7, 12.
1050FALES– POSTGATE1995, 107-120. They argued (XXV-XXVI) that these lists are horse reports of incoming horses, brought by palace employees or professional horse traders.
1051Šulmu-bēli-lāmur (IDI-mu-EN-la-mur) tašlīšu(LÚ.3.U5), KWASMAN– PARPOLA1991, 177 (ADD 230), Rev. 3.
1052Two Nabû-šarru-uṣurs are known from the same corpus of administrative texts: one of them is a qurbūtu (LÚ.qur-ZAG), (FALES
– POSTGATE1992, 9 (ADD 860, Rev. I:8), while the other appears in the same list as a ‘cohort commander of the crown prince’
(rab kiṣir mār šarri (A—MAN)), (FALES– POSTGATE1992, 9 (ADD 860, Rev. I:21). The cohort commander Nabû-šarru-uṣur appears in two other texts of the corpus as well: FALES– POSTGATE1992, 5 (ADD 857, Rev. II:9: rab kiṣir mār šarri (A—MAN));
and FALES– POSTGATE1992, 10 (ADD 850, I:8: rab kiṣir. A certain, if not the same Nabû-šarru-uṣur appears in the Rēmanni-Adad archive (671—660 B.C.; DEZSŐ2012A, Chart 2) also as a ‘cohort commander of the crown prince’ (rab kiṣir mār šarri (A—MAN)): KWASMAN– PARPOLA1991, 297 (ADD 266, Rev. 3), 298 (ADD 503, Rev. 9’), 299 (ADD 477, Rev. 5’), 300 (ADD 202, Rev. 8), 325 (ADD 470, Rev. 20’: rab kiṣir ša—šēpē (GÌR.2)ša mār šarri (A—MAN)), 332 (ADD 433+599, Rev. 12’).
as a ‘third man of the queen’ (686 B.C.) and later as a simple ‘third man’ (666 B.C.).1053Sînašarēd of the fourth text dated to 677 B.C. is also known as a ‘chief third man of the crown prince’ and a few years later as ‘third man of the crown prince’.1054It cannot be declared explicitly that these texts belong to an archive of ‘third men,’ who were in charge of horses,1055but the military profile of the archive and the connection with officers is unquestionable.
2) The second group of tablets (Fig. 50) raised similar questions as above. The following possibilities of the interpretation emerge:
a)This group of texts was traditionally conceived as taking stock of horses from diverse shipments. In this case a relatively small number of horses were collected from different personnel as part of a taxation system. In this case the source of the animals is unknown – these persons were horse breeders and possibly paid a tax from the new growth.
b)The other possibility is that these equids arriving from an unknown source were allocated to them for an unknown reason. Were they unit commanders, and were these horses distributed among them to cover the losses is unknown.
c)However, it seems to the present writer that these texts could also be part of a muster series, in which the number of horses in care of different (military) personnel (similarly to the Aššur Protokol) under the command of an officer (Banâia) had to be reported or were reviewed. This idea would be corroborated by the fact that these texts list not only the number of equids, but their type, more characteristically their colour and breed. Furthermore it is interesting to note that a sequence of red, black and irginucoloured horses appear at the hand of almost all of the (military) personnel. It has yet to be deciphered whether this is a coincidence or whether it demonstrates some conscious orginizing principle.
There is a single text which provides further information. The caption of ADD 9891056refers to 200+ horses of the Palace.1057 It is unknown whether these 200+ horses are detailed in the following lines of the tablet, which summarizes only 164 horses altogether in the care of Banâia, or whether this caption refers to another stock.
The most important person of the system was obviously Banâia. It seems that he played a key role, occupied a key position on the top of the local (military) hierarchy. He was in charge of a system which collected horses or allocated horses to various individuals to care for the animals.
This system is based on officials, each of whom got a different number of equids ranging from a few animals (6) to a few dozens of horses (26/34). These personnel were most probably horse
breeders, who provided horses for the army (Palace) as a kind of tax from their studfarm, or took care of the animals outside the campaign season (and did not bring them from somewhere, an unknown place and unknown source).
1053Nabû-šarru-uṣur (IdPA.MAN.PAP) tašlīšu(LÚ.3-šú šaMÍ.É.GAL), KWASMAN– PARPOLA1991, 164 (ADD 612), Rev. 11-12 (686 B.C.; Nabû-šarru-uṣur (IdPA.MAN.PAP) tašlīšu (LÚ.3.U5), MATTILA2002, 2 (ADD 627, Rev. 10’).
