著者
前川 和也
出版者
一般社団法人 日本オリエント学会
雑誌
オリエント (ISSN:00305219)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.46, no.2, pp.28-51, 2003 (Released:2010-03-12)
参考文献数
31

The battle formation of the Sumerian phalanx, which is carved in relief on the reverse of the Stele of the Vultures, is studied in this article in light of textual sources, i. e., administrative documents, almost contemporary to the Stele, and later royal hymns and lexical texts.DP 135 (dated around 2370 B. C.) suggests that a complete Sumerian phalanx was composed of thirty-two soldiers: a commander, a sub-commander, twenty-four spearmen and six shield-bearers. According to the Stele of the Vultures (produced 50 years or more earlier than DP 135), on the other hand, Lagashite troops of thirty men in phalanx formation, being led by King Eannatum, charged on the enemy. In my view, the phalanx of the Stele is composed of the following soldiers: a sub-commander, a shield-bearer who protects the sub-commander, twenty-four spearmen standing in four lines, and four shield-bearers protecting the first four spearmen of the respective lines. Although neither a commander nor a man holding a protective shield for the commander is found in the Stele, the battle formation drawn on the Stele differs only superficially from what DP 135 suggests. King Eannatum, whom the Stele depicts as standing unguarded in front of his troops in phalanx, plays the role of commander.I reconstruct the phalanx of the Stele as follows. The head and the two feet that are found on the far right (as one faces it) in the phalanx relief of the Stele (called Head 1-Feet 1-2 in this article) represent the sub-commander of the troops. The second soldier, with the head and feet second from the right in relief (Head 2-Feet 3-4), protects the sub-commander with his large shield. The spearman of Head 3-Feet 5-6 stands at the head of the six men in the first line, being guarded by the shield-bearer of Head 4-Feet 7-8, and so on. On the far left of the Stele, the head and feet of the spearman, who is positioned first in the fourth line, are only imperfectly carved (Head 9-Feet 17-18). Two more heads are in relief on the left side board of the Stele, with the carvings of their four feet being completely lost from the board (Head 1′-Feet 1′-2′ Head 2′-Feet 3′-4′). I conclude that the spearman of Head 9-Feet 17-18, found last on the reverse, occurs again on the right of the side board (Head 1′-Feet 1′-2′) and that he is protected by the fifth shield held by the man of Head 2′-Feet 3′-4′ on his left.The term ama-ERIN2 refers to shield-bearers in DP 135. In the other contemporary text (Nik 1 3), however, it occurs as a designation of the whole army (composed of both shield-bearers and spearmen). The expression ama-erin2-na of the later periods, which is often interpreted by Assyriologists to denote “the main body of the troops” on the basis of its Akkadian translation, seems to have been derived from ama-ERIN2 with a meaning as found in Nik 1 3. Like Eannatum of Pre-Sargonic Lagash, King Shulgi of Ur, dated to the first half of the 21st century B. C., was obligated to stand alone before his troops (called ama-erin2-na) [Šulgi B 31; Šulgi E 209]. It is rather doubtful, however, that Shulgi's troops were in phalanx formation as had been the case of the soldiers of Eannatum.ERIN2-suh5-ha, which is used as a designation for spearmen in DP 135, occurs again in a later lexical text in slightly different writing (erin2-suh). ERIN2-suh5-ha is possibly interpreted to mean “selected troops (of spearmen guarded by shield-holders).”
著者
前川 和也 川瀬 豊子 寺村 裕史 森 若葉 春田 晴郎
出版者
国士舘大学
雑誌
基盤研究(B)
巻号頁・発行日
2017-04-01

本研究ではバビロニア楔形文字資料、イラン国立博物館蔵文書を主資料とし、考古発掘成果も参照しつつ、古代イラン―バビロニア世界の関係が分析された。本研究での諸発見(前3千年紀末バビロニアの南西イラン制圧、2千年紀前半アンシャンでのバビロニア起源書記文書の存在、前13世紀スサと他都市間の緊張など)はイラン国立博物館刊行の前川編研究書で報告される。博物館蔵レンガ碑文解析を実施し、成果を公刊した。また表面摩耗が激しいアンシャン出土文書を3Dモデル化して、文字サインを読解した。粘土板を「掘込む」楔形文字解析に3Dモデルの有用性を証明できた。本研究によるイラン各地の遺跡調査の成果も上記研究書で公刊される。
著者
前川 和也
出版者
一般社団法人 日本オリエント学会
雑誌
オリエント (ISSN:00305219)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.9, no.2-3, pp.17-61,225, 1966 (Released:2010-03-12)

The object of this article is to point out, analyzing chiefly the administrative tablets from Lagash, some characteristics of agricultural production in ancient Sumer and to explain how closely these characteristics were related to the collective labor-system.This paper consists of three parts. In the first chapter, I illustrated the productivity of the fields in Lagash. 6 gur-sag-gál 49 sìla per bùr (2179.1l per ha) and 76.1-fold of sowing amount, the figures which I gained from RTC71 and DP574 written in the same year, can be regarded as the average land and seed-productivity of barley in Lagash at the end of the Early Dynastic Period.But fertility declined greatly by the time of the Third Dynasty of Ur. My estimate of 30 gur-lugal per bùr (1193.2l per ha) was obtained from RTC407 in which were written the total area of directly-controled fields of barley in Lagash at that time, the amount of barley expected to be yielded from this area and lastly the amount actually yielded. As 1.5 gur-lugal of barley was sowed per bùr, seed-productivity was 20-fold. Th. Jacobsen and R. M. Adams think salinization of soil to be the cause of decline in fertility. But what brought about salinization still remains unsolved.At any rate, 20-fold at the period of the Third Dynasty of Ur is still higher than the figures reported about Italy in the Roman period. And 76.1-fold at the end of the Early Dynastic Period shows clearly the extraordinary fertility of Sumer. This was possible, of course, only by the elaborate irrigation-system.In the second and third chapter, I discussed the character of irrigating-works in Sumer. To begin with, I dealed with the so-called ‘Farmers' Almanac’ in which were described various advices for a good harvest given by a farmer to his son. The farmer gives his son many, sometimes too trifle, advices about the agricultural activities at the time of preparing land, sowing and harvesting. To irrigate three or four times according to the growth of barley is, however, the only one instruction by him about the period between sowing and harvesting. That is to say, a good harvest could be expected in ordinary years only by doing such works during the interval period. Naturally it was chiefly between sowing and harvesting that people were engaged in the collective irrigating-labor. In fact, we know from CT III 18343, a large Lagash-tablet of the Third Dynasty of Ur, that erìn-people worked exclusively at the ditches of various fields and canals from the seventh month to the twelfth, roughly between sowing and harvesting.A further study must be made about the interrelations between agricultural production and collective labor-organization, because ‘the pattern of despotism in Sumer’ will be defined by these two fundamental factors of sumerian society.
著者
前川和也編著
出版者
ミネルヴァ書房
巻号頁・発行日
2009
著者
前川 和也 前田 徹 依田 泉 森 若葉 松島 英子
出版者
国士舘大学
雑誌
特定領域研究
巻号頁・発行日
2005

前4千年紀末にメソポタミア南部で成立したシュメール文字記録システムが、遅くとも前3千年紀中葉にはシリア各地で受け入れられ、シリア・メソポタミア世界が一体化した(「シュメール文字」文明)。アッカド語などセム系言語を話す人々も膠着語であるシュメール語彙や音節文字を容易に利用できたのである。本研究は、「「シュメール文字」文明」の展開過程、またセム諸民族がこれを用いてどのように社会システムやイデオロギーを表現しようとしたかを考究した。