A Study Of Judicial Composition At Umma In Ur Ⅲ

History began in Sumer.The Third Dynasty of Ur(Ur Ⅲ),the peak of Sumerian civilization,is also the last and the mightiest dynasty which was founded by the Sumerians.Cuneiform which emerged over 5000 years ago,has come to the final stage of the language during the Ur Ⅲ.After several thousands of years,with the complete language system and the well-preserved clay tablets,Sumerians left us a large quantity of tablets(over 300,000)on which the religious,political and economic information of each period was recorded.The ancient Mesopotamian civilization has such a chequered history because it has been occupied by Sumerians,Akkadians,Amorites,Kassites,Assyrians and Persians successively.With regard to the ancient documents,nearly one-third of300,000 clay tablets were written in Sumerian.These clay tablets were preserved mainly in the most important cities of the ancient time—Nippur,Girsu,Umma,Ur and Uruk.Moreover,most of these tablets are classified as administrative and economic documents,only a few belonging to the category of literature or sign lists.A small part of these,about 300 tablets(200 tablets in Girsu,Umma with 100)are records of judicial cases at that time.Since parts of these documents are inscribed with a phrase of “di-ti-la”(final verdict),they are called “ditila documents” by the academia.Building on the websites of BDTNS and CDLI,that provide all the original sumerian ditila documents from Umma,this article first aims to sort out the major judicial officials from Umma during the period of the Ur Ⅲ dynasty,then makes a preliminary study on constitution of these judicial personnel.After the study,it is basicly confirmed that there were five types of official serving at the Umma’s court during the Ur Ⅲ dynasty.They are “di-ku5”(the Judge),“ensi2”(governor),“lu2-inim-ma”(witness),“lu2 ki-ba gub-ba”(people present)and “ma?kim”(royal commissioner).Also,there was a type of personnel(“igi-PN-?e3” in Sumerian),whose duty is between the “lu2-inim-ma” and “lu2 ki-ba gub-ba” and cannot be definitely identified.It seemed that these types of personnel actually belonged to the same group of officials.Regarding the lack of evidence and the discrepancies spotted in the documents,this article treats the witness and the people present as two types of personnel.Among the above mentioned five types of personnel,the judge is the mostimportant one,and it is the governor who is always on the scene.These two groups can be viewed as the supreme ones in court while the others had no fixed official status or position,that used to be temporarily appointed when the trial was running,since they needed to take part in the trial and witness the process of the trial.