Chapter VII: The Kassite Dynasty and Its Relations with Egypt and the Hittite Empire (2)

The use of stone stelæ for this purpose may well have been suggested by a Kassite custom; for in the mountains of Western Persia, the recent home of the Kassite tribes before their conquest of the river-plain, stones had probably been used to mark the limits of their fields, and these may well have borne short inscriptions giving the owner's name and title.[69] The employment of curses to secure divine protection was undoubtedly of Babylonian, and ultimately of Sumerian origin, but the idea of placing symbols of the gods upon the stone was probably Kassite.[70] Moreover, the kudurru was not the original title-deed recording the acquisition of the land to which it refers. As in the earlier Babylonian periods, clay tablets continued to be employed for this purpose, and they received the impression of the royal seal as evidence of the king's sanction and authority. The text of the tablet, generally with the list of witnesses, was later on recopied by the engraver upon the stone, and the curses and symbols were added.[71]

A boundary-stone was sometimes employed to commemorate a confirmation of title, and, like many modern legal documents, it recited the previous history of the property during a long period extending over several reigns. But the majority of the stones recovered commemorate original grants of land made by the king to a relative, or to one of his adherents in return for some special service. Perhaps the finest of this class of charters is that in which Meli-Shipak makes a grant of certain property in Bît-Pir-Shadû-rabû, near the old city of Akkad or Agade and the Kassite town Dûr-Kurigalzu, to his son Merodach-baladan I., who afterwards succeeded him upon the throne.[72] After giving the size and situation of the estates, and the names of the high officials who had been entrusted with the duty of drawing up the survey, the text defines the privileges granted to Merodach-baladan along with the land. As some of these throw considerable light on the system of land tenure during the Kassite period, they may be briefly summarized.

[KASSITE BOUNDARY STONES SET UP IN THE REIGNS OF MELI-SHIPAK AND NAZI-MARUTTASH. After Délég. en Perse, Mém. I, pl. XVI et XIV]

The king, in conferring the ownership of the land upon his son, freed it from all taxes and tithes, and forbade the displacement of its ditches, limits, and boundaries. He freed it also from the _corvée,_ and enacted that none of the people of the estate were to be requisitioned among the gangs levied in its district for public works, for the prevention of flood, or for the repair of the royal canal, a section of which was maintained in working order by the neighbouring villages of Bît-Sikkamidu and Damiḳ-Adad. They were not liable to forced labour on the canal-sluices, nor for building dams, nor for digging out the canal-bed. No cultivator on the property, whether hired or belonging to the estate, was to be requisitioned by the local governor even under royal authority. No levy was to be made on wood, grass, straw, corn, or any sort of crop, on the carts and yokes, on asses or man-servants. No one was to use his son's irrigation-ditch, and no levy was to be made on his water-supply even during times of drought. No one was to mow his grass-land without his permission, and no beasts belonging to the king or governor, which might be assigned to the district, were to be driven over or pastured on the estate. And, finally, he was freed from all liability to build a road or a bridge for the public convenience, even though the king or the governor should give the order.

From these regulations it will be seen that the owner of land in Babylonia under the later Kassite kings, unless granted special exemption, was liable to furnish forced labour for public works both to the state and to his local district; he had to supply grazing and pasture for the flocks and herds of the king and the governor, and to pay various taxes and tithes on land, irrigation-water, and crops. We have already noted the prevalence of similar customs under the First Dynasty,[73] and it is clear that the successive conquests to which the country had been subjected, and its domination by a foreign race, had not to any appreciable extent affected the life and customs of the people nor even the general character of the administrative system.

