Position in chronology
SAA 07 209. Aššur Temple Offerings, Day 22 (ADD 1010)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) A thigh, a shoulder, outer cuts, 2 cu[ts of shoulder] of an ox, of the temple of Dagan — [of the chief] cupbearer. (3) 2 thighs, 2 shoulders, from the (oxen of) the pilgrims. (4) Of 5 oxen: the stomachs, livers, kidney(s), hearts. (5) 5 whole sheep; 1 sheep of the temple; 1 fattened sheep; (6) 1 kimru-sheep; 1 sheep for ablution — of the chief cupbearer. (7) 12 platters of saplišhu. 1 goose, (8) 1 duck, 10 turtledoves. A tureen of bouillon; (9) a tureen of soup. 7 big loaves; (10) 1 seah 1 'litre' of regular offering loaves; 1 seah 1 qa of spiced (bread); (11) a 2-seah jar of…
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/P335831/
Why it matters
Transliteration
ÚR 01 ZAG DIŠ-ḫa-ni ⸢02 nís⸣-[ḫi ZAG-MEŠ] / ša GUD ša É—dda*-gan [ša GAL]—KAŠ.LUL / 02 ÚR 02 ZAG TAv* ŠÀ* SISKUR-MEŠ / ša 05 GUD kar-šá-ni UR₅.ÚŠ* BIR ŠÀ-MEŠ / 05* UDU šal-mu-te 01 UDU šá* ⸢É⸣—DINGIR 01 UDU tak-bar-ru / 01 UDU kim-rum 01 UDU rím-ku ša* GAL—KAŠ*.LUL* / 12 DUG.síḫ-ḫa-rat sap-liš*-ḫi 01 KUR.GI.MUŠEN / 01 MUŠEN 10 TU.GUR₄ DUG.ma-zi-⸢u⸣ A-MEŠ—UZU / DUG.ma-zi-u a-ku-si 07 ⸢ak-li⸣…
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian administrative record (palace or temple), edited by F.M. Fales & J.N. Postgate (SAA 7, 1992). ORACC text P335831.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P335831). 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/P335831/.
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.