Abstract
This communication studies the Ur III worker-designations ab(-ba)-il2, ama-il2, and (nu-mu-)su-il2, which appear in the economic sources from Umma and Girsu/Lagaš. Expending on the earlier treatments by C. Wilcke and W. Sallaberger, it is argued that these classifications designate workers who were temporarily freed from the performance of corvée duty, in order to be able to care for their elderly (and probably ailing) mothers and fathers. The existence of such regulations has important implications for the status of the Ur III labor.
Ur III Economy and Bureaucracy