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Kārum "quay, port, commercial district" in Anatolia. The gloss signifies a trade-post. This note analyses the hieroglyphs on select seal impressions affixed on clay envelopes together with cuneiform texts/documents in Anatolian. Many hieroglyphs have features and characteristics of Indus Script cipher and denote not merely 'gods' such as bull-god but signify metalwork transactions such as tin and metal alloys. The inference is that early Sumerian-Mesopotamian practices of using Indus Script hierolgyphs continued in the Assyrian period of trade transactions at kārum of Kanesh, Kultepe and other kārum of Burushattim or Zalpa in Ancient Near East.
kārum 'trade-post' (Anatolian) is relatable semantically to 'metal trade': Kho. kórum (obl.pl. kormān BKhoT 69) ʻ work ʼ, WPah.kṭg. kammuɔ ʻ busy ʼ Gy. pal. kam ʻwork, esp. smith's workʼ (CDIAL 2892).Si. (SigGr) kamuṇa ʻ artisan ʼ(CDIAL 2893) Or. kamāra ʻ blacksmith' (CDIAL 2898) kamar id. (Santali)
Following the doctoral dissertation on 'A study of Anatolian weather-gods of the Old Assyrian colony period' (Bryn Mawr College, 1984), Nancy Leinwand presents a set of seal impressions of Level II at Kanesh, Kultepe analysing their styles and iconography.
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"...it is possible to trace sources and cultural afinities in the visual record. Using visual analysis, aided by textual evidence, we can attempt to recognize the regional or urban origin for glyptic styles and iconographical features...In the years around 1900 BCE traders from the city of Assur moved into central Anatolia to carry on their far-flung enterprise. While there are traces of previous Mesopotamian relations with Anatolia from the Akkadian and Ur III periods, and reflections of contact in the archaeological record even earlier, the nature and extent of the Old Assyrian contacts were new. The traders settled amicablyh in areas adjacent to major Anatolian centers. They lived in traditional houses and used indigenous pottery. They traded local raw materials, especially wool, and silver, in exchange for imported goods, tin, and textiles. A system of trading centers of varying size and importance was spread across Anatolia. Excavation has uncovered the remains of some of the trading stations, notably at Alisar Hoyuk, Bogazkoy, Kultepe, and Acernhoyuk...Cuneiform documents. Kultepe was the Anatolian hub of trade. It is a large burned site that preserved houses with the archives of both Assyrian traders and native inhabitants in the kārum, or trading district, outside the citadel of the local ruler. The traders and their associates kept elaborate records of their business transactions. Such texts have been collected in large numbers. A significant sample has been studied. The texts are written in Old Akkadian dialect of Akkadian, in a restricted and technical idiom, but are generally well understood. The documents typically consist of a tablet inscribed with a message, contract, or business record. The tablet was wrapped in a clay envelope (fig. 1). The original text was then inscribed on the envelope in full or in short. In the case of a letter, only a brief address was written on the outside. The envelope was sealed with the seals of the witnesses and sometimes of the parties to the transaction. Letters were sealed with the seal of the sender. To our present knowledge, these two practices, the cuneiform writing of Akkadian language, and the use of cylinder seals, were not employed in Anatolia before the advent of the Assyrian trade. From the texts we discover local individuals involved in business transactions with Assyrians -- their names, their activities, their (generally lesser) rank -- in the Assyrian business world. We learn of the system of mutual interest and exchange that governed relations between the Old Assyrian traders and the local potentates. We gain a secure chronological sequence and fixed dates. Native style seals. The local adoption of cuneiform script, and the development of an indigenous craft of cylinder seal carving provide a window onto Anatolian artistic and cultural traditions of the time, which are apparently not otherwise preserved. The locally carved cylinder seals reveal artistic styles and imagery that are unknown in the earlier Anatolian record. The art of the seals, however, is not an experimental or new art. Even as we first see it, the native glyptic offers complex, highly evolved and consistent representations of deities and motifs, and well-established conventions for composition and ornament. The iconography shows a long familiarity with Mesopotamian art as well as the local imagery. Some of the details of the figures, such as the horned crown, and certain attributes, subsidiary figures, and the introduction scene, are borrowed from the Mesopotamian glyptic. Other figures such as the god in the form of the bull, several of the figures standing on animals, the animal fill ornament, and striated carving style, are foreign to the Mesopotamian and Assyrian repertoire...Linguists have reconstructed the pre-Hittite linguistic map of Anatolia...The distribution of several related Indo-European languages can also be traced on the map; for example, we place the Luwian-speaking population in the South and Southeast and other groups in the North and West...Individuals bearing names in the pre-Indo-European Hattian language are also present in smaller numbers; and there are a few names with foreign linguistic origins, such as West Semitic and Hurrian...it is clear that there was already an ethnic and linguistic mixture to the population that we customarily call native Anatolian. Some of the individuals whose names we know may have been visitors or traders from the distant regions of Anatolia or abroad. It is likely that the blending and moving of the population and languages had begun earlier, and that the population of Kanesh was mixed at the time of the Colonial establishments...Using information derived from the texts associated with the seal impressions, we may further the analysis of both style and iconography to gain confirmation of the stylistic classification, and greater understanding of the origins and meaning of the iconography. In particular we may determine the ethnic and linguistic affiliation of the seal owner/user; where he resided at a given time; and when he came from originally. The possible geographical origins of the individuals appearing in the documents from Kanesh may be summarised as follows. There are Assyrians from the city of Assur living in Kanesh. There are also a number of Assyrians represented in the correspondence who remained in the city of Assur, or dwelt in the other trading centers in Anatolia or north Syria. There are other foreigners participating in the trade, and residing in the colonies...We also know that Assyrian businessmen travelled regularly between Kanesh and Assur. Some were stationed in the trading outposts through Anatolia and moved freely between them...there are a number of sealed documents, uncovered at Kultepe, that actually originated in the city of Assur or another colonial center such as Burushattim or Zalpa. The texts themselves usually record the witnesses and parties to the transaction that sealed the document. For example, the text will read, 'Before Enum-Assur, son of Haba, before Tibula,' and so on, listing five or six names. " (Nancy Leinwand, 1992, Regional characteristics in the styles and iconography of the seal impressions of Level II at Kultepe, in: JANES 21 (1992), pp.141-172.) https://www.jtsa.edu/Documents/pagedocs/JANES/1992%2021/Leinwand21.pdf
Identifying the bull hieroglyph as a reference to a blacksmith
Nancy Leinwand identifies bull hieroglyph as 'bullgod', referring to various figures of the weathergods and 'original' of the native repertoire is the god in the form of a bull. A possibility is that the early Sumerian/Mesopotamian bull hieroglyph signified a metalsmith.
Hieroglyph: barad, balad 'bull'9176 balivárda (balīv° ŚBr.) m. ʻ ox, bull ʼ TBr., balivanda- m. Kāṭh., barivarda -- m. lex. [Poss. a cmpd. of balín -- (cf. *balilla -- ) and a non -- Aryan word for ʻ ox ʼ (cf. esp. Nahālī baddī and poss. IA. forms like Sik. pāḍō ʻ bull < *pāḍḍa -- : EWA ii 419 with lit.)]
Pa. balivadda -- m. ʻ ox ʼ, Pk. balĭ̄vadda -- , balidda -- , baladda -- m. (cf. balaya -- m. < *balaka -- ?); L. baledā, mult. baled m. ʻ herd of bullocks ʼ (→ S. ḇaledo m.); P. bald, baldh, balhd m. ʻ ox ʼ, baled, baledā m. ʻ herd of oxen ʼ, ludh. bahld, balēd m. ʻ ox ʼ; Ku. balad m. ʻ ox ʼ, gng. bald, N. (Tarai) barad, A. balad(h), B. balad, Or. baḷada, Bi. barad(h), Mth. barad (hyper -- hindiism baṛad), Bhoj. baradh, Aw.lakh. bardhu, H. balad, barad(h), bardhā m. (whence baladnā ʻ to bull a cow ʼ), G. baḷad m. Addenda: balivárda -- [Cf. Ap. valivaṇḍa -- ʻ mighty ʼ, OP. balavaṇḍā]: WPah.kc. bɔḷəd m., kṭg. bɔḷd m. (LNH 30 bŏḷd), J. bald m., Garh. baḷda ʻ bullock ʼ.(CDIAL 9176) balivardin m. ʻ *oxherd ʼ (nom. prop. Kāś.). [bali- várda -- ] P. baledī m. ʻ oxherd ʼ; Ku. baldiyā ʻ cattle -- dealer ʼ; H. baredī m. ʻ herdsman ʼ(CDIAL 9177)
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After Fig. 2. Seal impression with bull. Ozguc, Nimet. The Anatolian Group of Cylinder Seal impressions from Kultepe (Ankara, 1965), number 40.
