Episode 17: Land Grants and Royal Favor in Mittani
Ancient Mesopotamia: Life in the Cradle of Civilization
Dr Amanda H Podany
Film Review
This lecture concerns the kingdom of Mittani (modern Iraq and Syria) between 1450-1350 BC. The Mittani kings appointed a number of vassal kings to rule the city-states they controlled. They awarded the vassal kings land grants in return for their services. This system discouraged rebellion. The latter, in turn, taxed their subjects and paid Mittani king tribute.
Land grant contracts were drawn up on clay tablets, just as sales contracts were.* The usual penalty for reneging on a sales contract was having hot asphalt poured on your head.
In addition to the land grants and sales contracts, treaties and legal decisions were were recorded on clay tablets and witnessed and sealed (with a cylinder seal*) by the king. Archeologists have also discovered a number of minor contracts (for the purchase or emancipation of slaves, sale of vineyards, crops and luxury goods, etc) bearing the Mittani king’s seal in cities hundreds of miles distant from the capital. Podany believes this was a way of increasing the king’s influence at the extremities of his kingdom.
The Mittani kingdom thrived for about 50 years. Podany their decline to a weakening alliance between Mittani and Egypt at a time when Hittites were conducting military raids on the Mittani frontier.
*Similar land grants were found in Hatti and Babylon, although the Babylon land sales contracts were recorded on a stone stele in the temple (instead of clay tablets).
**The imprints of personal cylinder seals were used in lieu of signatures for identification. See Mesopotamian Arts and Gods in the Akkadian Empire
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