Position in chronology
SAA 07 160. Record of Mixed Food Offerings (ADD 1078)
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (i 1) [x] ducks; (i 2) 2 wood pigeons; (i 3) 2 gray partridges; (i 4) 20 turtledoves; (i 5) 2 jerboas; (i 6) 14 shoots (of sesame); (i 7) 1 ...; (i 8) 40 huhurrutu-type bread loaves; (i 9) 2 seahs of small bread loaves; (i 10) 2 seahs of thick bread; (i 11) 10 tables; (i 12) 10 jars; (Break) (r i 1) 2 seahs of [...]; (r i 2) 2 [...]; (r i 3) 8 qa[...]; (r i 4) total [...]. (r i 5) 7 [...]; (r i 6) 14 [...]; (r i 7) 10 [...]; (r i 8) [......]; (r i 10) total [...]. (Break) (ii 1) Total, the offerings of the commander-in-chief, of the 13th day.
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/P335891/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x] ⸢MUŠEN⸣—GAL-⸢ú⸣ / 02 tam-šil.MUŠEN / 02 kak-kab-nat.MUŠEN / 20 TU.GUR₄.MUŠEN / 02 ak-bir / 14 zi-iq-pi / o* 01 GUR NI / 40 ḫu-ḫu-rat / 2(bán) NINDA-MEŠ QÀL-MEŠ / 2(bán) NINDA ib-bi-a-⸢te⸣ / 10 BANŠUR-MEŠ / 10 ŠAB-MEŠ [o] / 2(bán) [x x x x] / 02 [x x x x] / 08 ⸢qa⸣ [x x x x] / PAB [x x x x] / 07 [x x x x] / 14* [x x x x x x] / 10 [x x x x x x] / [x x x x x x x] / [x x x x x x x] / PAB [x x x x x x] / PAB UDU.SISKUR-MEŠ tur*-tan / ša UD 13-KÁM
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian administrative record (palace or temple), edited by F.M. Fales & J.N. Postgate (SAA 7, 1992). ORACC text P335891.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P335891). 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/P335891/.
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.