1054Sîn-ašarēd (Id30.MAŠ) chief ‘third man’ (tašlīšu) of the crown prince (LÚ.3-šú dan-nu šá DUMU.MAN), KWASMAN– PARPOLA
1991, 317 (ADD 60, Rev. 1, 666 B.C.), ‘third man’ (tašlīšu) of the crown prince (LÚ.3-šú šá DUMU.MAN), KWASMAN– PARPOLA
1991, 320 (ADD 377, Rev. 1’, 664 B.C.), 321 (ADD 439, Rev. 4’, 664 B.C.), 325 (ADD 470, R. 25’, 663 B.C.).
1055For ’third men’ seeDEZSŐ2012B, 102-108.
1056FALES– POSTGATE1995, 116 (ADD 989).
1057Other tetxs also refer to the Palace. PARKER1961, 34 (ND 2491) is a very fragmentary administrative text, a list of horses, which enumerates a large number of horses in groups. The largest shipment consisted of 330 horses. One of the lines of the text (Rev.
4) refers to 34 horses most probably property of the Palace.
Horses from ‘tax’
This group of texts differs characteristically from the previous group. Out of the 24/25 names of the people mentioned in this corpus only a few (4) appear in other military archives.1058These names are, however, so common that no serious conclusion can be drawn from them. There are only two names which are familiar from another military archive: a certain Bēlibnî and ›armaku appear in the Nimrud Horse Lists as cohort commanders of the Arrap‹āia unit (rab ki%ir Arrap‹āia).1059Furthermore, contrary to the previous group of horse reports discussed above, the names of this group do not only show a predominantly Assyrian character, if not the opposite:
the frequent appearance of the theophor element Bēl (4) and the predominance of the Aramaic names hints much more to the direction of Babylonia. If this reconstruction is correct, these texts would provide an insight into one of the aspects of the regional/provincial management system of equids.
3) The third group of administrative texts consists of the horse reports of Nabûšumuiddina and Nādinu, ‘inspectors’ of the Nabû Temple at Calah.1060As Fig. 51shows, large numbers of daily horse shipments arrived to Calah. It is, however, unknown whether the horses arrived to the Nabû Temple, or most plausibly to a stable complex under the authority of the temple (or even to the Review Palace itself). Nabûšumuiddina inspected the horses,1061entered them in a stock list, and after a review had been conducted, sent them on to various destinations (for example to the Palace in Nineveh1062or to the Review Palace).1063The horses sometimes stayed overnight or for a longer period and were provisioned in the place of their review, but it seems that Nabûšumuiddina wanted to deliver them as soon as possible.
Several letters have asked the king: when should he array the horses? Should he array the horses in the evening to stay arrayed overnight, or should he array them in the morning? It seems that the horses were usually arrayed on the next morning.1064Sometimes, however, the horses were arrayed in the evening and they stood arrayed or hitched up overnight to be reviewed in the morning in front of the king. In one of his letters he asked the king as follows:
“When are the horses trained to the yoke to come before the king, my lord? Let the king, my lord, send word so I can be alerted and I can have orders issued for the horses to stay overnight and
1058Mār-Issar (IDUMU.d15) qurbūtu(LÚ.qur-bu-ti) (LANFRANCHI– PARPOLA1990, 104 (ABL 206, 7, Rev. 9), rab kiṣir(FALES– POSTGATE1992, 126 (ADD 1040, 6-7); Bēl-ibnî (IEN.DÙ) rab kiṣir Arrapḫāia (DALLEY– POSTGATE1984A, 108 II:4); Nabû-šarru-uṣur (IdPA.MAN.PAP) rab kiṣir ša—šēpē (GÌR.2)ša mār šarri(KWASMAN– PARPOLA1991, 325 (ADD 470, Rev. 20’), 663 B.C.); qurbūtu (LÚ.qur-ZAG) (FALES– POSTGATE1992, 9 (ADD 860, Rev. I:8); BAD.ḪALqur-ub (FALES– POSTGATE1995, 110 (ADD 700, 2); rab kiṣir mār šarri(FALES– POSTGATE1992, 5 (ADD 857, Rev. II:9), 9 (ADD 860, Rev. I:21), 10 (ADD 850, I:8’); rab kiṣir ša mār šarri (A—MAN)(KWASMAN– PARPOLA1991, 297 (ADD 266, Rev. 3) 671 B.C.), 298 (ADD 503, Rev.
