ordeal (íd-lú-ru-gú-“è) or returning from it (íd-lú-ru-gú-ta). An admin-
istrative document records the safe return of two court ladies, one
of them the nurse of Princess Shat-Sin, who acted as substitutes for
the princess (Limet, Textes.. ., no. 37). It has been suggested that a
literary composition contains details of the procedure, namely that
a person sinking (and therefore guilty) was rescued with a mooring-
pole in order to face punishment.^57- P S
4.1 Citizenship
A free citizen is most commonly referred to in Sumerian simply as
lú (“man, householder”), a term which assumes rather than asserts
the status. A more specific term is “son/daughter of a man” (dumu-
lú/dumu-munus-lú), asserting that the person was freeborn.^58 Strictly
speaking it is not an absolute criterion, since it only shifts the ques-
tion to an earlier generation. Since infinite historical inquiry is impos-
sible, however, at some point relative rights are accepted as absolute.
A different criterion is place of birth. “Son of the city GN” (dumu-
uru GN) is a widely used expression that focuses on the status of
free citizen. It is often used in the plural to describe the citizenry
of a particular region (e.g. NG 185:8).
A third term is dumu-gi7, literally “native son.”^59 In literary sources,
it refers to city dwellers or local inhabitants; in legal texts, it is often
used of freed slaves.^60 Note the important distinction made in these
texts: a manumitted slave is declared a dumu-gi 7 but only “like the
son of a man/the city” (dumu-lú-a“-gin 7 -na-àm/dumu-uru-gin 7 : NG
75, 74, 178:12–15). Evidently, manumission could not go so far as
to make a person freeborn when he had not been free at birth.
What the law could do, however, was to deem C’s status analogous
in law to that of a freeborn citizen and thus endowed with the same
privileges.(^57) Frymer, “Nungal Hymn...”
(^58) Note that the term for woman, “munus,” is not used independently in the
same way. A free woman is defined by her paternity.
(^59) Steinkeller, “Early Political Development.. .,” 112–13, n. 9.
(^60) NG 75, 76:1–8, 177:17–20; cf. LL-I 25–26. Possibly its legal meaning; see
Westbrook, “A Sumerian Freedman.”
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