Position in chronology
SAA 07 023. Survey of Harem Governesses and Weavers (ADD 0950)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) Harem governesses (2) Nineveh Central City; (3) Review Palace of Nineveh; (4) Review Palace of the New Contingent; (5) Naṣibina; (6) Šibaniba; (7) Bit-Adad-le'i; (8) Šudu; (9) Te'di; (10) Kahat; (11) 2, Sunê; (12) Tuphan; (13) the household of the Lady of the House. (14) Total, 13 [harem governesses]. (r 1) 25, (the land of) the chief cupb[earer]; (r 2) 20, Raṣappa; (r 3) 10, the palace herald; (r 4) 10, Urzuhina; (r 5) 5, Mazamua; (r 6) 25, Arrapha; (r 7) 30, Kar-Aššur; (r 8) 20, Lahiru; (r 9) Total, 145 weavers.
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/P335780/
Why it matters
Transliteration
MÍ.GAR-MEŠ / MURUB₄—URU ni-nu-a / KUR—ma-šar-te NINA.KI / KUR—ma-šar-te ki-ṣir GIBIL / URU.na-ṣib-na / URU.ši-ba-ni-ba / URU.É—m10*—ZU / URU.šu-u-du / URU.te-eʾ-di / URU.ka-ḫat / 02 URU.su-ni-e / URU.tup-ḫa-an / É GAŠAN—É / PAB 13 [MÍ.GAR-MEŠ] / 25 GAL—⸢KAŠ*⸣.[LUL] / 20 ra-ṣap-⸢pa⸣ / 10 600—KUR / 10 ur-zu-ḫi-na / 05 ma-za-mu-a / 25 arrap-ḫa / 30 kar—aš-šur / 20 la-ḫi-ru / PAB 01-me-45 / UŠ.BAR-MEŠ
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian administrative record (palace or temple), edited by F.M. Fales & J.N. Postgate (SAA 7, 1992). ORACC text P335780.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P335780). 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/P335780/.
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.