On one subject the boundary-stones throw additional light, which is lacking at the period of the First Dynasty, and that is the old Babylonian system of land tenure. They suggest that the lands, which formed the subject of royal grants during the Kassite period, were generally the property of the local _bîtu,_ or tribe.[74] In certain cases the king actually purchased the land from the _bîtu_ in whose district it was situated, and, when no consideration was given, we need merely assume that it was requisitioned by royal authority. The primitive system of tribal or collective proprietorship, which is attested by the Obelisk of Manishtusu,[75] undoubtedly survived into the Kassite period, when it co-existed with the system of private ownership, as it had doubtless done at the time of the West-Semitic kings. The _bîtu_ must often have occupied an extensive area, split up into separate districts or groups of villages. It had its own head, the _bêl bîti,_ and its own body of local functionaries, who were quite distinct from the official and military servants of the state. In fact, agricultural life in Babylonia during the earlier periods must have presented many points of analogy to such examples of collective proprietorship as may be seen in the village communities of India at the present day. As the latter system has survived the political changes and revolutions of many centuries, so it is probable that the tribal proprietorship in Babylonia was slow to decay.

The principal factor in its disintegration was undoubtedly the policy, pursued by the West-Semitic and Kassite conquerors, of settling their own officers and more powerful adherents on estates throughout the country. Both these periods thus represent a time of transition, during which the older system of land tenure gradually gave way in face of the policy of private ownership, which for purely political reasons was so strongly encouraged by the crown. There can be no doubt that under the West-Semitic kings, at any rate from the time of Hammurabi onwards, the policy of confiscation was rarely resorted to. And even the earlier rulers of that dynasty, since they were of the same racial stock as a large proportion of their new subjects, would have been the more inclined to respect tribal institutions which may have found a parallel in their land of origin. The Kassites, on the other hand, had no such racial associations to restrain them, and it is significant that the kudurrus were now for the first time introduced, with their threatening emblems of divinity and their imprecatory clauses. At first employed to guard the rights of private ownership, often based on high-handed requisition by the king, they were afterwards retained for transfers of landed property by purchase. In the Neo-Babylonian period, when the boundary-stones recorded long series of purchases by means of which the larger landed estates were built up, the imprecations and symbols had become to a great extent conventional survivals.

But that period was still far distant, and the vicissitudes the country was to pass through were not conducive to security of tenure, whether the property were held under private or collective ownership. We have seen that Assyria, as early as the thirteenth century, had succeeded in capturing and sacking Babylon, and, according to one tradition, had ruled the city for seven years. She was shortly to renew her attempts to subjugate the southern kingdom; but it was Elam, Babylon's still older foe, that brought the long and undistinguished Kassite Dynasty to an end.

[Footnote 1: Proof that the Aryans were horse-keepers may be seen in the numerous Iranian proper names which include _asva_ (_aspa_), "horse," as a component; see Justi, "Iran. Namenbuch," p. 486, and cf. Meyer, "Geschichte," I., ii., p. 579.]

[Footnote 2: It is on a text of that period that we find the first mention of the horse in antiquity; cf. Ungnad, "Orient. Lit.-Zeit.," 1907, col. 638 f., and King, "Journ. of Hellenic Studies," XXXIII., p. 359. A reference to one also occurs in a letter of the early Babylonian period (cf. "Cun. Texts in the Brit. Mus.," IV., pl. 1), but, to judge from the writing, this is probably rather later than the time of Hammurabi. It is immediately after the Kassite period that we have evidence of the adoption of the horse as a divine symbol, doubtless that of a deity introduced by the Kassites; see Plate XXII., opposite p. 254.]

[Footnote 3: Some First Dynasty tablets record the issue of rations to certain Kassites, who were obviously employed as labourers, probably for getting in the harvest (cf. Ungnad, "Beitr. zur Assyr.," VI., No. 5. p. 22); and in a list of proper names of the same period (cf. "Cun. Texts," VI., pl. 23) a Kassite man, (_awîl_) ṣâbum Kashshû, bears the name Warad-Ibari, perhaps a Semitic rendering of an original Kassite name.]

[Footnote 4: Cf. Ingnad, "Vorderas. Schriftdenkmäler," VII., pl. 27, No. 64.]

[Footnote 5: See above, p. 195 f.]

[Footnote 6: Cf. Winckler, "Untersuchungen," p. 156, No. 6.]

