Archaeological and documentary evidence is used to investigate two major institutions of the Old Assyrian city-state: the City Hall in Assur, and the Office of the Colony in Kültepe/Kanish.
Part One deals with the City Hall: its role in the economy of the city-state and its functionaries. Its activities involved the sale to merchants of commodities to be exported to Anatolia. But the Hall, managed by the Year-Eponym, was equally important for the local economy by verifying weights and measures as well as the quality of metals used as a means of exchange. Moreover, it levied taxes and appears to have controlled the city’s main granary.
A complex mechanism at the heart of the colonial system in Kültepe/Kanish is addressed in Part Two. An interpretation is offered there of the related mechanisms of the payment of the datum-contribution by registered merchants, communal fund-raising, taxation and the accounting of the colony.