This tablet represents the earliest known attempt at legislating reform.
Measured by power and prestige, Lagash reached its apex during the reign of Eannatum. But the wars of empire proved costly and ultimately unsustainable. By the time Urukagina came to power, approximately seventy-five years later, Lagash was racked by internal strife and pressed by enemies on every side. The domestic issues it faced are described in a remarkable document known as the Urukagina Reform Text. It was hailed by Samuel Kramer as “one of the most precious and revealing documents in the history of man and his perennial and unrelenting struggle for freedom from tyranny and oppression.”1Kramer 1963, 83 Perhaps it is not a coincidence, observed Kramer, that the first instance of the word “freedom” appears in this text, of which three versions survive.
The Tyranny
The text begins with a list of abusive practices committed by the previous rulers of Lagash.
“Formerly, from days of yor, from (the day) the seed (of man) came forth, the man in charge of the boatmen seized the boats. The head shepherd seized the donkeys. The head shepherd seized the sheep. The man in charge of the fisheries seized the fisheries. The barley rations of the guda-priests were measured out (to their disadvantage) in the Ashte (presumably the storehouse of the ensi).
If the son of a poor man laid out a fish pond, the (influential) man would take away its fish, (and) that man went unpunished.2Text 26 in Kramer 1961, 321
The abuses committed by palace administrators was not confined to seizing assets, as egregious as those abuses were; but extended also to the use of legislative power for the purpose of creating monopolies by which to extract even more wealth from the people. The sheering of sheep, for example, could not be performed by oneself, but by an appointee of the palace, and for “cold-hard cash”—a specified weight of silver. Heavy taxes were assayed on all kinds of other activities as well.
If a man divorced his wife, the ensi took 5 shekels of silver and the sukkalmah took one shekel of silver. If a perfumer made a “head”-oil preparation (?), the ensi took 5 shekels of silver, and the sukkalmah took 1 shekel of silver.3Text 26 in Kramer 1961, 321
The greed exhibited by the ruling elite cascaded down to the lowest and humblest parts of society. If the ensi (governor) stole oxen, donkeys, and clothing belonging to the sanga (temple official), the sanga “felled the trees in the garden of the indigent mother and bundled off the fruit.”4Text 24 in Kramer 1961, 321 The overall condition of the land was epitomized in the following bitter lament:
From the borders of Ningirsu to the sea, ther+e was the tax collector.5Text 24 in Kramer 1961, 318
The Reforms
After describing the terrible condition of the land, the Urukagina Reform Text recounts the actions taken by Urukagina to restore order. What was stolen he returned to its rightful owner; artisans were no longer forced to beg in the streets for bread, and those imprisoned for heavy debts were released. Urukagina made a covenant with Ningirsu, the patron deity of Lagash, that a man of power must not commit an (injustice) against an orphan or widow.6Text 24 in Kramer 1961, 319 Most importantly, Urukagina formulated several laws to prevent a “big man” from coercing a small freeholder into selling his house or donkey.
When the house of a king’s retainer [freeholder] was next to the house of a “big man” (and) that “big man” says to him, “I want to buy it from you,” and if when he (the “big man”) is about to buy it from him, he (the king’s retainer) says, “Pay me as much as I think fair” or “Pay me in barley equivalent to my house,” then when he refuses to sell it, that “big man” must not coerce him to do so.7 Text 24 in Kramer 1961, 319
This law, which is recorded at the conclusion of the document, represents the earliest known attempt at codifying law. It is perhaps significant that the earliest legislation known to mankind was aimed at preventing monopolies.
Temple vs. Palace
The Urukagina Reform Text reveals a simmering rivalry between the temple and the palace. Curiously, Urukagina sides with the temple by accusing the palace of usurping land and power which rightfully belonged to the temple. Or to put it more colloquially, the ensi’s of Lagash were stealing the oxen and onion patches of the gods!
The oxen of the gods plowed the onion patches of the ensi, (and) the onion (and) cucumber fields of the ensi were located in the god’s best fields.8Text 24 in Kramer 1961, 317
Some scholars conclude from this and other passages that the Sumerian city-states were originally theocracies, ruled by the city’s gods, and only gradually were transformed into monarchies, ruled by a king. Kramer thought it more likely that the institutions of the palace and the temple had always coexisted in Sumer and that the potential for conflict between the two was always present. Kramer also draws attention to a third group, the freeholders, who owned the land they farmed and whose members formed the backbone of the city council. In the case of Lagash, it seems that the palace began to intrude on the prerogatives of both the freeholders and the temple.9Kramer 1961, 74-75
The reign of Urukagina did not last more than seven years before Lagash fell to Lugalzagesi, king of Umma, that ancient foe. However, the city seems to have recovered from this defeat quickly enough and regained its place among Sumer’s leading cities. Indeed, as we will see, Lagash was one of the few cities that retained its independence and even prospered after the collapse of the Akkadian Empire and the anarchy that followed. Perhaps the reforms of Urukagina were not all in vain.
Kramer, S. N.
The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1963. Link