Since we do not know the order of the various year names, instead of numbering them,
we assign these year names letters.
Naming the year appears to have been a royal prerogative. Year names commemo-
rated notable achievements that had recently taken place: these could be military,
diplomatic, cultic or building accomplishments.^15 Military defeats were a frequent
source for the year names; for example, Naram-Sin year e, year “Naram-Sin defeated
Maridaban” (Frayne 1997 : 85 ), Ur-Namma year k, year “The Land of Guti was dest-
royed”; Shu-Sin year 7 , year “Shu-Sin, king of Ur, king of the four quarters, destroyed
the land of Zabshali.”^16
Diplomatic alliances, chiefly through dynastic marriage, were also often commem-
orated in year names, such as Shulgi Year 30 : “The ‘governor’ [that is, king] of Anshan
married the king’s daughter,” or Ibbi-Sin year 5 , “The ‘governor’ [king] of Zabshali
married Tukin-hatti-migrisha, the king’s daughter.”^17
Cultic matters commemorated in year names can be subdivided into first, the
appointment of cultic officials, and second, building. Babylonians believed that cultic
officials were not simply appointed by the king; rather, the gods, through extispicy,
manifested their will and chose their clergy. Thus the year names generally stress how
the omens picked the priests and priestesses commemorated, as the following examples
show. An unplaced year name of Utu-hegal was “The year the chief priest of Inanna
was chosen by omens” (Frayne 1997 : 280 ). Naram-Sin’s year II was the year the en-
priestess of Nanna, daughter of Naram-Sin, was chosen by omens (Frayne 1997 : 87 ).
Sometimes the building was the (re)construction of temples, but sometimes the year
names refer to creating objects for use on the gods’ statues or by the gods. Naram-Sin
year m commemorates the construction of a temple of Inanna in Agade (Frayne 1997 :
85 ). Ur-Namma year o refers to the construction of a chariot for the goddess Ninlil.^18
Building activities of national importance could also serve as the basis for a year
name. For instance, Ur-Namma year n commemorates the digging of a major new
canal.^19 Shu-Sin year 4 commemorates the construction of a wall intended to keep
Amorites out called the Muriq-tidnim, “wall that keeps the Amorites at bay.”^20 Shulgi
year 39 was named after the construction of a “household” of Shulgi’s called Puzrish-
Dagan: we know this better by its Arabic name, Drehem. The event thus seems to
commemorate less the actual brick and mortar building and more the institution of a
new form of administration.
An event that was viewed as particularly important could be used as a year name
over several years. Shulgi’s construction of the Puzrish-Dagan establishment gave its
name to Shulgi year 39 , year 40 (the year after.. .) and 41 , (the year after the year.. .)
(Sallaberger 1999 : 143 ).
Each reign was apparently self-contained. There were occasional exceptions.
Although much of the third millennium documentation that we have refer to various
years in a king’s reign by year names, as just discussed, there are some earlier archives
in which the years were numbered. For instance, year numbering is attested in Early
Dynastic Lagash (Yamamoto 1979 : 85 – 97 and 1980 : 169 – 187 ; Sallaberger 1999 : 232 ),
and in the province of Umma under Sargonic rule.^21 Such patterns of dating years by
reign may show the germ of a conception of sequential numbering of years, but these
were the exception rather than the rule in the third millennium.
–– Tonia Sharlach ––