Position in chronology
SAA 07 146. Record of Aromatics (ADD 1074)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) 1/2 shekel of cedar; (2) 1 shekel of cypress; (3) 3/4 (shekels) of daprānu-juniper; (4) 1 shekel of myrtle; (5) 1 shekel of boxwood; (6) 1 shekel of nikiptu-gum; (7) 1 shekel of kurdinnu-aromatic; (8) 2 shekels of turmeric; (9) 1 shekel of the terebinth-like-plant; (10) 1/2 shekel of thyme; (11) [x shek]els of styrax; (12) [x shekels] of sweet cane; (13) [x shekels of] burāšu-juniper. (Break) (r 1) [x]..ths (of shekel) of [...]-aromatic; (r 2) 1/8 of ...[...]; (r 3) in all 16 [shekels ...] (r 4) of 5 [...]....
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/P335888/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x]-tú ŠEM.[x x x x] / 08-tú ⸢dul?⸣-[x x x x] / PAB 16 [x x x x x]+⸢x⸣ / ša 05 [x x x]-⸢ti*⸣
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian administrative record (palace or temple), edited by F.M. Fales & J.N. Postgate (SAA 7, 1992). ORACC text P335888.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) ? — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P335888). 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/P335888/.
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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.