Position in chronology
SAA 07 021. Survey of Palace Officials (ADD 0835)
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) [x hundred, the b]odyguards; (2) [x hundred, the horse train]ers of the open chariotry; (3) [x hundred, the p]refects of the royal corral; (4) [x hundred, the ch]ariot fighters; (5) [300], the mule-house-men; (6) 520, the high officials; (7) 300, the domestics; (8) 300, the tailor(s); (9) 220, the cupbearer(s); (10) 400, the cooks; (r 1) 40[0, the] confectioners; (r 2) 200, [the s]cribes; (r 3) 1,[200], the household of the Lady of the House. (r 4) 8[00, the] chief eunuch; (r 5) [x hundred, A]hu-duri; (r 6) [x hundred, De]nu-amur; (Rest destroyed)
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/P335679/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x-me] ⸢LÚv*⸣.qur-⸢ZAG*⸣ / [x-me LÚv.GIŠ].⸢GIGIR⸣—DU₈-MEŠ / [x-me LÚv].⸢GAR*⸣-nu*-MEŠ ma-ʾa-si / [x-me] ⸢LÚv⸣.A—SIG₅ / [03?-me] ⸢LÚv*⸣.ša—É—GÌR / ⸢05-me-20?⸣ LÚv*.GAL.GAL-MEŠ / 03-me LÚv.ša—É—02-e / 03-me LÚv.ka-ṣir / 02-me-20 LÚv.KAŠ*.LUL o* / 04-me LÚv.MU-MEŠ / 04-⸢me LÚv⸣.SUM.NINDA-MEŠ / 02-me [LÚv].A.BA-MEŠ / 01-[lim 02-me] ⸢É*⸣ GAŠAN—É / ⸢08?⸣-[me LÚv].GAL—SAG / [x x] m*PAB—BÀD / [x x m]⸢de?⸣-nu—a-mur / [x x x x x] MAN?
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian administrative record (palace or temple), edited by F.M. Fales & J.N. Postgate (SAA 7, 1992). ORACC text P335679.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P335679). 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/P335679/.
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.