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After Fig. 3. Seal impressions with Assyrian style bull (seal D). Hrozny, Bedrich. Inscriptions cuneiformes de Kultepe 1 (Prague, 1952), text 38a.
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After Fig. 4. Text with seal impressions illustrating bull iconography, Munich 1971, 1911 Hronxa, Barreld, 'Zu vier Abrollungen auf einer kappadokischen Tontafe', Orientalia 52 (1983), plates 1,2.
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After Fig. 5. Text with seal impressions illustrating bull iconography. Hrozny, Bedrich. Inscriptions cuneiformes de Kultepe 1 (Prague 1952), text 24a. "The seal impressions include two rough natives, one stamp, and one cylinder, and a second cylinder with bullgod iconography in Old Assyrian style, inscribed with the name Idi-Sin."
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After Fig. 6. Bull standard from Alaca Hoyuk. Akurgal, Ekrem. Die Kunst der Hethiter (Munich, 1976), figure 5."The bull is one of the most important animals in the imagery of the metal standards and sistra from the north central region of third millennium Anatolia (fig.6). The stag and lion are also important, but the bull occurs most frequently and is the most embellished."(p.150)
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After Fig. 8a. Stone wall relief from Alaca Hoyuk showing main god. Akurgal, Ekrem. Die Kunst der Hethiter (Munich, 1976), figure 92.
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Kārum "quay, port, commercial district" in Anatolia. The gloss signifies a trade-post. This note analyses the hieroglyphs on select seal impressions affixed on clay envelopes together with cuneiform texts/documents in Anatolian. Many hieroglyphs have features and characteristics of Indus Script cipher and denote not merely 'gods' such as bull-god but signify metalwork transactions such as tin and metal alloys. The inference is that early Sumerian-Mesopotamian practices of using Indus Script hierolgyphs continued in the Assyrian period of trade transactions at kārum of Kanesh, Kultepe and other kārum of Burushattim or Zalpa in Ancient Near East.
kārum 'trade-post' (Anatolian) is relatable semantically to 'metal trade': Kho. kórum (obl.pl. kormān BKhoT 69) ʻ work ʼ, WPah.kṭg. kammuɔ ʻ busy ʼ Gy. pal. kam ʻwork, esp. smith's workʼ (CDIAL 2892).Si. (SigGr) kamuṇa ʻ artisan ʼ(CDIAL 2893) Or. kamāra ʻ blacksmith' (CDIAL 2898) kamar id. (Santali)
Following the doctoral dissertation on 'A study of Anatolian weather-gods of the Old Assyrian colony period' (Bryn Mawr College, 1984), Nancy Leinwand presents a set of seal impressions of Level II at Kanesh, Kultepe analysing their styles and iconography.
Typical tablet and envelope from Kultepe. Akurgal, Ekrem. Die Kunst der Hethiter (Munich, 1976), figure 24.(After Fig. 1 in Nancy Leinwand (1992)
The hieroglyph-multiplex identifying the seated trader is: crucible + sun's rays: OP. koṭhārī f. ʻ crucible ʼ(Old Punjabi) Rebus: koṭhārī 'storekeeper, fortification'(CDIAL 3546) arka 'sun' Rebus: arka, eraka 'gold, copper, moltencast' (Tulu.Kannada)
"...it is possible to trace sources and cultural afinities in the visual record. Using visual analysis, aided by textual evidence, we can attempt to recognize the regional or urban origin for glyptic styles and iconographical features...In the years around 1900 BCE traders from the city of Assur moved into central Anatolia to carry on their far-flung enterprise. While there are traces of previous Mesopotamian relations with Anatolia from the Akkadian and Ur III periods, and reflections of contact in the archaeological record even earlier, the nature and extent of the Old Assyrian contacts were new. The traders settled amicablyh in areas adjacent to major Anatolian centers. They lived in traditional houses and used indigenous pottery. They traded local raw materials, especially wool, and silver, in exchange for imported goods, tin, and textiles. A system of trading centers of varying size and importance was spread across Anatolia. Excavation has uncovered the remains of some of the trading stations, notably at Alisar Hoyuk, Bogazkoy, Kultepe, and Acernhoyuk...Cuneiform documents. Kultepe was the Anatolian hub of trade. It is a large burned site that preserved houses with the archives of both Assyrian traders and native inhabitants in the kārum, or trading district, outside the citadel of the local ruler. The traders and their associates kept elaborate records of their business transactions. Such texts have been collected in large numbers. A significant sample has been studied. The texts are written in Old Akkadian dialect of Akkadian, in a restricted and technical idiom, but are generally well understood. The documents typically consist of a tablet inscribed with a message, contract, or business record. The tablet was wrapped in a clay envelope (fig. 1). The original text was then inscribed on the envelope in full or in short. In the case of a letter, only a brief address was written on the outside. The envelope was sealed with the seals of the witnesses and sometimes of the parties to the transaction. Letters were sealed with the seal of the sender. To our present knowledge, these two practices, the cuneiform writing of Akkadian language, and the use of cylinder seals, were not employed in Anatolia before the advent of the Assyrian trade. From the texts we discover local individuals involved in business transactions with Assyrians -- their names, their activities, their (generally lesser) rank -- in the Assyrian business world. We learn of the system of mutual interest and exchange that governed relations between the Old Assyrian traders and the local potentates. We gain a secure chronological sequence and fixed dates. Native style seals. The local adoption of cuneiform script, and the development of an indigenous craft of cylinder seal carving provide a window onto Anatolian artistic and cultural traditions of the time, which are apparently not otherwise preserved. The locally carved cylinder seals reveal artistic styles and imagery that are unknown in the earlier Anatolian record. The art of the seals, however, is not an experimental or new art. Even as we first see it, the native glyptic offers complex, highly evolved and consistent representations of deities and motifs, and well-established conventions for composition and ornament. The iconography shows a long familiarity with Mesopotamian art as well as the local imagery. Some of the details of the figures, such as the horned crown, and certain attributes, subsidiary figures, and the introduction scene, are borrowed from the Mesopotamian glyptic. Other figures such as the god in the form of the bull, several of the figures standing on animals, the animal fill ornament, and striated carving style, are foreign to the Mesopotamian and Assyrian repertoire...Linguists have reconstructed the pre-Hittite linguistic map of Anatolia...The distribution of several related Indo-European languages can also be traced on the map; for example, we place the Luwian-speaking population in the South and Southeast and other groups in the North and West...Individuals bearing names in the pre-Indo-European Hattian language are also present in smaller numbers; and there are a few names with foreign linguistic origins, such as West Semitic and Hurrian...it is clear that there was already an ethnic and linguistic mixture to the population that we customarily call native Anatolian. Some of the individuals whose names we know may have been visitors or traders from the distant regions of Anatolia or abroad. It is likely that the blending and moving of the population and languages had begun earlier, and that the population of Kanesh was mixed at the time of the Colonial establishments...Using information derived from the texts associated with the seal impressions, we may further the analysis of both style and iconography to gain confirmation of the stylistic classification, and greater understanding of the origins and meaning of the iconography. In particular we may determine the ethnic and linguistic affiliation of the seal owner/user; where he resided at a given time; and when he came from originally. The possible geographical origins of the individuals appearing in the documents from Kanesh may be summarised as follows. There are Assyrians from the city of Assur living in Kanesh. There are also a number of Assyrians represented in the correspondence who remained in the city of Assur, or dwelt in the other trading centers in Anatolia or north Syria. There are other foreigners participating in the trade, and residing in the colonies...We also know that Assyrian businessmen travelled regularly between Kanesh and Assur. Some were stationed in the trading outposts through Anatolia and moved freely between them...there are a number of sealed documents, uncovered at Kultepe, that actually originated in the city of Assur or another colonial center such as Burushattim or Zalpa. The texts themselves usually record the witnesses and parties to the transaction that sealed the document. For example, the text will read, 'Before Enum-Assur, son of Haba, before Tibula,' and so on, listing five or six names. " (Nancy Leinwand, 1992, Regional characteristics in the styles and iconography of the seal impressions of Level II at Kultepe, in: JANES 21 (1992), pp.141-172.) https://www.jtsa.edu/Documents/pagedocs/JANES/1992%2021/Leinwand21.pdf
Identifying the bull hieroglyph as a reference to a blacksmith
Nancy Leinwand identifies bull hieroglyph as 'bullgod', referring to various figures of the weathergods and 'original' of the native repertoire is the god in the form of a bull. A possibility is that the early Sumerian/Mesopotamian bull hieroglyph signified a metalsmith.
