Position in chronology
SAA 07 048. Silver Payments to do with the Queen Mother (ADD 1075)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) Silver [...] of the queen [mother ...] (3) 2 1/2 minas among [...] for the Aššur temple [...]; (5) [x] shekels by the Assyrian [mina]; (6) [... I]onian [...]; (7) 17 shekels, in one [...]; (8) [x de]portees, sil[v]er, [...]; (9) [x] shekels for [...] (Break) (r 1) [o]f the ho[use ...]; in all, 7 mina[s, ...]. (r 3) 2 minas fo[r ...]; (line erased) (r 5) 1 mina, [...]; Dari-[šarru ...]; for the [...]. (r 8) [...]...[...]; (r 9) 24 shekels [...] which are at the disposal of [...]; (r 11) 16 shekels in 5 leath[er ...]; (r 12) 24, the daughter of the k[ing ...], (r 13) from the silver which [...] returned to me [...]; (r 15) 15 [......] (e. 1) 5 shekels, for ...[...].
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/P335889/
Why it matters
Transliteration
KUG.⸢UD⸣ [x x x x x x] / ša AMA—[MAN x x x x] / 02 1::2 MA.NA ina ŠÀ [x x x x] / [o] a-na É*—aš*-šur* ⸢x⸣+[x x (x x)] / [x] GÍN ina 01 [MA*] aš-šur-[a.a (x x)] / [(x) x] ⸢KUR⸣.ia-man-a.a [x x x x] / ⸢17*⸣ GÍN ina 01-et* [x x x x] / [(x) x] ⸢LÚv?⸣.ERIM* ZI KUG*.⸢UD* x⸣+[x (x x)] / [(x) x] GÍN a-na ⸢x⸣+[x x x x x] / ⸢ša⸣ É? [x x x x] / PAB 07 MA* [x x x x] / 02 MA.NA a*-[na x x x x] / <$20 GÍN$> [x…
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian administrative record (palace or temple), edited by F.M. Fales & J.N. Postgate (SAA 7, 1992). ORACC text P335889.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P335889). 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/P335889/.
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.