Position in chronology
SAA 07 062. Precious Items for(?) the Gods (ADD 0936+)
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (i 1) 1 pra[yer bo]wl [ditto]; (i 2) 1 cow of silver; (i 3) 1 prayer bowl ditto; (i 4) 1 silver tribute bowl: (i 6) total — the god Aššur. (i 7) 1 golden mountain goat, inlaid with 'marsh-apple' (and) marsh reed of ivory; (i 10) [...] copper of the country [...] (i 11) a silver [...]; (i 12) [1] gold disk; (i 13) [1] lion's foot; (i 14) [1] royal statue, with Assyrian inscription; (i 15) 1 cow of gold; (i 16) [1] prayer bowl ditto; (i 17) [1] cow of silver; (i 18) [1] prayer bowl ditto; (i 19) [...] of silver (Break) (ii 1) [......]: (ii 2) total — Ištar of Bit-Kidmuri.…
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/P335770/
Why it matters
Transliteration
01 ⸢ZAG*—up*-ni*⸣ [:.] / 01 lit!-tú* KUG.UD / 01 ZAG—up-ni :. / 01 kap-pi KUG.UD / ma-da*-te / PAB daš*-šur / 01 sa*-bar-u KUG.GI / [o] tam-lit ḪAŠḪUR*—GIŠ.GI / [o] ⸢GI⸣.AMBAR* ZÚ / [x] URUDU* KUR ⸢x x⸣ / [x x]+⸢x KUG*.UD*⸣ / [01] ni-ip-ḫu KUG.GI* / [x] ⸢UMBIN?⸣ UR*.MAḪ* / [01] NU*—MAN SAR aš-šur-a.a / ⸢01?⸣ ÁB KUG.GI / [01?] ZAG—up-ni :. / [01?] ÁB KUG.UD / [01?] ZAG—up-ni :. / [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 P335770.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P335770). 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/P335770/.
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.