Os asnos no período paleoassírio: animais indispensáveis à vida do mercador e ao funcionamento do comércio (Mesopotâmia, Idade do Bronze Médio)

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At the beginning of the 2nd millennium BCE, in the Old Assyrian period, the city of Aššur (situated in northern Mesopotamia) emerged as a prominent center in an extensive long-distance trade network. Hundreds of members of Assyrian merchant families ventured into the remote Anatolian lands, specially Kaneš, to trade tin and textiles, and sometimes copper and wool, in exchange for gold and silver. The success of this endeavor largely owns to the use of donkeys as pack-animals. Donkeys were organized in caravans, leaving Mesopotamia a couple of times a year to reach central Anatolia, where they were also traded. This article aims to present the fundamental importance of donkeys in the organization of long-distance trade as well as all the effort required to properly select and care for this animal along its life cycle. For this purpose, we intend to carry out a bibliographical review based on a discussion of available literature in dialogue with the Old Assyrian textual sources. The archive of an Assyrian merchant named Elamma provides us a case study. It will enable us to examine in detail the presence of these animals in the life of a merchant.