[Footnote 7: Cf. "Chronicles," II., p. 22 f. For discussions of the manner in which we may reconcile the chronicler's account of the Kassite conquest of the Sea-Country with the known succession of the early Kassite kings of Babylon, see _op. cit.,_ I., pp. 101 ff., and cf. Thureau-Dangin, "Journal des Savants." Nouv. Sér., VI., No. 4, pp. 100 ff., and "Zeits. für Assyr.," XXI., pp. 170 ff. The established genealogy of Agum-kakrime renders it impossible to identify the Agum of the chronicle, who was a son of Kashtiliash the Kassite, with either of the Kassite kings of Babylon who bore that name. He can only have raided or ruled in the Sea-Country, probably at the time his eldest brother Ushshi (or perhaps his other brother, Abi-rattash) was king in Babylon.]

[Footnote 8: Agum-kakrime describes Kashtiliash as _aplu,_ probably "the inheritor." not _mâru,_ "the son," of Agum I. (cf. Thureau-Dangin, "Journ. Asiat.," XI., 1908, p. 133 f.).]

[Footnote 9: See Weissbach, "Babylonische Miscellen," p. 7, pl. 1, No. 3.]

[Footnote 10: Cf. "Chronicles," II., p. 24.]

[Footnote 11: See above, p. 210. From his titles we gather that he ruled Padan, Alman, Gutium and Ashnunnak as subject provinces; cf. Jensen in Schrader's "Keilins. Bibl.," III., i., p. 130 f.]

[Footnote 12: That is, "The Glory of the Disk," in honour of his new cult. For detailed histories of the period, see Budge, "History of Egypt." Vol. V., pp. 90 ff.; Breasted, "History of Egypt," pp. 322 ff, and Hall, "Ancient History of the Near East," pp. 297 ff.]

[Footnote 13: For the texts, see Budge and Bezold, "The Tell el-Amarna Tablets in the British Museum" (1892), and Winckler, "Der Thontafelfund von El Amarna" (1889-90); and for translations, see Winckler. "Die Thontafeln von Tell el-Amarna" in Schrader's "Keilins. Bibl.," Bd. V.. Engl. ed. 1890, and Knudtzon's "Die El-Amarna Tafeln" in the "Vorderasiatische Bibliothek," 1907-12, with an appendix by Weber, annotating and discussing the contents of the letters.]

[Footnote 14: Winckler's preliminary account of the documents in the "Mitteil. d. Deutsch. Orient-Gesellschaft," No. 35, Dec. 1907, is still the only publication on the linguistic material that has appeared. The topographical and part of the archæological results of the excavations have now been published; see Puchstein, "Boghasköi," 1912.]

[Footnote 15: Among the royal letters from Tell el-Amarna are eleven which directly concern Babylon. Two of these are drafts, or copies, of letters which Amenhetep III. despatched to Kadashman-Enlil of Babylon (cf. Kundtzon, _op. cit.,_ pp. 60 ff., 74 ff.); three are letters received by Amen-hetep III. from the same correspondent (_op. cit.,_ pp. 66 ff., 68 ff., 72 ff.); five are letters written by Burna-Buriash of Babylon to Amen-hetep IV. or Akhenaten (_op. cit.,_ pp. 78 ff.); and one is a letter from Burna-Buriash, which may have been addressed to Amen-hetep III. (_op. cit.,_ 78 f.). We also possess a letter, from a princess in Babylon to her lord in Egypt, on a purely domestic matter (_op. cit.,_ pp. 118 ff.), as well as long lists of presents which passed between Akhenaten and Burna-Buriash (_op. cit.,_ pp. 100 ff.); one of the letters also appears to be a Babylonian passport for use in Canaan (see below, p. 225, n. 3). The letters thus fall in the reigns of two Kassite rulers, Kadashman-Enlil I. and Burna-Buriash, but from one of Burna-Buriash's letters to Akhenaten we gather that Amen-hetep III. had corresponded with a still earlier king in Babylon, Kara-indash I.; for the letter begins by assuring the Pharaoh that "since the time of Kara-indash, when their fathers had begun to correspond with one another, they had always been good friends" (cf. Knudtzon, _op. cit.,_ pp. 90 ff.). We have recovered no letters of Kurigalzu, the father of Burna-Buriash, though Amen-hetep III. maintained friendly relations with him (see below, p. 224). In a letter of Amen-hetep III. to Kadashman-Enlil reference is also made to correspondence between the two countries in the time of Amen-hetep III.'s father, Thothmes IV. (_op. cit.,_ p. 64 f.).]

