Position in chronology
SAA 07 014. List of Various Craftsmen (ADD 0770)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) Ma'a-il; (2) Adda-abi; (3) Adda-idri; (4) Ilu-liphur; (5) total, 4 [iron]smiths. (6) Šulm[u-..., ...]; (Break) (r 3) total, 5 [...]. (r 4) Lip[hur-...]; (r 5) Bazaz[u, ...]; (r 6) Uar[bis]; (r 7) total, 3 potters.
Source: Fales, F.M. & Postgate, J.N. 1992. Imperial Administrative Records, Part I: Palace and Temple Administration. SAA 7. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa07/P335631/
Why it matters
Transliteration
⸢m*ma?⸣-ʾa-a-⸢DINGIR?⸣ / m10—a-bi / m10—id-ri / mDINGIR—lip-ḫur / PAB 04 LÚ.SIMUG—⸢AN?⸣.[BAR] / mDI-⸢mu⸣—[x x x] / LÚ.⸢x⸣+[x x x x x] / m[x x x x x] / PAB 05* [LÚ.x x x] / mlip-[x x x x] / mba-za-⸢zu⸣ [o] / mu-a-⸢ár?⸣-[bi-is] / PAB 03 LÚv.DUG*.⸢QA*.BUR*⸣
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian administrative record (palace or temple), edited by F.M. Fales & J.N. Postgate (SAA 7, 1992). ORACC text P335631.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P335631). source
Translation excerpted from Fales, F.M. & Postgate, J.N. 1992. Imperial Administrative Records, Part I: Palace and Temple Administration. SAA 7. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa07/P335631/.
Related tablets
Related sources
One of the earliest specimens of human writing. Not literature, not law — accounting. The need to keep track of grain in a temple bureaucracy is what pushed marks-on-clay into a system that could one day carry epics.
A window into the world's first total state. The Ur III administration tracked every animal, every worker, every shekel — for a population in the millions. The level of paperwork was not exceeded until the modern era.