9’), 299 (ADD 477, Rev. 5’), 300 (ADD 202, Rev. 8), 325 (ADD 470, Rev. 20’), 332 (ADD 433+599, Rev. 12’); rab kiṣir (MATTILA
2002, 35 (ADD 349, Rev. 8), 630 B.C.), KWASMAN1988, 129 (ADD 211, Rev. 18 – E. 1);tašlīšu(LÚ.3.U5) (KWASMAN– PARPOLA
1991, 164 (ADD 612, Rev. 11-12), 686 B.C.), MATTILA2002, 2 (ADD 627, R. 10’), 666 B.C. Ubur-Issar (ISUḪUŠ-15) LÚ.GIŠ.GIGIR (FALES– POSTGATE1995, 123 (ADD 852, I:6’)); Ḫarmaku mušarkisu (DALLEY– POSTGATE1984A, 99 (ND.10002), I:12); rab kiṣir Arrapḫāia(DALLEY– POSTGATE1984A, 102 (ND.10019), II:17’); rab kiṣri ša raksūteDELLER– FADHIL1993, 1 Rev. 5.
1059Bēl-ibnî (IEN.DÙ) rab kiṣir Arrapḫāia (DALLEY– POSTGATE1984A, 108 II:4); Ḫarmaku rab kiṣir Arrapḫāia(DALLEY– POSTGATE1984A, 102, II:17’).
1060COLE– MACHINIST1998, 82-123.
1061The reports actually do not contain any references to the state of the horses, but one of them mentions 5 wounded Egyptian horses (COLE– MACHINIST1998, 119 (ABL 1427), 7.).
1062COLE– MACHINIST1998, 97 (ABL 373).
1063COLE– MACHINIST1998, 98 (ABL 375). It is unknown, whether the ‘Palace’ mentioned in COLE– MACHINIST1998, 111 (ABL 575), Rev. 4-5 refers to the royal palace of Nineveh or to the Review Palace of Calah.
1064COLE– MACHINIST1998, 88 (ABL 71), 17-Rev. 11; 95 (ABL 440), 7-Rev. 4; 100 (ABL 545), Rev. 9-12.
be provisioned.”1065 This technique, however, is easily prone to become counterproductive.
Nabûšumuiddina sent a complaining letter to the king, blaming this practice: “I arrayed the horses yesterday. Why must I constantly harass the king’s horses? But if the king, my lord, commands it, I will array the horses (again). What are the written instructions of the king, my lord?”1066
It seems furthermore, that the horses of some units were always on alert and were always hitched up. One of his letters migh refer to such a case: “I will also array the hitchedup Mesean horses, which are kept hitched up at all times.”1067
One of the letters shows, that Nabûšumuiddina was a much more important person than a simple ‘inspector.’ It seems that he had authority over other centres – not only over Calah – and he kept an eye on the horse shipments outside Calah as well. In this letter he wrote to the king that the horses (cavalry mounts) were in Adia, but, if the king commanded they would cross over to Nineveh.1068
As Fig. 51shows, horses arrived to Calah from various, often remote places of the empire.
They came from cities and provinces (Man%uāte, Qarnê, Dâna, Kullania, Arpad, Isana, Damascus, Bar‹alzi, Arrap‹a, DūrŠarukku, Tillê, Ra%appa, Māzamua, Kilizi, Arbela, Meliddu, Si’immê, Dūr
Šarrukēn, Guzana, Calah, Parsua, Aššur, La‹iru, ›ada’il, Šu‹upa, and Ebirnāri), from the high officials and magnates of the empire (turtānu, nāgir ekalli, rab šāqê, turtānu ša šumēli, Treasurer of the Queen, Treasurer of the Queen Mother, governor of Calah, prefects, and the magnates of Bēt
kāri), and interestingly from recruits and chariot horse trainers of unknown territory or unit, and the recruits of the Chief Eunuch. It seems obvious that these territories and officials had yearly(?) horse quotas which had to be sent to the tax collection centres, since some of the texts made a reference of the complete or incomplete status of the shipment,1069or indicates that the shipment had not arrived.1070
The horse collection centre of Calah is known from another text as well. This administrative text lists 2 stallions and 8 mares, altogether 10 horses, having arrived from Mannai on the 22thday of month Tašrītu (VII) to Calah.1071
It also has to be mentioned that other fragmentary texts dealing with horses are known,1072 but their state makes it impossible to use them in the reconstruction of the underlying logic of the imperial horse breeding and supply system.