[Footnote 16: The Babylonian king expresses his willingness to receive any beautiful Egyptian woman, as no one would know she was not a king's daughter (_op. cit.,_ p. 72 f.). Amen-hetep III. married a sister of Kadashman-Enlil, though the Babylonian court was not satisfied with the lady's treatment in Egypt (_op. cit.,_ p. 60 f.).]

[Footnote 17: _Op. cit.,_ pp. 178 ff.]

[Footnote 18: See below, p. 240.]

[Footnote 19: Cf. Breasted, "Hist. of Egypt," p. 367 f.]

[Footnote 20: See Knudtzon, _op. cit.,_ p. 128 f.]

[Footnote 21: _Op. cit.,_ p. 88 f.]

[Footnote 22: Knudtzon, _op. cit.,_ pp. 88 ff.]

[Footnote 23: See below, p. 241.]

[Footnote 24: Cf. Knudtzon, _op. cit.,_ p. 84 f.]

[Footnote 25: This was a Canaanite city built by Akhenaten, and named by him Akhetaten, in honour of the Solar Disk.]

[Footnote 26: _Op. cit.,_ p. 86 f. An interesting little letter addressed "to the kings of Canaan, the servants of my brother," was apparently a passport carried by Akia, an ambassador, whom the Babylonian king had sent to condole with the king of Egypt, probably on the death of his father Amen-hetep III. In it the king writes, "let none detain him; speedily may they cause him to arrive in Egypt" (cf. _op. cit.,_ pp. 268 ff.)]

[Footnote 27: We are not here concerned with this aspect of the letters, as Babylon had but a remote interest in the internal politics of Canaan. Her activities in the west at this time were mainly commercial; and the resulting influence of her civilization in Palestine is discussed in a later chapter (see below, pp. 289 ff.). The letters will be treated more fully in the third volume of this history, when tracing the gradual expansion of Assyria in the west, and the forces which delayed her inevitable conflict with Egypt.]

[Footnote 28: See Figs. 47 and 48. The relief was found by M. Legrain at Karnak; cf. Meyer, "Reich und Kultur der Chetiter," pl. i. The inscription in Fig. 47 labels the ambassadors as "_mariana_ of Naharain (_i.e._ Northern Syria)." the term _mariana_ being the Aryan word for "young men, warriors," doubtless borrowed from the ruling dynasty of Mitanni (see below, n. 2). That in Fig. 48 contains the end of a list of Hittite cities, including [Car]chemish and Aruna, the latter probably in Asia Minor.]

[Footnote 29: See Figs. 49 and 50.]

[Footnote 30: The Mitannian people were probably akin to them, though in the fifteenth century they were dominated by a dynasty of Indo-European extraction, bearing Aryan names and worshipping the Aryan gods Mitra and Varuna, Indra and the Nâsatya-twins (cf. Winckler, "Mitteil. d. Deutsch. Orient-Gesellschaft," No. 35, p. 51, and Meyer, _op. cit.,_ p. 57 f.). In spite of Scheftelowitz's attempt to prove the Mitannian speech Aryan (cf. "Zeits. f. vergl. Sprachf.," xxxviii., pp. 260 ff.), it has been shown by Bloomfield to be totally non-Indo-European in character; see "Amer. Journ. of Philol.," xxv., pp. 4 ff., and cf. Meyer, "Zeits. f. vergl. Sprachf.," xlii., 21, and King, "Journ. for Hellen. Stud.," xxxiii., p. 359.]

