"Kunuk ahhi" the seal of the brothers. Notes on the use of a collective seal at Ekalte during the Late Bronze age
Among the numerous legal tablets uncovered in sites from the middle Euphrates valley and dated to the Late
Bronze age, nine documents from the town of Ekalte (Tall Munbaqa) bear a seal impression which is defined as kunuk
aḫḫī, the seal of the “brothers”. The relevant role of collective civil bodies – assembly of elders and enlarged families or
clans - in the socio-economic life of the main towns in the land of Aštata (Emar, Ekalte, Azŭ, Baṣīru), has been extensively
studied, but the presence of a “collective seal” pertaining to the social group defined as “brothers” is attested only
at Ekalte. This represents an interesting use of a seal related not to a single individual or function but to a defined group
of people, usually summoned to witness different legal transaction related to family matters. Some reflection on its use
and on the juridical value of sealing in the written corpus from the town will be analyzed.