The ENGAR/ikkarum at Mari

Abstract

"The main purpose of this paper, offered in tribute to the doyen of Sumerian belles-lettres, is to collect the Mari evidence on the figure of the E/i. Its conclusions do not mean to dispute the third definition of the CAD and the AHw ("Farm bailiff/Gutsinspektor,).8 However, Mari's rich epistolary, economic, and, to a lesser degree, legal documentation offer us an exceptionally good opportunity to add a welcome dimension to our assessment of this office. By means of prosopographical research, I aim to reconstruct the career of those individuals, 'plowmen' aside, who were given the title of E/i. I shall first discuss those texts; mostly economic and administrative, which reveal little beyond the name of the E/i. I shall then gather letters which speak of unnamed E/i.'s, and finally, collect letters in which an E/i. is identified by name."