[Footnote 31: Khatti may well have been an important centre from a very early period, and the use of the name "Hittites" by the late chronicler, in describing the conflicts of the First Babylonian Dynasty, is in favour of this view: see above, p. 210, n. 2.]

[Footnote 32: This we gather from a letter Amen-hetep wrote to him in the Arzawa language, which was found at Tell el-Amarna; cf. Knudtzon, "Die el-Amarna Tafeln," pp. 270 ff., No. 31.]

[Footnote 33: A portion of the village is built over an extension of the outer fortification-walls on the north-west.]

[Footnote 34: Now known as Beuyuk Kale. For an account of the excavations, see Puchstein, "Boghasköi: die Bauwerke" (1912); and for the best earlier description of the site, see Garstang, "Land of the Hittites," pp. 196 ff.]

[Footnote 35: In the Lion-Gateway at Khatti the face of each monolith is carved to represent a lion, facing any one approaching the entrance from without (cf. Puchstein, "Boghasköi," pi. 23 f.). The figure sculptured in relief on the inner side of the Royal Gateway (see p. 229, Fig. 51) preserves an interesting feature of the best Hittite work,--an unusual combination of minute surface-adornment with great boldness of design. The hatching and scroll-work on the garment are only roughly indicated in the small drawing, and other detail is omitted. Hair on the breast of the figure, for example, doubtless regarded as a sign of strength and virility, is conventionally rendered by series of minute overlapping curls, which form a diapered pattern traced with the point. This can only be detected on the original stone, or in a large-size photograph, such as that reproduced by Puchstein, _op. cit.,_ pl. 19. The Royal Gateway is in the S.E. corner of the city, near the palace and the smaller temples. The great temple, by far the largest building on the site, lies on the lower ground to the north.]

[Footnote 36: Cf. Winckler, "Mitteil. d. Deutsch. Orient-Gesellschaft," No. 35, p. 36.]

[Footnote 37: The disastrous opening of the battle was largely due to the over-confidence of Rameses and his complete miscalculation of the enemy's strength and resources; for the Egyptians had never yet met so powerful an enemy as the Hittites proved themselves to be. With the help of the reliefs it is possible to follow the tactics of the opposing armies in some detail. The accompanying inscriptions are very fragmentary, but they are supplemented by a historical account of the battle, introducing a poem in celebration of the valour of Rameses, preserved on a papyrus in the British Museum. For a detailed account of the battle, illustrated by plans and accompanied by translations of the texts, see Breasted, "Ancient Records of Egypt," Vol. 111., pp. 123 ff.; cp. also Budge, "History," Vol. V., pp. 20 ff., and Hall, "Near East," p. 360 f.]

[Footnote 38: Cf. Winckler, _op. cit.,_ p. 20 f.]

[Footnote 39: _Op. cit.,_ p. 23 f.]

[Footnote 40: That is, under oath, according to the regular Babylonian practice.]

[Footnote 41: Winckler, _op. cit.,_ p. 24.]

[Footnote 42: This is not the only occasion on which we hear of the despatch of physicians from one foreign country to another at this period. Naturally they were supplied by Egypt and Babylon, as the two great centres of science and learning. Thus Khattusil refers to a physician _(asû)_ and an exorcist _(ashipu),_ who had formerly been sent from Babylon to the Hittite king Mutallu but had not returned. Kadashman-Enlil had evidently written to enquire about them, and Khattusil replies that the exorcist is dead, but that the physician will be sent back; cf. Winckler, _op. cit.,_ p. 26. Medicine at this time was, of course, merely a branch of magic, and the _asû_ a practising magician; see above, p. 194.]

[Footnote 43: We possess no contemporary reference to Khonsu's journey. The tale is recorded on a stele, now in the Bibliothèque Nationale, which was engraved and set up in the Persian or Hellenic period by the priests of Khonsu at Thebes (cf. Breasted, "Ancient Records," III., pp. 188 ff.). At the head of the stele is a relief showing the two sacred boats of Khonsu borne on the shoulders of priests (see p. 238 f., Figs. 56 f.).]

