Universal Control

Abstract

The use of royal titles and epithets hinting at universal control of the world is well known in every period of ancient Near Eastern history, and not least in the Late Bronze age. The interesting problem is logical and classificatory: how were the ancient scribes able to express totality, and consequently total control? The easiest way is to assert authority over a world viewed as an undifferentiated unit. A classical example of this is the Akkadian title sar kissati (‘king of the universe’), which in our period is assumed by the Kassite kings (from Kurigalzu I on) in its properly abstract meaning,¹ and by the Assyrian kings (from Ashur-uballit I to Tiglat-pileser I),² and as a reaction also by the Hittite king Tudhaliya IV,³ probably with a more precise allusion to the control of Upper Mesopotamia. Another way is to assert control over a totality, or whole, viewed as united but not unitary, homogeneous but not compact, as implied by the Akkadian title šar /bēl kiššat nišē ‘king / lord of the whole people’⁴ or by the Egyptian title nb n h’tswt nbt ‘lord of all lands’.⁵