Hieroglyph: barad, balad 'bull'
Pa. balivadda -- m. ʻ ox ʼ, Pk. balĭ̄vadda -- , balidda -- , baladda -- m. (cf. balaya -- m. < *balaka -- ?); L. baledā, mult. baled m. ʻ herd of bullocks ʼ (→ S. ḇaledo m.); P. bald, baldh, balhd m. ʻ ox ʼ, baled, baledā m. ʻ herd of oxen ʼ, ludh. bahld, balēd m. ʻ ox ʼ; Ku. balad m. ʻ ox ʼ, gng. bald, N. (Tarai) barad, A. balad(h), B. balad, Or. baḷada, Bi. barad(h), Mth. barad (hyper -- hindiism baṛad), Bhoj. baradh, Aw.lakh. bardhu, H. balad, barad(h), bardhā m. (whence baladnā ʻ to bull a cow ʼ), G. baḷad m. Addenda: balivárda -- [Cf. Ap. valivaṇḍa -- ʻ mighty ʼ, OP. balavaṇḍā]: WPah.kc. bɔḷəd m., kṭg. bɔḷd m. (LNH 30 bŏḷd), J. bald m., Garh. baḷda ʻ bullock ʼ.(CDIAL 9176) balivardin m. ʻ *oxherd ʼ (nom. prop. Kāś.). [
Rebus: bharata, 'copper, pewter, tin alloy': भरत (p. 603) [ bharata ] n A factitious metal compounded of copper, pewter, tin &c.भरताचें भांडें (p. 603) [ bharatācē mbhāṇḍēṃ ] n A vessel made of the metal भरत . 2 See भरिताचें भांडें .(Marathi. Molesworth) L. bhāraṇ ʻ to spread or bring out from a kiln ʼ(CDIAL 9463)
After Fig. 2. Seal impression with bull. Ozguc, Nimet. The Anatolian Group of Cylinder Seal impressions from Kultepe (Ankara, 1965), number 40.
After Fig. 3. Seal impressions with Assyrian style bull (seal D). Hrozny, Bedrich. Inscriptions cuneiformes de Kultepe 1 (Prague, 1952), text 38a.
After Fig. 4. Text with seal impressions illustrating bull iconography, Munich 1971, 1911 Hronxa, Barreld, 'Zu vier Abrollungen auf einer kappadokischen Tontafe', Orientalia 52 (1983), plates 1,2.
After Fig. 5. Text with seal impressions illustrating bull iconography. Hrozny, Bedrich. Inscriptions cuneiformes de Kultepe 1 (Prague 1952), text 24a. "The seal impressions include two rough natives, one stamp, and one cylinder, and a second cylinder with bullgod iconography in Old Assyrian style, inscribed with the name Idi-Sin."
After Fig. 6. Bull standard from Alaca Hoyuk. Akurgal, Ekrem. Die Kunst der Hethiter (Munich, 1976), figure 5."The bull is one of the most important animals in the imagery of the metal standards and sistra from the north central region of third millennium Anatolia (fig.6). The stag and lion are also important, but the bull occurs most frequently and is the most embellished."(p.150)
After Fig. 8a. Stone wall relief from Alaca Hoyuk showing main god. Akurgal, Ekrem. Die Kunst der Hethiter (Munich, 1976), figure 92.
After Fig. 10. Seal impression showing native deityh standing on lion-dragon hybrid. Ozguc Nimet The Anatolian Group of Cylinder Seal impressions from Kultpe (Ankara, 1965) number 11.
Hieroglyphs: lion, antelope, overflowing water, bird, lightning
ara 'lion' Rebus: arA 'brass' ranku 'antelope' Rebus: ranku 'tin'
lo kanda 'pot overflowing' Rebus: lokhanda 'metalwork' baTa 'quail' Rebus: bhaTa 'furnace' vajra 'lightning' Rebus: vajra samghAta 'adamantine glue (metallic)(Varahamihira)
After Fig. 11. Old Assyria seal impression with a god standing on lion-dragon hybrid/lion (seal C) Hrozy, Bedrich, Inscriptions cuneiformes de Kultepe 1 (Prague 1952) text 19a.
After Fig. 12. Text showing the iconography of the god standing on lion-dragon. Hrozny, Bedrich. Inscriptions cuneiformes de Kultepe 1 (Prague, 1952), ext 38a.
After Fig. 13. Impression of Akkadian seal showing stormgod with lion-dragon. Porada, Edith. A corpus of the near Eastern Seals (Bollingen Series 14, Washington 1948), number 220.
After Fig. 14a. Ur III seal impression illustrating stormgod with bull. Buchanan, Briggs. Early near Eastern Seals in the Yale Babylonian Collection (New Haven, 1981), figure 228.
After Fig. 14b. Impressionof Ur III seal stormgod with lion-dragon. Buchanan, Briggs. Early Near Eastern seals in the Yale Babylonian Collection (New Haven, 1981), figure 229.
Hieroglyph: arka 'sun' Rebus: arka, eraka 'gold, copper, moltencast' (Tulu.Kannada)
After Fig. 15. Seal impression from Nuzi showing the god Teshup standing on lion-dragon (Ithi-Teshup). Porada, Edith, 'Remarks on Mitannian (Hurrian) and Middle Assyrian Glyptic Art,' Akkadica 13 (1979), figure 2.
Hieroglyph: garuḍá m. ʻ a mythical bird ʼ Mn.Pa. garuḷa -- m., Pk. garuḍa -- , °ula -- m.; P. garaṛ m. ʻ the bird Ardea argala ʼ; N. garul ʻ eagle ʼ, Bhoj. gaṛur; OAw. garura ʻ blue jay ʼ; H. garuṛ m. ʻ hornbill ʼ, garul ʻ a large vulture ʼ; Si.guruḷā ʻ bird ʼ (kurullā infl. by Tam.?). -- Kal. rumb. gōrvḗlik ʻ kite ʼ??(CDIAL 4041) Rebus: karaDa 'hard alloy' (Marathi) dula 'pair' Rebus: dul 'cast metal'.
The depiction on the back of an adjunct animal need not necessarily be a god but a determinative connoting the profession, say metalcasting. Visvamitra in Rigveda refers to Bharatam Janam 'lit. metalcaster folk' as a self-designation of the Vedic people. This compound is related to bharata 'metal alloy'.
After Fig. 16, Fig. 17. Seal impression showing native god standing on the bull. Ozuc, Nimet. The Anatolian Group of Cylinder seal impressions from Kultepe (Ankara, 1965), number 71, number 65.
After Fig. 19. Text with impressions illustrating the god standing on the bull. Clay, Albert T. Letters and transactions from Cappadocia (Babylonian inscriptions in the collection of James B. Nies 4), text 211.
Hieroglyph: overflowing water: kANTam 'water overflowing' Rebus: khANDa 'metal implements' (Panini. meD kaNDa id. Santali)
"Documents associated with the Old Assyrian seal impressions appear to be restricted to business between Assyrians in Kanesh or actual communications from Assyrians in Assur. The first is a capital contract between Assyrians in Kanesh (BIN 4:211, here fig.19). The second is a long record of the dissolution of a business partnership inscribed in Assur and sent to Kanesh. This text has many witnesses and twenty-four seal impressions, including a number of Old Assyrian versions of native figureds (ATHE 24)."
See: http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2014/04/tin-road-assur-kanesh-trade.html
The envelope and tablet in British Museum shows the sender's seal with figures approaching a seated king with a bull-man at the end of the scene. I suggest that the bullman with overflowing water from his shoulders is a Meluhha blacksmith.
ḍangar ‘bull’ Rebus: ḍhangar ‘blacksmith’. lo ‘pot to overflow’A person with a vase with overflowing water; sun sign. C. 18th cent. BCE. E. Porada,1971, Remarks on seals found in the Gulf states, Artibus Asiae, 33, 31-7.] kāṇḍa ‘water’. Rebus: लोखंड lokhaṇḍ Iron tools, vessels, or articles in general.
A comparable hieroglyph of overflowing water from the shoulders of a person appears on another tablet case (bottom register seal impression):
ḍangar ‘bull’ Rebus: ḍhangar ‘blacksmith’. lo ‘pot to overflow’A person with a vase with overflowing water; sun sign. C. 18th cent. BCE. E. Porada,1971, Remarks on seals found in the Gulf states, Artibus Asiae, 33, 31-7.] kāṇḍa ‘water’. Rebus: लोखंड lokhaṇḍ Iron tools, vessels, or articles in general.
A comparable hieroglyph of overflowing water from the shoulders of a person appears on another tablet case (bottom register seal impression):
Met Museum Accession Number: 66.245.18b
Cuneiform tablet case impressed with three cylinder seals, for cuneiform tablet 66.246.18a: quittance for a loan in copper
- Period:
- Middle Bronze Age–Old Assyrian Trading Colony
- Date:
- ca. 20th–19th century B.C.
