Wool Economy in the royal archive of Mari during the shakkanakkus period

More than 2000 administrative documents from the shakkanakkus (19th century B.C) period were uncovered in the city of Mari. Since these texts record administrative acts concerning flock of sheep, production and distribution of textile, it is therefore possible to reconstitute a part of the economic implications of wool at that time. Thus few texts deal with the shearing of sheep and with the feminine personal involved in textile factory. On the other hand the important corpus from the office of the official Silamun indicates the quantity of oil and alum used according to the kind of textile. Moreover some documents are related to the delivery of textile either to other offices or to female musicians. At last, precious textile is offered to different persons belonging to the elites, especially to the Amorrite tribal lords Aminum and Yagid-Lim.
In order to broaden the issues offered by the shakkanakkus texts, it is of interest to take into consideration similar documents from other areas or periods. Thus the technical reconstitution of the production of textiles can be better understood through a comparison with the numerous tablets from Ur III period, which deal with textile factory. Furthermore a diachronic approach of this topic in Mari can be established through a focus on the Old-Babylonian texts.