Four 7th-Century BCE Neo-Assyrian Slave Sale Records from Marqasi (Kahramanmaraş) in the Erimtan Museum (Ankara) and Elsewhere

The city of Kahramanmaraş, in southeastern Turkey (ancient Marqasi), was the capital of the Luwian kingdom of Gurgum, annexed by Šarru-ukīn (Sargon) II to the Assyrian empire in 711 BCE. Four tablets stemming from diggings at the city fortress and its environs are presented here: two of them were previously published in Gökçek 2005, the other two were previously unpublished. Three of them are kept at the newly established Erimtan Museum of Archaeology and Art (Ankara). The tablets record slave sales, and are dated to the reign of Aššur-bāni-apli (Ashurbanipal) (r. 668–c. 630 BCE) and, perhaps, the reign of Aššur-aḫḫe-iddina (Esarhaddon) (r. 681–669 BCE). The texts contain a number of previously unattested personal names, some of them of clear Luwian extraction. In addition, they attest to the existence of a sanctuary to the god Nergal (perhaps identified with the Luwian god Runtiya) in Marqasi