- Geography:
- Anatolia, probably from Kültepe (Karum Kanesh)
- Culture:
- Old Assyrian Trading Colony
- Medium:
- Clay
A segment of the Tin Road: Aśśur - Kaneś. After the Map of Anatolia c 1880 BCE included in Anatolia's Prologue...(Catalogue)
"Direct textual evidence goes back to the 1930s BCE, but the network of trading colonies in the region may well have been established generations earlier. The texts we have come from the archives of an Assyrian merchant colony settled at the site of Kultepe (ancient Kanesh) near Kayseri in Central Turkey. They reflect a widely developed system of financial institutions and judicial establishments with a trde based on specialised agents, complex partnerships and an extensive physical infrastructure geared to accommdate it...Assur was located on a rocky spur at a river ford where a caravan route from north to south crossed a track leading from east to west...To be an Assyrian was to be a merchant...Some forty Assyrian colonies (karum) and stations (wabartum) existed during the heyday of the trade, more than thirty of them in what is today Turkey...The constituent element of the Assyrian trade was the import of tin and woollen textiles from Assur to Anatolia. The merchandise was mostly bought on the market in and taken to Anatolia to be sold mainly in one of three major market cities -- Kanesh, Durhumit or Purushaddum." (Barjamovic, Gojko, A journey through Anatolia in 1865 BCE, p.160 in: Kulakoglu, Fikri & Selmin Kangal, eds., Anatolia's prologue, Kultepe Kanesh, Assyrians in Istanbul, Kayseri Metropolitan Municipality Cultural Publication No. 78, Istanbul ISBN 978-975-8046-79-9.)).
"The essence of the trade was to ship tin, woolen textiles and lapis lazuli to Anatolia to sell it there in order to acquire, directly or indirectly, silver and gold, which was shipped back to Assur. Tin, essential for the Anatoian production of bronze (an alloy of ca. 90 percent copper and 1- percent tin) was imported in Assur from Susa, perhaps by Elamite caravans, and ultimately originated from Central Asia. It was bought in Assur for silver and had the form of slabs that weighed 10 pounds. Its price was fairly standardized, usually ranging between 16 and 14 shekels of tin for 1 shekel of silver, with occasional fluctuations presumably due to changes in the supply...every year several tons of this metal were shipped to Anatolia. The amounts of lapis lazuli, which came from the same area as the tin, were modest (usually one or two pounds) and were obtained in Assur's 'city hall'. Nearly all textiles traded were woolen products, textiles made of linen were rare...The textile product frequently exported and in the biggest numbers was called kutānum. It was the name for a sheet of woolen cloth...The average price of kutānu bought in Assur ranged between 3.5 and 6 shekels of silver...'caravan accounts'...The following specimen is a short one and deals with one single donkey-load (CCT 3,5a): 'Thus Assur-idi, say to Assur-nada: 'you sent me 10 pounds of silver. Thereof 130 pounds of tin under seals, at a rate of 16 1/2 shekels (of tin) per (shekels of silver), its silver 7 pounds 52 2/3 shekels. 4 dark textiles and 5 kutānu-textiles cost 1/2 pound of silver. 7 shekels were lost in the refining (of the silver). 17 shekels the price of 1 donkey, 5 shekels its harness, 20 shekels the price of 2 dark textile that Asssu-taklaku left for you...I took it from this silver. 12 pounds 5 shekels of 'hand-tin', its price at 15:1 is 48 1/3 shekels of silver. All this Assur-taklaku is leading to you. It (the silver sent) has been spent for you.'"(Veenhof, Klaas R., The structure of old Assyrian overland trade, pp.57-58 in: Kulakoglu, Fikri & Selmin Kangal, eds., Anatolia's prologue, Kultepe Kanesh, Assyrians in Istanbul, Kayseri Metropolitan Municipality Cultural Publication No. 78, Istanbul ISBN 978-975-8046-79-9.)
After Fig. 241. Mould for lead figurine. 1830-1700 BCE. Steatite. Ankara museum of Anatolian civilisations. Kt. k/k, 063, inv. no. 1938 1/a. Meluhha hieroglyphs: donkey, caravan trader, eye (of woman). sang 'priest' (Sumerian) Rebus: sangi ‘pilgrim, association’ (Gujarati) S. saṅgu m. ʻ body of pilgrims ʼsã̄go m. ʻcaravanʼ. kola 'woman' Rebus: kol 'working in iron' kaṇ 'eye’ Rebus:kaṇṇahāra ʻhelmsman, sailor’ (Prākṛt) khara1 m. ʻ donkey ʼ KātyŚr., °rī -- f. Pāṇ.NiDoc. Pk. khara -- m., Gy. pal. ḳăr m., kắri f., arm. xari, eur. gr. kher, kfer, rum. xerú, Kt. kur, Pr. korūˊ, Dm. khar m., °ri f., Tir. kh*l r, Paš. lauṛ. khar m., khär f., Kal. urt. khār, Phal.khār m., khári f., K. khar m., khürü f., pog. kash. ḍoḍ. khar, S. kharu m., P. G. M. khar m., OM. khari f.; -- ext. Ash. kərəṭék, Shum. xareṭá; <-> L. kharkā m., °kī f. -- Kho. khairánu ʻ donkey's foal ʼ (+?). Bshk. Kt. kur ʻ donkey ʼ (for loss of aspiration Morgenstierne ID 334)(CDIAL 3818). Rebus: khār 'blacksmith' (Kashmiri) Rebus: khũṭ ‘community, guild’ (Santali)
After Fig. 485. Seal. 1830-1700 BCE. Green-gray stone. Ankara museum of Anatolian civilizations. Kt 98/k 067, inv. no. 1-66-98. Meluhha hieroglyphs: dula 'pair' eruvai 'eagle' Rebus: dul 'cast metal' eruvai 'copper'.
After Fig.477. Seal 1950-1835 BCE. Serpentine. Ankara museum of Anatolian civilisations. Kt. 99/k. 085, inv. no. 1-23-99. Meluhha hieroglyphs: nāga 'serpent' Rebus: nāga 'lead' ḍangar ‘bull’ Rebus: ḍhangar‘blacksmith’.
After Fig. 469. Seal. 1950-1835 BCE. Hematite. Ankara museum of Anatolian civilisations. Kt. 02/k. 079, inv. no. 1-93-02. Meluhha hieroglyphs: gṛālu ’calf’; ḍālu, dālu calf. khāḍū m. ʻhill goatʼ; Kur. kaṛā young male buffalo; Rebus: kãṭhāḷ ‘maritime’ (Gujarati) கடலர் kaṭalar, n. < id. Fishermen inhabitants of maritime tracts; நெய்தனில மாக்கள். (திவா.) கடலோடி kaṭal-ōṭi, n. < id. +. Mariner, seaman; சமுத்திரப்பிரயாணி. (சிலப். 2, 2, அரும்.) karaṇḍa ‘duck’ (Sanskrit) karaṛa ‘a very large aquatic bird’ (Sindhi) Rebus: करडा [karaḍā] Hard from alloy--iron, silver &c. (Marathi) kārṇī m. ʻsuper cargo of a ship ʼ(Marathi) meḍha ‘polar star’ (Marathi). Rebus: meḍ (Ho.); mẽṛhet ‘iron’ (Munda.Ho.)
After Fig. 450 Bulla. 1950-1835 BCE. Clay. Ankara museum of Anatolian civilisations. Kt. 91/k. 113, inv. no. 1-422-91. Meluhha hieroglyphs: star, calf (See Rebus readings cited earlier: iron, maritime)
After Fig. 447 A seal impression on an envelope with a tablet: a document of the woman merchant Madawada. 1950-1835 BCE. Clay. Ankara Museum of Anatolian civilisations. Kt. 93/k, 211, inv. no. 1-176-93 Meluhha hieroglyuphs: arya 'lion' Rebus: arā ‘brass’ kondh ‘heifer’. kũdār ‘turner, brass-worker’.
After Figs. 439-440. Tablet with envelope: Marriage contract of an Assyrian merchant with an Anatolian woman. 1950-1835 BCE. Clay. Ankara Museum of Anatolian civilisations. Meluhha hieroglyphs (Bottom register): bull, ram, scorpion, serpent. ḍhangra ‘bull’. Rebus: ḍhangar ‘blacksmith’. meḍh ‘ram’. Rebus:meḍ ‘iron’. bicha ‘scorpion’ Rebus: bica ‘stone ore’. nāga ‘serpent Rebus: nāga ‘lead’. The merchant is perhaps trades: lead, stone ore, iron.
After Fig. 410. Tablet: A notary document. 1830-1700 BCE. Clay. Ankara Museum of Anatolian civilisations. Kt. n/k.032, inv. no. 165-32-64. Top register seal impression.Hieroglyphs: lion, goat looking back, two tigers. kol 'tiger' Rebus: kol 'working in iron'. dula 'pair' Rebus: dul 'cast metal'. arye 'lion' Rebus: arā ‘brass’ mlekh 'goat' Rebus: milakkhu 'copper'. krammara 'look back' Rebus: kamar 'smith, artisan'. Thus, milakkhu kamar 'copper smith'.