[Footnote 44: Evidence of increased Egyptian influence may be seen in the fact that, to judge from the seals upon a Hittite document (cf. Winckler, _op. cit.,_ p. 29), Arnuanta appears to have adopted the Egyptian custom of marrying his sister.]

[Footnote 45: See above, p. 221.]

[Footnote 46: Cf. "Cun. Texts in the Brit. Mus.," Pt. XXXIV. (1914), pl. 38 ff., and Schrader, "Keilins. Bibl.," I., pp. 194 ff.; and cp. Budge and King, "Annals of the Kings of Assyria," pp. xxii. ff.]

[Footnote 47: See above, p. 218.]

[Footnote 48: See below, p. 245 f.]

[Footnote 49: Kurigalzu I. is recorded to have made a grant of certain land, in the possession of which Kadashman-Enlil I. confirmed a descendant of the former owner; see King, "Babylonian Boundary Stones and Memorial Tablets in the British Museum," p. 3 f. The document is of considerable importance, as the reading of Kadashman-Enlil's name upon it has cleared up several points of uncertainty connected with the vexed subject of the Kassite succession.]

[Footnote 50: A red marble mace-head, discovered at Babylon (cf. Weissbach, "Bab. Miscellen," pp. 2 ff.), is inscribed with his name and that of his father. Neither bears a royal title in the text, but, as this is sometimes omitted in the Kassite period, Meli-Shipak may be provisionally regarded as the successor of Kurigalzu I.; cf. Thureau-Dangin, "Journ. Asiat.," XI. (1908), p. 119 f.]

[Footnote 51: Cf. "Annals," p. xxii.]

[Footnote 52: _Op. cit.,_ p. xxiii. In the interval between Kara-indash I. and Burna-Buriash are to be set Kadashman-Enlil I. and his son, [....Bu]riash (see Hilprecht, "Old Bab. Inscr.," I., i., pl. 25, No. 68, and cp. Thureau-Dangin, _op. cit.,_ pp. 122 ff.), as well as Kurgalzu II. the father of Burna-Buriash (see above, pp. 221, 224).]

[Footnote 53: Cf. "Annals," p. xxvii. The account given by the Synchronistic History is certainly to be preferred to that of the Chronicle 82-7-4, 38. The discrepancies are best explained on the assumption that the latter's editor has confused Kurigalzu, the young son of Hurna-Buriash, with Kurigalzu I., the son of Kadashman-Kharbe I., to whom the chronicler's ascription of success against the Sutû should be transferred (see Thureau-Dangin, "Journ. Asiat.," XI., 1908, pp. 125 if., and cp. Knudtzon, "Die El-Amarna-Tafeln," p. 34, n. 2).]

[Footnote 54: He was no doubt elated by his successful war with Elam, in the course of which he captured Khurpatila, the Elamite king; cf. Delitzsch, "Das Bab. Chron.," p. 45.]

[Footnote 55: "Annals," pp. xxviii., xxxii.]

[Footnote 56: The successor of his father and grandfather, Shagarakti-Shuriash and Kudur-Enlil upon the Babylonian throne.]

[Footnote 57: The unification of Babylonia under the Kassites was symbolized by the name Karduniash, which they bestowed on the country as a whole. But the older territorial divisions of Sumer and Akkad still survived as geographical terms and in the royal titles.]

[Footnote 58: Cf. King, "Records of Tukulti-Ninib I.," pp. 96 ff.]

[Footnote 59: The short reigns of Enlil-nadin-shum, Kadashman-Khabe II. and Adad-shum-iddin must be regarded as falling partly within the period of Tukulti-Ninib's troubled years of suzerainty, partly in the reign of Tukulti-Ashur, when the statue of Marduk, carried off by Tukulti-Ninib, was restored to Babylon. The reign of Enlil-nadin-shum was cut short by Kidin-Khutrutash of Elam, who sacked Nippur and Dêr, while a few years later the same Elamite monarch penetrated still further into Babylonia after defeating Adad-shum-iddin; cf. Delitzsch, "Das Bab. Chron.," p. 46.]