These horses were probably sent to the royal centres to serve the equestrian units of the kişir šarrūti, the royal corps.1073One of the letters of Nabûšumuiddina mentions that “We will give the first shipment that arrives from the household of the magnates to the cavalry. We will then
1065COLE– MACHINIST1998, 97 (ABL 373), Rev. 5-12.
1066COLE– MACHINIST1998, 92 (ABL 371), Rev. 7-14.
1067COLE– MACHINIST1998, 88 (ABL 71), Rev. 8-11.
1068COLE– MACHINIST1998, 83 (ABL 683).
106931 horses were an incomplete shipment from Arpad (COLE– MACHINIST1998, 86 (ABL 372), Rev. 13); 122 horses (COLE– MACHINIST1998, 88 (ABL 71), 9-11) or in another case 60 horses (COLE– MACHINIST1998, 108 (ABL 393), 7-9) from the Commander-in-Chief was also an incomplete shipment; A further incomplete shipment of 27 horses arrived from Calah (COLE
– MACHINIST1998, 109 (ABL 394), Rev. 1-3); On the other hand 79 horses from the Commander-in-Chief, the Palace Herald, and from Arrapḫa was a complete shipment (COLE– MACHINIST1998, 103 (ABL 682), 8-Rev. 4).
1070COLE– MACHINIST1998, 102 (ABL 67), Rev. 6: the horses from Ebir-nāri have not yet arrived; 122 (ABL 1159), Rev. 3-4: 16 horses have not arrived.
1071PARKER1961, 44 (ND 2699): (1) 2 ANŠE.KUR.MEŠ NÍTA, (2) 8 SAL.ANŠE.KUR.MEŠ, (3) PAB 10 ANŠE.KUR.MEŠ, (4) KUR.Man-na-[a]-a, (5) ITU.DU6(tašrītu/VII) U422-kám, (6) inaURU.Kal-ḫi.
1072WISEMAN– KINNIERWILSON1951, 106 (ND 405).
1073DEZSŐ2012B, passim.
Horses from ‘tax’
wait for the rest of the shipment.”1074 This shipment provided horses for 50 cavalrymen (a platoon), who (together with their households) were equipped by Nabûšumuiddina with millstones, household utensils, and pigs. This letter indicates that Nabûšumuiddina was not only an inspector of horses, but was in charge of the complete supply of (equestrian) units.1075There is another text, which lists 34 horses along with other equids (3 mules and 8 asses) and 2 oxen subdivided according to their owners,1076which seems as if they belonged to similar households, where the horse breeder/trainer got other animals used for domestic actvities.
It was probably a heavy burden for the contributing magnates and governors, since they had to equip their own equestrian units as well. Furthermore, as has been mentioned above, such a long march – as for example from Kullania to Calah – could easily cause heavy losses in the ranks of the horses – which would have been one of the causes of the incomplete status of the shipment.
These letters list a huge number of incoming horses. Nabûšumuiddina reviewed at least 995 Kushite horses, 173 Mesean horses, 1,400 horses of the yoke (without a specification of their stock), 1,086 cavalry mounts, 151 mules, altogether more than 3,995 horses and mules. Unfortunately the period which they covered is unknown, but they probably fall within a year. The number of chariot horses is 2,568. It means that the chariotry existed in large numbers in this period as well – even if the palace reliefs of the Ninevite palaces do not support this idea. However, it is not known whether these horses “trained to the yoke” were used only military, or other pruposes as well.
As Cole and Machinist have already raised the question, the possibility to postulate the existence of a unit of Nabû,1077or other deities1078is tempting, but the huge number of horses (enough for a complete equestrian division)1079does not make the impression that these horses were of cultic importance. Only a few entries refer to teams of deities, for example to the teams of Aššur.1080Another text mentions a team of black horses charged to the people of Calah,1081 which might easily have been a team designated to serve a deity.