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role of bride-giver. Thus two successive kings of Mari married daugh-
ters of the kings of Qatna and Halab, respectively, while Zimri-Lim
of Mari married offa nestful of daughters to his vassals in northern
Syria.^8 More specific treaties could be concluded to establish peace,
settle border disputes, or regulate grazing rights. A particular type of
international agreement could be concluded to regulate long-distance
trade (see 3.5 below).
A king would then, at any given moment, be bound by a whole
set of formal non-domestic obligations.^9 Given the hectic political
milieu with rapidly changing alliances and brisk succession of kings
in many of the city states, it follows that such obligations were violated
from time to time. To what extent the threat of human retribution
or the divine sanctions invoked when formal agreements were concluded
would deter would-be violators depended on circumstances and on
individual integrity and temperament. No independent human agency
monitored such matters, but inveterate turncoats would obviously risk
severe and universal censure. A particularly infamous example is pro-
vided by King Jashub-Addu of Ahazum (in northeastern Iraq), who
changed sides five times within three years: he was described as “a
mental case” and a man “who concludes alliances as if in his sleep.”^10- T
3.1 Procedure
Our sources provide many concrete examples of conclusion of treaties,
but often the procedures are described in tantalizing pars pro totofash-
ion, which has made elucidation of comprehensive patterns difficult.
Recently, however, new materials have provided a firmer basis for
the study of these problems.^11 Just as power relations were described
as family relations writ large, so the conclusion of international agree-
ments was basically a grander version of any formal agreement con-
cluded by oath. As such, the basic and traditional procedure was
oral. The few surviving treaty texts provide no clear pattern for the
use or non-use of written documents in the proceedings. Although(^8) Lafont, “Les filles...”
(^9) Joannès, “Le traité...”
(^10) Læssøe, “Aspect.. .”; Eidem and Læssøe, Shemshàra Archives, nos. 1–4.
(^11) Eidem, Leilan, pt. II.1, contains a detailed discussion of these problems.
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