Position in chronology
SAA 11 076. List of Flocks (ADD 1132)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) [x] lambs, (2) [x+]114 ewes, (3) [x+]8 1-year-old male sheep, (4) [x+]73 1-year-old ewes: (5) Total 401 white (sheep). (6) [x]+20 male goats, 100 female goats, (7) [x+]27 1-year-old (male) kids, (8) [x] 1-year-old female kids: (9) [Total] 227 black (goats). (10) [Total] 628 — Dur-makî-Issar. (11) [x] lambs, (12) [x+]120 ewes, (r 1) [x+]4 1-year-old (male) sheep, (r 2) [x+]3 1-year-old ewes: (r 3) Total 196 white (sheep). (r 4) [x] male goats, 30 female goats, (r 5) [x] 1-year-old ditto (= kids), 20 1-year-old female kids: (r 6) [To]tal [14]2 black (goats). (r 7) [Total 3]38 — Ninuayu. (r…
Source: Fales, F.M. & Postgate, J.N. 1995. Imperial Administrative Records, Part II: Provincial and Military Administration. SAA 11. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa11/P335927/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x (x)] UDU.SILA₄-MEŠ / [x]-me-14 UDU.U₈-MEŠ / [x]+8 UDU.DUMU—MU.AN.NA / [x]+73 UDU.DUMU.MÍ—MU.AN.NA / PAB 04-me-01 BABBAR-MEŠ / [x]+20 UDU.MÁŠ-MEŠ 01-me UDU.ÙZ-MEŠ / [x]+27 UDU.DUMU—MU.AN.NA / [x] UDU.MÍ.ÁŠ.⸢GÀR-MEŠ⸣ / [PAB] 02*-me-27* GI₆-MEŠ / [PAB] 06-me-28 mBÀD—ma-ki-i—d15 / [x x] UDU.SILA₄-MEŠ / [x]-⸢me*⸣-20 UDU.U₈-MEŠ / [x]+4 UDU.DUMU—MU.AN.NA / [x]+3 ⸢UDU*.DUMU*⸣.MÍ—MU.AN.NA / ⸢PAB⸣…
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian administrative record (provincial or military), edited by F.M. Fales & J.N. Postgate (SAA 11, 1995). ORACC text P335927.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P335927). source
Translation excerpted from Fales, F.M. & Postgate, J.N. 1995. Imperial Administrative Records, Part II: Provincial and Military Administration. SAA 11. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa11/P335927/.
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.