The ENGAR/ikkarum at Mari
Sasson, Jack M.
:
1976
Abstract
"The main purpose of this paper, offered in tribute to the doyen of Sumerian belles-lettres, is to collect
the Mari evidence on the figure of the E/i. Its conclusions do not mean to dispute the third definition of the
CAD and the AHw ("Farm bailiff/Gutsinspektor,).8 However, Mari's rich epistolary, economic, and, to a lesser
degree, legal documentation offer us an exceptionally good opportunity to add a welcome dimension to our
assessment of this office. By means of prosopographical research, I aim to reconstruct the career of those individuals,
'plowmen' aside, who were given the title of E/i. I shall first discuss those texts; mostly economic and
administrative, which reveal little beyond the name of the E/i. I shall then gather letters which speak of unnamed
E/i.'s, and finally, collect letters in which an E/i. is identified by name."