After Fig. 389. Weight. 1830-1700 BCE. Hematite. Ankara Museum of Anatolian civilisations, Kt. 00/k, 041, inv. no. 1-51-2000 Meluhha hieroglyph: mūxā ‘frog’. Rebus: mũh ‘(copper) ingot’ (Santali) Allograph: mũhe ‘face’ (Santali)
"The development of metallurgy in Anatolia is argued to be the result of complex long-term engagements and interactions among diversified highland and lowland communities.Patterns in the various ways people acquired, produced, traded and consumed metals are givenfocus in this review of recent advancements in the study of Anatolian metalwork. In this paper,we draw attention to research conducted primarily in the Taurus Mountains and Central Anatoliaduring the last decade to examine the changing relationship between society and technologyduring the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. Specifically, we examine institutions of metalproduction and trade using archaeological evidence to highlight the existence of a complex sociopolitical environment rich in regional technological traditions before major political andeconomic interaction with Syro-Mesopotamia. We stress two conclusions: first, the developmentof indigenous metal production institutions correlates to localized social arrangements inAnatolia. Second, the development of a hierarchy of production sites occurred to mitigate uncertainty in access to necessary metal resources...When past scholars assumed that the development of social complexity and the demand for metal raw materials was a lowland Mesootamian causation, they did not take into account the potential for autonomous social institutions and cultural development in the periphery of powerful states and empires. In addition, the discovery of debris in the Balkans dating to before 5000 ca. BE suggests that the development of metallurgy is likely unrelated to the emergence of complex political economy in Syro-Mesopotamia. The emergence of early complex technologies must take into account the potential for indigenous developments and the structure of the interregional interaction."(Yener, Aslihan K., Joseph W. Lehner, 2014, Organization and specialization of early mining and metal technologies in Anatolia, in: Roberts, BW & CP Thornton, eds., Reader in early metallurgy: old and new world perspectives, New York: Springer, pp.529-557; p.530.)
In the context of the finds of Nahal Mishmar hoard (with many artifacts made of cire perdue technique), Thornton et al argue that there is as yet no actual evidence that native copper was melted and cast prior to the invention of furnace smelting. (Thornton CP, JM Golden, DJ Killick, VC Piggott, TH Rehren, & BW Roberts, 2010, A chalcolithic error: rebuttal to Amzallag 2009 in: American Journal of Archaeology 114 (2010) 305-15.)
A resolution for this debate about indigenous metallurgical developments and transmission of technologies from a particular location is possible. This can start with a review of the possibility that many hieroglyphs deployed on thousands of artifacts (on cylinder seals, in particular) can be explained as related to Meluhha-speaking technologists who were itinerant artisans/traders moving from Meluhha (ancient India) and prospecting for metal sources in the ancient Near East and the in the Fertile Crescent. As yet unresolved is the source of tin; I suggest, agreeing with Muhly, that the source of tin was Meluhha, prospecting for cassiterite and sediment-held lead-zinc-copper carbonates in a process comparable to the panning for gold nuggets in ancient India along the river-bed of hiraṇyavartanī Sarasvatī
Tin road trade transactions and meanings of Meluhha hieroglyphs in kārum, 'quay, merchant quarter'
kārum, lit. “quay, merchant quarter” is explained in context as a trading colony.
Semantics of Indian sprachbund can explain the gloss as a 'place for business' as in Punjabi kārā m. ʻbusiness'.
कारस्थान [ kārasthāna ] n (कार्य & स्थान ) Economy, frugality, thrift. 2 A plot or counsel; a deeply concerted scheme. 3 Economy, arrangement, order (as of a kingdom or family).(Marathi) WPah.kṭg. kammuɔ ʻ busy ʼ;Kho. kórum (obl.pl. kormān BKhoT 69) ʻ work ʼkárman1 n. ʻ act, work ʼ RV.Shum. l ā̆m, Gaw. l am, Woṭ. kam, Kal. krum, Kho. korum (obl. kormo), Bshk. l ām, Mai.Tor. kām, Sv. kə ram, Phal. kram, Sh. gil. kro̯m m. (→ Ḍ. krom m.), koh. kom, pales. kōm, K. kam m., kömü f., S. kamu m., L. P. kamm m., G. kām n. ʻ work ʼ, kāmũ n. ʻ an office, administration ʼ; M. kām n., Ko. kāma n., Si. kama.(CDIAL 2892). kāra1 ʻ making, doing ʼ Prāt., m. (in cmpds.) ʻ action ʼ. [√kr̥ 1 ] Pa. Pk. kāra -- m. ʻ doing, way of doing ʼ; P. kārā m. ʻ action, business, evildoing ʼ; Or. kār ʻ work, act; G. kār m. ʻ action, trouble ʼ. -- X kr̥tríma -- : Pk. kārima<-> ʻ artificial ʼ, G. kārmũ ʻ wonderful, strange ʼ.(CDIAL 3053).
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Atici, Levent, Fikri Kulakoglu, Gojko Barjamovic & Andrew Fairbairn, eds.,Recent research at Kultipe-Kanesh, 2014, American schools of oriental research, Lockwood Press.
During the reign of Naram-Sin, Agade received goods from Sumer, Amorites of the Syrian desert, Meluhha, elam and Subir.
https://www.academia.edu/6611883/Current_research_at_Kultepe-Kanesh
120 double hours is the reach from the source of the Euphrates to the border of the land of Meluhha and Magan, which Sargon, king of the universe, measured and whose width he calculated when he conquered all lands covered by the sun. (Grayson, A. K., 1974-77, Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles. Texts from Cuneiform Sources 5.: 60 II.30-2, Locust Valley: Augustin.)
Taram-Kubi's letters to Innaja
"One of the Assyrians who resided in Kanesh was a man named Innaja. He lived in Anatolia in order to take care of his family's business, which like that of all other Old Assyrian merchants focuse on the trade of tin, textiles, gold and silver. The business was already in existence during the lifetime of his father, Elali, when Innaja had resided in Assur. There he had married Taram-Kubi, with whom he had several children. When Elali died, the eldest son Shu-Kubum took over control of the business in Assur, while he sent his brother Innaja to Kanesh. Several other siblings were active in less important colonies throughout Anatolia: Bur-Assur in the south-west and Enna-Sin in the West...famiy firm Assur-reshi was located somewhere on the route between Assur and Kanesh, Assur-taklaku was in Zalpa, possibly on the same route, Shu-Sin worked in the north, while Ikkupaja travelled to various regions. Moreover, a son of Shu-Kubum, Elali, supervised the caravans on their last stages from Assur to Kanesh...Innaja worked very closely with his wife, Taram-Kubi, who had remained behind in Assur, where she gathered goods to be sent to Kanesh, and represented her husband to the authorities and other merchants. Eight letters from her to Innaja are known, as well as one from him to Taram-Kubi and other associates...surprisingly the letters they wrote to one another were mostly almost exclusively devoted to business matters: requests for silver, for textiles, complaints about lack of funds, and so on, dominated the exchanges. Very rarely a personal matter arose and even then it always had commercial aspects to it. A typical example is this letter from Taram-Kubi, who is upset that her husband does not provide her with the resources she needs to acquire goods needed for export: 'Speak to Innaja; thus says Taram-Kubi. You have written me as follows: 'Keep the bracelets and rings that are here, so that they can provide you with food.' Indeed you have sent me half a pound of gold through Ili-bani, but where are the bracelets that you sent me? When you departed, you did not leave me a ingle shekel of silver. Yu cleaned out the house and have taken everything. Since you left a terrible famine has hit Assur, and you did not leave me any grain, not even a liter. I have to buy grain constantly to eat. Concerning the collection by the temple, I have given a standard in [], and I have paid my share. To city-hall I have paid the [] measures of grain which belong to Atata. What is then this extravagance about which you keep on writing to me? We don't even have anything to eat. Do you think we can do foolish things? I have gathered everything I have and have sent it to you. These day I live in an empty house! The (business) season has arrived. Send me the equivalent of my textiles in silver, whatever is my share, so that I can buy ten measures of grain. Regarding the tablet with th list of witnesses, which Assurimitti, son of Kura, has taken, he has caused much trouble to our house. He has hired servants. Your representatives have taken care of things. Finally, I have had to pay up until you come, yet he is not removing his claim. When you come you can discuss it. Why do you keep on listening to lies, and do you keep on sending me angry letters?'. In another letter she seems to urge her husband to come to Assur: 'I beg of you when you see this tablet, come. Look at Assur, your god and the god of your household. May I see you while I still live!' But this outcry is contained in a long list of business requests, and seems to be more a cry for help than an expression of loneliness...As one scholar succinctly states it: Using the expertise of a scribe for writing a letter was worth the effort only if financial interests were at stake. In letters the only attested topics within the sphere of private life are complaints about insufficient allowanes, outstanding marriage payments, and so on. No one wrote a love letter, illness was a rare subject. (Stol 1995: 499)...Of those remaining in Assur, a number were manual laborers engaged as producers of textiles or other goods needed for the trade. Yet, a large group was involved in the organization and management of the trade, some 1,500 individuals. The entire population of Assur at this time has been estimated to have been at most 15,000, so 10 percent of the residents of Assur were seemingly involved in this trad! This closely knit group seems to have had an enormous influence in all urban affairs."(Mieroop, Marc Van De, 2005, Cuneiform texts and the writing of history,Routledge, pp. 92-94).
