Position in chronology
SAA 07 070. Record of Precious Items (ADD 0967)
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (i 2) [......] multicolour[ed ...] (i 3) [......] the queen (i 4) [... of] the [te]mple, which were taken. (i 5) [...]s of gold; (i 6) [...] of Aššur-šallimanni; (i 7) [... of] the woman Ilani-ereš; (i 8) [......] the queen. (i 9) [...... je]wellery (i 10) [which] he/she [......]d. (Break) (ii 1) Total, 10 [...]; (ii 2) 1 shekel [...]. (ii 3) This is [...]. (ii 4) 1 necklace [...] (ii 5) a band [...]; (ii 6) 10 [...] (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/P335795/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x x x]+⸢x⸣+[x x (x)] / [x x]+⸢x⸣ bir-⸢me?⸣ [o] / [x x]+⸢x⸣ MÍ?—É.GAL / [x] ⸢É?⸣—DINGIR šá DIB*-u*-ni / [x x]+⸢x⸣-MEŠ KUG.GI / [ki?]-⸢ṣir*⸣ maš-šur—DI-man / [x x] MÍ*.DINGIR-MEŠ—APIN!-eš / [x x x] ⸢MÍ?⸣—É.GAL / [x x x x] ⸢šá?⸣-ku-tú / [x x x x x]+⸢x⸣-u-ni / [x x x x x x]+⸢x⸣-u / PAB 10 [x x x x] / 01 GÍN [x x x x] / an-ni-u* [x x x x] / 01 KUŠ.BÀN.DA [x x x] / me-ṣir [x x x x] / ⸢10*⸣ [x x x x x]
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian administrative record (palace or temple), edited by F.M. Fales & J.N. Postgate (SAA 7, 1992). ORACC text P335795.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P335795). 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/P335795/.
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.