Power and Written Culture in 18th century BC Upper Mesopotamia – PCEHM

The "revolution in writing" that characterised the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC in Mesopotamia took place first in central and southern Iraq. It is only at the end of the 19th century BC that we see the new practices spread to Upper Mesopotamia, i.e. Northern Iraq and Eastern Syria, where thousands of cuneiform tablets written in Akkadian between 1810 and 1725 BC have been discovered since 1934: nearly 10,000 texts from the royal archives of Mari have been published, as well as 2,000 from other sites such as Qa??ara, Terqa, Tuttul, ?ubat-Enlil and ?u?arra. They testify to the use of writing for administrative and communication purposes, with correspondence playing an essential role in informing kings and in their interaction with their subordinates and peers. The question underlying the PCEHM project is threefold: to what extent was political power at the origin of this revolution in writing? Conversely, how did these cultural innovations modify the exercise of power? Finally, how does the documentation of Upper Mesopotamia differ from what is known for what is today's southern Iraq?
The project will be organised along four lines. Firstly, it will publish texts that have remained unpublished. Over the past 85 years, more than half of the Mari archives have been published, but much remains to be done: in addition to the tablets discovered in Mari between 1934 and 1939, we wish to give access to those from excavations after 1945, as well as those from other sites such as Chagar Bazar. The publication of about 2,000 texts is planned: their edition will be undertaken in about ten printed monographs with substantial commentaries as well as in electronic form with photos in the Archibab database.
It is also necessary to facilitate access to the texts already published, which are currently available in too dispersed a manner. The PCEHM project will improve and complete the existing computer tools. The integration of already published texts into the Archibab database must be completed: their electronic re-edition will benefit from the progress made since their first edition and from the collations, published or unpublished, as well as from the exploitation of the numerous photographs that will be made public. Once this has been done, numerous research projects can be resumed, notably those concerning chronology, syllabaries, prosopography, and others that will appear along the way.
In this way, the study of the mechanisms by which the written word acquired a new status can be renewed. Three syntheses will contribute to this. One will focus on archival and accounting practices in the palace of Mari, which will study the methods and reasons for the drafting, conservation and consultation of administrative and legal texts. The second will analyse the processes of political domination in Upper Mesopotamia over the long period of the 2nd millennium and the place of writing in these constructions. The third will focus on the writing, transport and reading of letters in the 18th century B.C. It will analyse the mechanisms by which correspondence acquired a new status at that time, which explains the crucial role it played from then on in the exercise of power in Upper Mesopotamia.
Finally, it is hoped to work towards the dissemination of research findings. A “Carnet Hypothèse” will report on the progress of the project. A new website, in the form of an interactive atlas of Upper Mesopotamia, will present the places where written documents have been discovered, situating them in their archaeological context and providing access to their electronic edition. The regular courses of the "Civilisation mésopotamienne" chair and an international colloquium at the Collège de France will be devoted to the themes and documents exploited by the project and put online for the use of a wide audience.