[Footnote 60: "Annals," p. xli.]

[Footnote 61: The name in the Kings' List reads _Bêl-nadin-_(....); and in the fragmentary inscription in which Nebuchadnezzar records how he turned the tables upon Elam, he refers to a ruler, between (Zamama)-shum-iddin and himself, as _(ilu)BE-nadin-akhi_ (see Rawlinson, "Cun. Inscr. West Asia," III., pl. 38, No. 2, and cf. Winckler, "Altorientalische Forschungen," I., pp. 534 ff.). The divine ideogram _(ilu)BE_ was read as Ea by the Babylonians and as Enlil by the Assyrians. And the identification of the two royal names has been called in question on the grounds that the Assyrian copy, in which Nebuchadnezzar's text has come down to us, would have reproduced the Babylonian orthography of its original, and that in any case it is doubtful whether Enlil, like Marduk, ever bore the synonymous title of Bêl (cf. Thureau-Dangin, "Journ. Asiat.," XI., p. 132 f.). If we reject the identification, we should read the name of the last king of the Kassite Dynasty as Ea-nadin-[....], and regard Bêl-nadin-akhi as probably the second or third ruler of the Fourth Dynasty.]

[Footnote 62: The contracts and letters of this period closely resemble those of the time of the First Dynasty. The dated documents have furnished a means of controlling the figures assigned in the Kings' List to the later Kassite rulers; see Clay, "Documents from the Temple Archives of Nippur," in the "Bab. Exped." Series, Vol. XIV. f., and for a number of contemporary letters, see Radau, _ibid.,_ Vol. XVII., i.]

[Footnote 63: See above, pp. 241, 244.]

[Footnote 64: For the kudurru-inscriptions in the British Museum, see "Babylonian Boundary-Stones and Memorial Tablets in the Brit. Mus." (1912); and for references to and discussions of other texts, cf. Hincke, "A New Boundary-Stone of Nebuchadnezzar I." (1907), pp. xvi. ff., 10 ff.]

[Footnote 65: Cf. "Sumer and Akkad," p. 105.]

[Footnote 66: See Hincke, _op. cit.,_ p. 4.]

[Footnote 67: Cf. "Sumer and Akkad," pp. 206 ff.]

[Footnote 68: Cf. Cuq, "Nouvelle Revue Historique," 1907, p. 707 f., 1908, p. 476 f.]

[Footnote 69: Resemblances have been pointed out between the boundary-records of ancient Egypt and those of Babylonia; but of course no inference of borrowing need be inferred from them. The method of marking out the limits of a field or estate by means of boundary-stones, or boundary-tablets, is common among peoples who have abandoned nomad life for agriculture; and the further idea of inscribing the owner's name and title to the land is one that would naturally suggest itself.]

[Footnote 70: This is suggested by the fact that the symbols and curses so often do not correspond; had they both been bound up in a like origin, we should have expected the one to illustrate the other more closely.]

[Footnote 71: It was quite optional on the part of a Kassite landowner to engrave a boundary-stone, and, if he did so, it was simply to secure additional protection for his title. This is well illustrated by a kudurru of the reign of Nazi-maruttash (see Plate XXI.), which was only engraved after the original clay title-deed had been destroyed by the fall of the building in which it had been preserved.]

[Footnote 72: See Plate XXI., opposite; and cp. Scheil, "Textes Élam.-Sémit.," I., pp. 99 ff., pl. 21 ff.]

[Footnote 73: See above, pp. 167 ff.]

[Footnote 74: Cf. Cuq, "Nouv. Rev. Hist.," 1906, pp. 720 ff., 1908, p. 474 f. This view appears preferable to the theory that the land granted by the Kassite kings was taken from communal or public laud of a city, or district, of which the king had the right to dispose (cf. Hincke, "Boundary Stone of Nebuchadnezzar I.," p. 16).]

[Footnote 75: See above, p. 247.]