In the citadel of Kanesh in the palace of king Warsama a spearhead was found with an Akkadian inscription: ‘the palace of A-ni-ta the king’. The holes in the spearhead are for mounting. "The city of Kanesh was probably surrounded by satellite communities. Nine places are named in theKültepe tablets from the 19thcentury BC (level II) as under the control of the city-state of Kanesh.They were not all villages or hamlets. They denote a leased or sold property or a town belonging toan alahhinnum official. Communities whose grain yields were probably controlled by Kanesh weresituated in a 15 km circle around Kanesh. Also, from the Karum Level II period text ATHE 62, it isknown that the king of Kanesh had political control over the neighbouring city-states of Salahsuwa,Hurama and Luhusattia to the east of Kanesh...Bi- and multilingualism in central Anatolia.Texts, seals and inscriptions in many languages from the Middle Bronze Age (2000-1600 BC) arefound in central Anatolia, namely, Nesili, Luwian, Palaic, Hurrian, Hattic, Akkadian (both OldBabylonian and Old Assyrian). Quite a few variants, dialects and linguistic changes and mutualinfluences among the languages have been detected and analyzed. In many kingdoms severallanguages are found in the same time period, so that in many regions people with differentlanguages and different cultural backgrounds lived together. Considering that they were mainly agricultural communities, not densely populated and often isolated by mountains and rivers, it maybe assumed, in my view, that many dialects of the aforementioned languages were spokenconcurrently in a given kingdom and evolved further on their own. It is unclear whether the dialectsof any given language remained mutually intelligible. Multilingualism in many regions is evident,because, on special occasions, such as selling or exchanging goods and food, and in their dealingswith temples and royal servants, there had to be communication among diverse languages anddialects. Religious feasts and fighting as allies in a king’s armies would have been further stimuli tointeraction among the various language groups and dialects in such a kingdom...Petra Goedegebuure also points out that the Assyrian merchants and officials always called all the Anatolian language communities “nuwa’um”. Together with Onofrio Carruba, she is convinced that this name is based on the compound Nuwa-Luwa-, meaning “Land of Luwiya”. The origin of the use of nuwa’um is probably that the Assyrians first met Luwians when theyentered Central Anatolia in the third millennium, perhaps also through the communication andmediation of the Hurrians, who were living in the territory between central Anatolia and Assur. JanGerrit Dercksen of the University of Leiden says in his book ‘The Old Assyrian Copper Trade inAnatolia’(1996 PIHANS LXXV- 163),“Around 2000 B.C., the areas to the east and north of the Tigris andEuphrates valley were inhabited by Hurrian-speaking peoples, who may have dominated the tin route across the mountains to Assur”. At that period merchants from Assur always travelled toKanesh through Hurrian territory. So their introduction to the Anatolian cities, communities andcommercial demands could very well have been via the Hurrians. Luwian communities were thenprobably present everywhere in the cities where the Assyrians chose to set up trade stations after awhile. The most plausible scenario for the encounter between the Assyrians and the Hattians, whowere mingled with Luwian speaking people, is within the bend of the Kızılırmak river. The Assyrianswould probably have noticed the differences in the languages, but multilingual cities were present everywhere in the Near East, so they continued to use the one term nuwa’um for the peoples of Anatolia. Also the fact that, so far as we know, the king of Purušhanda, the heart land of the Luwians,was the only monarch in Anatolia with the title Great King may well have reinforced the Assyrians’perception that central Anatolia was inhabited by nuwa’um...From the Assyrian tablets of the Colonial period we know that some Anatolian principalities were labelled by the Assyrians as mātum, ‘land’. The most important countries are Burushatum(Purušhanda), Wahsusana, Kanesh and Hattum." (Blasweller, Joost, 2012, A scenario: fugitives from Kanesh and the origins of the old Hittite kingdom) https://www.academia.edu/1325326/A_scenario_Fugitives_from_Kanesh_and_the_origins_of_the_Old_Hittite_Kingdom
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See enlarged view embedded. More than 23,000 cuneiform tablets of ca. 4,500 years Before Present and many examples of Meluhha hieroglyphs on envelopes have been found at Kanesh, evidence of a trading colony calledkarum dealing in textiles, tin, gold and silver. A large majority date to the period ca. 1910-1830 BCE.
Many tablets attest to trade between Assur and Kanesh. The distance between Assur and Kanesh is about 1200 kms. The Tin road traversed by donkey-caravans also extended beyond Assur on Tigris-Euphrates doab to Meluhha (Sarasvati civilization); the road also covered transactions of seafaring traders transacting in Meluhha-Magan-Dilmun-Elam network. As Amanda H. Podany notes: "Kanesh had access to silver; Assur had access to tin and fine textiles. From around 1950 to 1740 BCE, Assyrian merchants traveled regularly to Kanesh, bringing goods to sell. Some of the assyrians settled there in order to manage their businesses. They brought with them the cuneiform script, in which they recorded their transactions and they also brought their expertise in creating treaties and contracts to consolidate and confirm their activities. Theirs were the houses in which the tens of thousands of cuneiform tablets were found...a copy of a treaty drawn uip between the king of Kanesh and the Assyrian merchants...one can see that the treaty begins with a listing of gods: 'O Adad...gods of the land of Kanesh...Sin, Shamash.'" (Podany, Amanda H., 2013, The Ancient Near East: A very short introduction, OUP, p.64).
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Cuneiform Tablet and Envelope: Old Assyrian Letter 2000.197.A-C (Object Number) Kultepe (Cappadocia), Asia c. 1927-1836 BCE tablet: 4.93 x 4.72 x 1.62 cm (1 15/16 x 1 7/8 x 5/8 in.) envelope: 5.5 x 5.52 x 3.07 cm (2 3/16 x 2 3/16 x 1 3/16 in.) Record identifier: HUAM146548
Square-shaped clay tablet and envelope inscribed with text written in the Old Assyrian dialect of the Akkadian language. The tablet is whole and inscribed on both surfaces. The envelope is partially destroyed, but preserves multiple impressions of the same seal. The tablet and envelope probably come from the trading colony (karum) by the mound of Kültepe (ancient Kanesh) near Kaiseri in Cappadocia (central Anatolia), from the period karum-Kanesh level II (c. 1927-1836 B.C.E). The text is a letter (25 lines) between two copper traders, in which a certain Aššur-lamassi, from an unknown place in central Anatolia, informs a Šu-Belum in Kanesh that he is sending him silver as proceeds of his copper (7 talents, 30 minas), carried by an Iddi(n)-Su'en. Later on, silver for an additional 20 minas of copper will be added. The price for copper is 1 shekel of silver for 62 ½ shekels of copper. All the traders mentioned in this text are also noted in the archive of the well known copper trader Adad-S,ululi, son of Kuskusum/Šu-Anum, excavated in 1948 in the karum area of Kultepe (cf. J.G. Dercksen, The Old Assyrian Copper Trade in Anatolia. PIHANS 75. Leiden 1996, pp. 93-107). On the envelope, which is partially destroyed, the seal of the sender, Aššur-lamassi, is impressed eight times. Information provided by Thomas Sturm, August 2007. Credit Line: Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Leslie Cheek, Jr. and Purchase through the generosity of Sol Rabin and the Marian H. Phinney Fund
http://via.lib.harvard.edu/via/deliver/deepcontent?recordId=HUAM146548
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http://ids.lib.harvard.edu/ids/view/17388666?width=2235&height=2400&html=y
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Excavations in Karum hamlet near Kultepe tumulus Kultepe is a modern village near the ancient city of Kanesh, located in Kayseri. - See more at: http://www.ablogabouthistory.com/2010/09/21/4000-year-old-cuneiform-tablets-found-in-turkey/#sthash.g8GCbkqb.dpuf http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/ancient-cultures/ancient-near-eastern-world/kultepe-excavations-reveal-remains-predating-karum-kanesh/ (September 21, 2010; June 11, 2013).
