Position in chronology
SAA 07 134. Various Contributions from(?) Officials (ADD 1057)
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (3) 1 ... — the governess of Haurina; (4) 1 ox, 10 Persian sheep, 10 staffs of murr[ānu tree], 1 leather strap — the palace herald; (6) 2 oxen — Ilu-taklak; (7) 1 male sheep — Nergal-ila'i; (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/P335872/
Why it matters
Transliteration
01 [x x x x x x] / ⸢x⸣+[x x x x x x] / 01 ⸢sa? su? x⸣ nu* MÍ*.GAR*-tú* ⸢URU*⸣.ḫa*-a*-u*-ri*-⸢na*⸣ / 01 GUD 10 UDU par-su-a 10 GIŠ.PA-MEŠ GIŠ*.mur*-⸢ra*⸣-[nu] / 01 KUŠ.kur-si-u LÚv.600—KUR / 02 GUD mDINGIR—tak-lak / 01 UDU.NÍTA* mdU.GUR—DINGIR-a.[a] / [x x x]+⸢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 P335872.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P335872). 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/P335872/.
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.