TY - THES
AU - William David Whitt
AB - This dissertation is a study of the organization and workings of the various administrative offices in the palace of Ugarit. Palace administration has received little previous study, yet a clear view of it is essential to understanding the nature of the state in the ancient Near East. Palace administration is best understood in terms of individual scribal offices and the activities overseen by each office. The main sort of evidence at our disposal for these offices is the remains of the archives connected with them; thus to understand how administrative offices were organized and run requires an in-depth study of their archives.

The methodology used in this study is the "archival approach" as it has been developed by Assyriologists and classicists in Mycenean studies. The archival approach involves correlating the evidence provided by architecture, uninscribed artifacts, and inscribed artifacts (texts). The study made use of all published archaeological reports from Ras Shamra (Ugarit) and all published tablets from the royal palace.

There was a clear division of responsibilities between the palace offices: the west office was mainly concerned with the military, the east office with in-coming and out-going goods and commodities, and the central office with legal and diplomatic affairs; the southwest office was responsible for baking tablets produced by the other offices. Yet much evidence suggested that record-keeping--and thus administration--in the palace was very often haphazard and disorganized. With the exception of the south archive, frequently it would have been impossible to find a particular tablet because of the haphazard way in which tablets were stored. Because of this and the fact that tablets were never dated, it is doubtful that accurate ledgers could ever be composed. The economic tablets from the east and central archives show that the palace's business was highly decentralized: management of much of the palace economy and relations with the villages (taxes, corvee) were carried out on the royal estates. At Ugarit, the palace's role in society was thus one of largely indirect and decentralized control--similar to a provincial system on a very small scale.
LA - English
M3 - Ph.D. Dissertation
N2 - This dissertation is a study of the organization and workings of the various administrative offices in the palace of Ugarit. Palace administration has received little previous study, yet a clear view of it is essential to understanding the nature of the state in the ancient Near East. Palace administration is best understood in terms of individual scribal offices and the activities overseen by each office. The main sort of evidence at our disposal for these offices is the remains of the archives connected with them; thus to understand how administrative offices were organized and run requires an in-depth study of their archives.

The methodology used in this study is the "archival approach" as it has been developed by Assyriologists and classicists in Mycenean studies. The archival approach involves correlating the evidence provided by architecture, uninscribed artifacts, and inscribed artifacts (texts). The study made use of all published archaeological reports from Ras Shamra (Ugarit) and all published tablets from the royal palace.

There was a clear division of responsibilities between the palace offices: the west office was mainly concerned with the military, the east office with in-coming and out-going goods and commodities, and the central office with legal and diplomatic affairs; the southwest office was responsible for baking tablets produced by the other offices. Yet much evidence suggested that record-keeping--and thus administration--in the palace was very often haphazard and disorganized. With the exception of the south archive, frequently it would have been impossible to find a particular tablet because of the haphazard way in which tablets were stored. Because of this and the fact that tablets were never dated, it is doubtful that accurate ledgers could ever be composed. The economic tablets from the east and central archives show that the palace's business was highly decentralized: management of much of the palace economy and relations with the villages (taxes, corvee) were carried out on the royal estates. At Ugarit, the palace's role in society was thus one of largely indirect and decentralized control--similar to a provincial system on a very small scale.
PB - Duke University
PY - 1993
EP - 353 pp.
TI - Archives and Administration in the Royal Palace of Ugarit
ER -