“Around 4,500 tablets have been smuggled abroad since 1948,” Gunbatti said. Gunbatti said Assyrian tradesmen who settled in the region 4,000 years ago sold the tin and fabrics they brought from Mesopotamia... "Assyrian Kingdom in Mesopotamia made written trade agreements with Kanesh Kingdom and Hahhum Kingdom near Adiyaman,” he said. -
• 11/06/2013: [quote] Turkish archaeologist Fikri Kulakoğlu recently reported the discovery of a massive 4,500-year-old building complex at Kültepe in central Turkey. Located in the district of Kayseri, Kültepe is the source of a large trove of Old Assyrian tablets dating to the early second millennium B.C.E. The so-called Cappadocian tablets, which constitute the earliest historical archive uncovered in Anatolia, have brought archaeological attention to the site since the 19th century, and excavations were conducted at Kültepe through much of the 20th century. The current project is entering its 66th year; Kulakoğlu once commented that the 5,000-year-old site may take 5,000 years to excavate.
The recent excavations have uncovered material remains from the tell that predate the Assyrian trade colony at Karum Kanesh. While the exact nature of the structure is unclear, Kulakoğlu suggested that this is an administrative or palatial structure from which the site could be governed. Kültepe is best known for hosting the adjacent colony at Karum Kanesh, but the tell was occupied long before and after the Assyrian trade colony; even during the time when the colony was operational, the city on the tell exhibited predominantly Anatolian characteristics. After the Assyrian occupation, Hittites controlled Kültepe. However, the early history of the site is not well established; the newly uncovered building complex is sure to shed light on the early history of Kültepe.
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This cuneiform letter, copied on two pieces of clay, and its envelope are from Kültepe. They record a complaint between two brothers about the family’s lack of food or clothes in Assur while the other brother was trading textiles and tin for silver and gold at Karum Kanesh. Photo: British Museum.[unquote]
In the context of the finds of Nahal Mishmar hoard (with many artifacts made of cire perdue technique), Thornton et al argue that there is as yet no actual evidence that native copper was melted and cast prior to the invention of furnace smelting. (Thornton CP, JM Golden, DJ Killick, VC Piggott, TH Rehren, & BW Roberts, 2010, A chalcolithic error: rebuttal to Amzallag 2009 in: American Journal of Archaeology 114 (2010) 305-15.)
A resolution for this debate about indigenous metallurgical developments and transmission of technologies from a particular location is possible. This can start with a review of the possibility that many hieroglyphs deployed on thousands of artifacts (on cylinder seals, in particular) can be explained as related to Meluhha-speaking technologists who were itinerant artisans/traders moving from Meluhha (ancient India) and prospecting for metal sources in the ancient Near East and the in the Fertile Crescent. As yet unresolved is the source of tin; I suggest, agreeing with Muhly, that the source of tin was Meluhha, prospecting for cassiterite and sediment-held lead-zinc-copper carbonates in a process comparable to the panning for gold nuggets in ancient India along the river-bed of hiraṇyavartanī Sarasvatī
Tin road trade transactions and meanings of Meluhha hieroglyphs in kārum, 'quay, merchant quarter'
kārum, lit. “quay, merchant quarter” is explained in context as a trading colony.
Semantics of Indian sprachbund can explain the gloss as a 'place for business' as in Punjabi kārā m. ʻbusiness'.
कारस्थान [ kārasthāna ] n (
Crucible. Yarikkaya, north-central Anatolia (After Schoop, U.D., 2005, Dasanatolische Chalkolithikum, Eine chronologische Untersuchung zur vorbronzezeitlichen Kultursequenz im nordlichen Zentralanatolien und den angrenzenden Gebieten, Remshalden:Verlag BA Greiner,, Plate 30.1)
Atici, Levent, Fikri Kulakoglu, Gojko Barjamovic & Andrew Fairbairn, eds.,Recent research at Kultipe-Kanesh, 2014, American schools of oriental research, Lockwood Press.
During the reign of Naram-Sin, Agade received goods from Sumer, Amorites of the Syrian desert, Meluhha, elam and Subir.
https://www.academia.edu/6611883/Current_research_at_Kultepe-Kanesh
120 double hours is the reach from the source of the Euphrates to the border of the land of Meluhha and Magan, which Sargon, king of the universe, measured and whose width he calculated when he conquered all lands covered by the sun. (Grayson, A. K., 1974-77, Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles. Texts from Cuneiform Sources 5.: 60 II.30-2, Locust Valley: Augustin.)
Taram-Kubi's letters to Innaja
"One of the Assyrians who resided in Kanesh was a man named Innaja. He lived in Anatolia in order to take care of his family's business, which like that of all other Old Assyrian merchants focuse on the trade of tin, textiles, gold and silver. The business was already in existence during the lifetime of his father, Elali, when Innaja had resided in Assur. There he had married Taram-Kubi, with whom he had several children. When Elali died, the eldest son Shu-Kubum took over control of the business in Assur, while he sent his brother Innaja to Kanesh. Several other siblings were active in less important colonies throughout Anatolia: Bur-Assur in the south-west and Enna-Sin in the West...famiy firm Assur-reshi was located somewhere on the route between Assur and Kanesh, Assur-taklaku was in Zalpa, possibly on the same route, Shu-Sin worked in the north, while Ikkupaja travelled to various regions. Moreover, a son of Shu-Kubum, Elali, supervised the caravans on their last stages from Assur to Kanesh...Innaja worked very closely with his wife, Taram-Kubi, who had remained behind in Assur, where she gathered goods to be sent to Kanesh, and represented her husband to the authorities and other merchants. Eight letters from her to Innaja are known, as well as one from him to Taram-Kubi and other associates...surprisingly the letters they wrote to one another were mostly almost exclusively devoted to business matters: requests for silver, for textiles, complaints about lack of funds, and so on, dominated the exchanges. Very rarely a personal matter arose and even then it always had commercial aspects to it. A typical example is this letter from Taram-Kubi, who is upset that her husband does not provide her with the resources she needs to acquire goods needed for export: 'Speak to Innaja; thus says Taram-Kubi. You have written me as follows: 'Keep the bracelets and rings that are here, so that they can provide you with food.' Indeed you have sent me half a pound of gold through Ili-bani, but where are the bracelets that you sent me? When you departed, you did not leave me a ingle shekel of silver. Yu cleaned out the house and have taken everything. Since you left a terrible famine has hit Assur, and you did not leave me any grain, not even a liter. I have to buy grain constantly to eat. Concerning the collection by the temple, I have given a standard in [], and I have paid my share. To city-hall I have paid the [] measures of grain which belong to Atata. What is then this extravagance about which you keep on writing to me? We don't even have anything to eat. Do you think we can do foolish things? I have gathered everything I have and have sent it to you. These day I live in an empty house! The (business) season has arrived. Send me the equivalent of my textiles in silver, whatever is my share, so that I can buy ten measures of grain. Regarding the tablet with th list of witnesses, which Assurimitti, son of Kura, has taken, he has caused much trouble to our house. He has hired servants. Your representatives have taken care of things. Finally, I have had to pay up until you come, yet he is not removing his claim. When you come you can discuss it. Why do you keep on listening to lies, and do you keep on sending me angry letters?'. In another letter she seems to urge her husband to come to Assur: 'I beg of you when you see this tablet, come. Look at Assur, your god and the god of your household. May I see you while I still live!' But this outcry is contained in a long list of business requests, and seems to be more a cry for help than an expression of loneliness...As one scholar succinctly states it: Using the expertise of a scribe for writing a letter was worth the effort only if financial interests were at stake. In letters the only attested topics within the sphere of private life are complaints about insufficient allowanes, outstanding marriage payments, and so on. No one wrote a love letter, illness was a rare subject. (Stol 1995: 499)...Of those remaining in Assur, a number were manual laborers engaged as producers of textiles or other goods needed for the trade. Yet, a large group was involved in the organization and management of the trade, some 1,500 individuals. The entire population of Assur at this time has been estimated to have been at most 15,000, so 10 percent of the residents of Assur were seemingly involved in this trad! This closely knit group seems to have had an enormous influence in all urban affairs."(Mieroop, Marc Van De, 2005, Cuneiform texts and the writing of history,Routledge, pp. 92-94).
