Neglected Source of Prosperity. Marsh resources and the role of the enku in Third millennium BC Southern Mesopotamia

Recent studies have discussed the importance of marshes in the economic landscape of Southern Mesopotamia in the fourth and third millennium BC. If, on the one side, extant documentation offers abundant evidence for marsh natural products, on the other one, mentions of marshes as place of provenance of incoming commodities are quite scarce. This might be due to several factors, among them, to the fact that in economic texts the information about the provenance of incoming commodities can be simply replaced by the name of agents who had to supply specific commodities. The role of intermediary agent between marsh resources and state or provincial institutions may have been played by the ‘enku(d/r)’, a profession attested from the beginning of the cuneiform tradition, traditionally translated as ‘inspector of the fishery’ or ‘tax collector’. The present contribute aims to solve such an ambiguity and reassess the connection between the ‘enku(d/r)’and taxes in third millennium documents.