Position in chronology
SAA 07 027. List of Miscellaneous Debts (ADD 0925+)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) 1 mina 10 1/4 shekels, N[N...], (2) the house of Manini; in lieu of N[N]. (3) 2 minas 23 1/3 shekels, [NN], (4) in lieu of Nabû-[...]. (5) 20 shekels, Lar[...]; (6) 12 shekels, Bel-šarru-[uṣu]r. (7) In all, 4 minas 34 1/6 shekels, .... (8) [x+]4 shekels, Garuṣu; (9) [x+]1 shekel of [si]lver, Bel-šarru-uṣur; (10) [x+]1 3/4 shekel, [Urad-N]anâ; (11) [x+] 21 shekels, Suk[ka]ya; (12) [x] 1/6 shekels, M[u...]; (13) [...] Šamulu, son of [NN]; (14) [...]... of sweetcakes [...]; (15) [...] care of Nabû-šumu-iškun; ... (Break) (r 1) [...] Urad-Issar; (r 2) [... x+]1 shekel(s), Nabû-šarru-uṣur; (r…
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/P335760/
Why it matters
Transliteration
01 MA 10 GÍN 04*-tú mx+[x x x x x] / É mma-ni-ni ku m[x x x x] / 02 MA 23 GÍN 03-su [x x x x] / ku mdPA—[x x x] / 20 GÍN mla*-ar-⸢x⸣-[x]+⸢x⸣+[x x x] / 12 GÍN mEN—MAN—⸢PAB?⸣ / PAB 04 MA 34 GÍN 06-⸢su* x x x x x⸣ / [x]+04* GÍN mga-ru-ṣu o* / [x]+⸢01* GÍN* KUG*⸣.UD m⸢EN*⸣—MAN—PAB o* / [x]+01 GÍN 03 04*-[MEŠ mARAD?—d]⸢na?⸣-na-a o* / [x]+21 GÍN msuk-[ka]-⸢a⸣.a* / [x] GÍN ⸢06⸣-su m⸢mu*⸣-[x x x]+⸢x⸣ /…
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian administrative record (palace or temple), edited by F.M. Fales & J.N. Postgate (SAA 7, 1992). ORACC text P335760.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P335760). 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/P335760/.
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.