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of the cult; administration of justice. For all these functions he had
at his disposal specialized offices.^24 It is probable that most of the
extant archives, which were found mainly at Tello/Girsu and Jokha/
Umma, come from these offices. From these archives we can recon-
struct the operation of the various services (e.g., fisheries,^25 textile
manufacture,^26 metallurgy,^27 forests,^28 agriculture,^29 organization of
the local cults^30 ) and their administrative procedures.2.4.2.3 Apart from the ensik, many provinces also had a military
governor (“agina). Some may have had several. Their distribution
was based on the situation of garrisons and the mobilization of troops
throughout the empire. Completely independent of the ensik, they
had standing troops at their disposal and received their authority
directly from the central government, either from the grand vizier
(sukkal-ma¢) or the king himself. Unlike the ensik, they were fre-
quently of foreign origin, as shown by their names, which are less
often Sumerian than Elamite, Hurrian, Akkadian, or Amorite. Many
of these “new men” came to be directly linked to the royal family
by marriage.^312.4.2.4 The Great Estates
The socioeconomic and administrative structure of each of the core
provinces rested on the existence of large estates (é),^32 mostly attached
to the temples (é + name of divinity).^33 The income of these estates,
which were practically self-sufficient, came from their own land, their
herds, and their tenants, from gifts and ex voto offerings (a-ru-a),^34(^24) See, e.g., the functioning of the “fiscal office” of the province of Umma, whose
task was to collect taxes, as described by Steinkeller, “Foresters.. .,” 76, n. 17.
(^25) Englund, Organisation...
(^26) Waetzoldt, Untersuchungen...
(^27) Limet, Le travail.. .; Neumann, “Handwerk.. .”; Lafont, “Les forgerons...”
(^28) Steinkeller, “Foresters...”
(^29) Maekawa, “Agricultural Texts.. .” and “Management.. .”; Heimpel, “Plow
Animal...”
(^30) Sallaberger, Der kultische Kalender...
(^31) Goetze, “”akkanakkus.. .”; Steinkeller, “Administrative...”
(^32) Gelb, “Household...”
(^33) In the province of Girsu there were some fifteen temple estates (Maekawa,
“Agricultural Texts.. .”; Heimpel, “Plow Animal.. .”; de Maaijer, “Land Tenure.. .”).
The temple of Inanna at Nippur (é-dinanna) offers a well-documented example of
one of these institutional estates, managed by the members of the same extended
family for several generations (Zettler, Ur III Temple.. .).
(^34) Gelb, “The arua...”
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