Everything Must Go: Consequences of State Projects and Controlling the Levant for the Eanna Temple (591–590 BCE)

Abstract This paper presents a study of YOS 17, 360, a collection of 30–33 administrative records from the Eanna temple in Uruk that are dated to Nabû-kudurrī-uṣur (Nebuchadnezzar) II’s 14th year. The first few columns contain transactions concerning gold, while the rest are largely related to prebendary payments. In addition to providing an edition of YOS 17, 360 and related texts, this study seeks to understand why these particular transactions were collected and what insight it gives us into the historical circumstances. The evidence suggests that Eanna experienced a financial crisis at this time, during which it sold off its assets and had difficulties paying its priests. The cause of the crisis seems to have been royal demands put on the temple to provide money and manpower in support of the king’s building and/or military endeavors, possibly including Babylonian movements into the Levant and resulting clashes with Egypt.