In the citadel of Kanesh in the palace of king Warsama a spearhead was found with an Akkadian inscription: ‘the palace of A-ni-ta the king’. The holes in the spearhead are for mounting. "The city of Kanesh was probably surrounded by satellite communities. Nine places are named in theKültepe tablets from the 19thcentury BC (level II) as under the control of the city-state of Kanesh.They were not all villages or hamlets. They denote a leased or sold property or a town belonging toan alahhinnum official. Communities whose grain yields were probably controlled by Kanesh weresituated in a 15 km circle around Kanesh. Also, from the Karum Level II period text ATHE 62, it isknown that the king of Kanesh had political control over the neighbouring city-states of Salahsuwa,Hurama and Luhusattia to the east of Kanesh...Bi- and multilingualism in central Anatolia.Texts, seals and inscriptions in many languages from the Middle Bronze Age (2000-1600 BC) arefound in central Anatolia, namely, Nesili, Luwian, Palaic, Hurrian, Hattic, Akkadian (both OldBabylonian and Old Assyrian). Quite a few variants, dialects and linguistic changes and mutualinfluences among the languages have been detected and analyzed. In many kingdoms severallanguages are found in the same time period, so that in many regions people with differentlanguages and different cultural backgrounds lived together. Considering that they were mainly agricultural communities, not densely populated and often isolated by mountains and rivers, it maybe assumed, in my view, that many dialects of the aforementioned languages were spokenconcurrently in a given kingdom and evolved further on their own. It is unclear whether the dialectsof any given language remained mutually intelligible. Multilingualism in many regions is evident,because, on special occasions, such as selling or exchanging goods and food, and in their dealingswith temples and royal servants, there had to be communication among diverse languages anddialects. Religious feasts and fighting as allies in a king’s armies would have been further stimuli tointeraction among the various language groups and dialects in such a kingdom...Petra Goedegebuure also points out that the Assyrian merchants and officials always called all the Anatolian language communities “nuwa’um”. Together with Onofrio Carruba, she is convinced that this name is based on the compound Nuwa-Luwa-, meaning “Land of Luwiya”. The origin of the use of nuwa’um is probably that the Assyrians first met Luwians when theyentered Central Anatolia in the third millennium, perhaps also through the communication andmediation of the Hurrians, who were living in the territory between central Anatolia and Assur. JanGerrit Dercksen of the University of Leiden says in his book ‘The Old Assyrian Copper Trade inAnatolia’(1996 PIHANS LXXV- 163),“Around 2000 B.C., the areas to the east and north of the Tigris andEuphrates valley were inhabited by Hurrian-speaking peoples, who may have dominated the tin route across the mountains to Assur”. At that period merchants from Assur always travelled toKanesh through Hurrian territory. So their introduction to the Anatolian cities, communities andcommercial demands could very well have been via the Hurrians. Luwian communities were thenprobably present everywhere in the cities where the Assyrians chose to set up trade stations after awhile. The most plausible scenario for the encounter between the Assyrians and the Hattians, whowere mingled with Luwian speaking people, is within the bend of the Kızılırmak river. The Assyrianswould probably have noticed the differences in the languages, but multilingual cities were present everywhere in the Near East, so they continued to use the one term nuwa’um for the peoples of Anatolia. Also the fact that, so far as we know, the king of Purušhanda, the heart land of the Luwians,was the only monarch in Anatolia with the title Great King may well have reinforced the Assyrians’perception that central Anatolia was inhabited by nuwa’um...From the Assyrian tablets of the Colonial period we know that some Anatolian principalities were labelled by the Assyrians as mātum, ‘land’. The most important countries are Burushatum(Purušhanda), Wahsusana, Kanesh and Hattum." (Blasweller, Joost, 2012, A scenario: fugitives from Kanesh and the origins of the old Hittite kingdom) https://www.academia.edu/1325326/A_scenario_Fugitives_from_Kanesh_and_the_origins_of_the_Old_Hittite_Kingdom
Many tablets attest to trade between Assur and Kanesh. The distance between Assur and Kanesh is about 1200 kms. The Tin road traversed by donkey-caravans also extended beyond Assur on Tigris-Euphrates doab to Meluhha (Sarasvati civilization); the road also covered transactions of seafaring traders transacting in Meluhha-Magan-Dilmun-Elam network. As Amanda H. Podany notes: "Kanesh had access to silver; Assur had access to tin and fine textiles. From around 1950 to 1740 BCE, Assyrian merchants traveled regularly to Kanesh, bringing goods to sell. Some of the assyrians settled there in order to manage their businesses. They brought with them the cuneiform script, in which they recorded their transactions and they also brought their expertise in creating treaties and contracts to consolidate and confirm their activities. Theirs were the houses in which the tens of thousands of cuneiform tablets were found...a copy of a treaty drawn uip between the king of Kanesh and the Assyrian merchants...one can see that the treaty begins with a listing of gods: 'O Adad...gods of the land of Kanesh...Sin, Shamash.'" (Podany, Amanda H., 2013, The Ancient Near East: A very short introduction, OUP, p.64).
Cuneiform Tablet and Envelope: Old Assyrian Letter 2000.197.A-C (Object Number) Kultepe (Cappadocia), Asia c. 1927-1836 BCE tablet: 4.93 x 4.72 x 1.62 cm (1 15/16 x 1 7/8 x 5/8 in.) envelope: 5.5 x 5.52 x 3.07 cm (2 3/16 x 2 3/16 x 1 3/16 in.) Record identifier: HUAM146548
Square-shaped clay tablet and envelope inscribed with text written in the Old Assyrian dialect of the Akkadian language. The tablet is whole and inscribed on both surfaces. The envelope is partially destroyed, but preserves multiple impressions of the same seal. The tablet and envelope probably come from the trading colony (karum) by the mound of Kültepe (ancient Kanesh) near Kaiseri in Cappadocia (central Anatolia), from the period karum-Kanesh level II (c. 1927-1836 B.C.E). The text is a letter (25 lines) between two copper traders, in which a certain Aššur-lamassi, from an unknown place in central Anatolia, informs a Šu-Belum in Kanesh that he is sending him silver as proceeds of his copper (7 talents, 30 minas), carried by an Iddi(n)-Su'en. Later on, silver for an additional 20 minas of copper will be added. The price for copper is 1 shekel of silver for 62 ½ shekels of copper. All the traders mentioned in this text are also noted in the archive of the well known copper trader Adad-S,ululi, son of Kuskusum/Šu-Anum, excavated in 1948 in the karum area of Kultepe (cf. J.G. Dercksen, The Old Assyrian Copper Trade in Anatolia. PIHANS 75. Leiden 1996, pp. 93-107). On the envelope, which is partially destroyed, the seal of the sender, Aššur-lamassi, is impressed eight times. Information provided by Thomas Sturm, August 2007. Credit Line: Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Leslie Cheek, Jr. and Purchase through the generosity of Sol Rabin and the Marian H. Phinney Fund
http://via.lib.harvard.edu/via/deliver/deepcontent?recordId=HUAM146548
http://ids.lib.harvard.edu/ids/view/17388666?width=2235&height=2400&html=y
Excavations in Karum hamlet near Kultepe tumulus Kultepe is a modern village near the ancient city of Kanesh, located in Kayseri. - See more at: http://www.ablogabouthistory.com/2010/09/21/4000-year-old-cuneiform-tablets-found-in-turkey/#sthash.g8GCbkqb.dpuf http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/ancient-cultures/ancient-near-eastern-world/kultepe-excavations-reveal-remains-predating-karum-kanesh/ (September 21, 2010; June 11, 2013).
“Around 4,500 tablets have been smuggled abroad since 1948,” Gunbatti said. Gunbatti said Assyrian tradesmen who settled in the region 4,000 years ago sold the tin and fabrics they brought from Mesopotamia... "Assyrian Kingdom in Mesopotamia made written trade agreements with Kanesh Kingdom and Hahhum Kingdom near Adiyaman,” he said. -
• 11/06/2013: [quote] Turkish archaeologist Fikri Kulakoğlu recently reported the discovery of a massive 4,500-year-old building complex at Kültepe in central Turkey. Located in the district of Kayseri, Kültepe is the source of a large trove of Old Assyrian tablets dating to the early second millennium B.C.E. The so-called Cappadocian tablets, which constitute the earliest historical archive uncovered in Anatolia, have brought archaeological attention to the site since the 19th century, and excavations were conducted at Kültepe through much of the 20th century. The current project is entering its 66th year; Kulakoğlu once commented that the 5,000-year-old site may take 5,000 years to excavate.
The tablets uncovered at Kültepe describe the presence of an Old Assyrian trade colony known as Karum Kanesh adjacent to the site. In the 20th and 19th centuries B.C.E. Assur, the capital of the Old Assyrian Kingdom, established the largest trade network the world had ever seen. Donkeys transported tin from Iran, textiles from Babylonia and silver and gold from Karum Kanesh in Anatolia, which was located some 600 miles from Assur. Independent Assyrian merchant families would travel to Kültepe, where the Assyrian population at Karum Kanesh would collect goods to be distributed within Anatolia. Because the voyage was so long and the connections between Assur and Karum Kanesh were so strong, the trade network is remarkably well documented in highly personal letters describing the quality of trade goods, family relations, prices, foodstuffs, marriage proposals and other daily affairs.
S. Kalyanaraman
Sarasvati Research Center
August 10, 2015