Position in chronology
SAA 07 206. Aššur Temple Offerings (ADD 0760)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) A thigh, a shoulder, (2) outer cuts; 2 cuts of shoulders. (3) Of 1 ox: the stomach, liver, kidneys, heart. 1 whole sheep; (5) 4 heads (and) the breasts of 4 roast sheep. (7) A tureen of bouillon; (8) a tureen of [sou]p. (9) 1 goose, 1 du[ck], (10) 10 turtledoves. 7 b[ig] loaves; (11) 1 seah 1 'litre' of regular offering loaves; (12) 1 seah 1 'litre' of spiced bread. (13) A flagon of bittersw[eet] beer; (14) a flagon of beer of bruised grain. (r 1) 1 sheep, 7 (cuts of meat). 3 'litres' of midru-bread; (r 2) 2 'litres' of (regular offering) loaves; 2 'litres' of spiced bread. (r 3) This is from the new regular offerings. (r 4) The leftovers from before Aššur.
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/P335622/
Why it matters
Transliteration
⸢UZU.ÚR⸣ UZU.ZAG / DIŠ-ḫa-a-ni 02 nís*-ḫi* ZAG-MEŠ / ša 01 GUD.NÍTA kar-šú UR₅.ÚŠ / BIR-MEŠ ŠÀ-bu 01 UDU šal-⸢mu⸣ / 04 SAG.DU GABA o* / ša 04 UDU.NÍTA šu-bé-e / DUG.ma-zi-u A-MEŠ—⸢UZU⸣ / DUG.ma-zi-u a-⸢ku⸣-[si] / 01 KUR.GI.MUŠEN 01 ⸢MUŠEN⸣ / 10 TU.GUR₄ 07 NINDA ⸢dan⸣-[ni] / 1(bán) 01 qa NINDA gi-né-[e] / 1(bán) 01 qa NINDA.qa-du-[tú] / DUG.ma-si-tú KAŠ.lap-⸢pa⸣-[ni] / DUG.ma-si-tú KAŠ ḫaš-lat /…
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian administrative record (palace or temple), edited by F.M. Fales & J.N. Postgate (SAA 7, 1992). ORACC text P335622.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P335622). 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/P335622/.
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.