On amīlūtu in Emar

As a Type of Antichretic Pledge

Abstract

In the Emar texts, amīlūtu (LÚ.Ú.LU-), (lit.) “status of a free man,” appears as the technical term for an antichretic pledge of persons. This term is attested in eight texts (e.g., Emal VI 16: 2; also to be restored in ASJ 13-T 38: 3), and its counterpart term for a female, amīltūtu (MÍ.Ú.LU-), is found in one text (Subartu 17-T: 3). All of these are texts of the Syro-Hittite type concerning debts of silver. This study deals With amīlūtu contracts, mainly on the basis of Emar VI 77, ASJ 10-T A and RA 77-T 5 (=ASJ 13-T 35). As a result of an analysis of these texts in comparison With other debt contracts from Emar and with the personal tidennūtu contracts from Nuzi, the following features of the Emar amīlūtu contract can be pointed out: the debtor himself enters into the house of the creditor as an antichretic pledge=amīlūtu; at the same time, security for the debt/debtor (i.e., a pledge or surety, always including a person who Was a member of the debtor’s family) is set; the debtor repays only the capital, but instead of paying interest, he is obliged to work at the house of the creditor until the debt is paid; the term of the contract is indefinite. Furthermore, RE 39 suggests that the claim on the silver loan can be transferred or inherited within the family of the creditor. The position of the amīlūtu was probably the same as that of a slave. However, since the creditor was always protected from loss due to the debtor’s flight or death by the security who would take his place, the amīlūtu contracts seem to have been more favorable to the creditors than the debt-slave contracts were.