Canal or Wall? A Council Meeting in a Sumerian City-State

The Assembly of Kish, After the Barley Harvest

1The barley harvest is in. The lugal, the king of the city-state of Kish, has called the elders to the courtyard below the temple of the city's god. Kish rules its walled city and the villages and fields around it. Today's question: how should the city use its 600 free workers before the next planting?

2Elder Abba-kalla, who oversees the fields east of the city, speaks first. "Our fields stop where our canals stop. Beyond them the ground is hard and dry, because rain alone cannot grow barley here. A new canal from the Euphrates would water land that now lies empty. More barley means more grain in the temple storehouse, and more barley to trade for timber, stone and copper, which our land does not have."

3Captain Ur-Dumu, who commands the city's soldiers, answers. "A canal is worth nothing if our neighbors take it from us. Last spring, men from a rival city pulled up our boundary stones and cut the dike that feeds our western fields. Part of our wall fell in the flood two years ago, and the gap is still open. Rebuild the wall first. Our ox carts can haul the bricks, so the work will go quickly."

4The scribe Lu-Nanna, who keeps the city's records, asks to speak. "Whatever you choose, let it be written. My tablets show which families take water from each canal and how many days each crew has worked. And when our rival claims the boundary stones stood somewhere else, the treaty tablet sworn before the gods of both cities will show where they stood."

5Abba-kalla replies, "A wall feeds no one. If we dig the canal now, the new fields can be planted this season. The wall can wait until after the next harvest." Ur-Dumu answers, "And if our rival attacks before then, the new fields will feed their soldiers, not our children."

6The lugal raises a hand for silence. Before the assembly decides, he asks Lu-Nanna to read aloud the tally of workers and days.