Position in chronology
SAA 11 133. List of Officials and their Superiors in Different Cities (ADD 0899)
Translation · reference
High confidence(i 1) [Ah]u-le'uti, (i 2) Ahutanu, (i 3) Qiti-ilani (i 4) total 3: town of Abilate, (i 5) in the land of Izalla. (i 6) Haldiâ, (i 7) Issar-nadin-ahhe, (i 8) town of Buša, town of Hup[...]. (i 9) [Total] 5: Nabû-šarru-uṣur, instead of Aššur-[...]. (i 10) Nuraya (i 11) Ereš-[...] (i 12) total 2: land of [...] (i 13) Bel-[...] (i 14) [NN] (i 15) Be[...] (i 16) total 3: [...]. (i 17) Total 5: [...]. (i 18) [NN] (i 19) Ahu-[...] (i 20) Total 2: [...] (i 21) Qur[di-...] (i 22) Ni[...] (i 23) [NN] (i 24) total 3: town of [...] (i 25) Total 5: [...] (i 26) Ṭua, (i 27) Nergal-ila'i; (i 28) total 2:…
Source: Fales, F.M. & Postgate, J.N. 1995. Imperial Administrative Records, Part II: Provincial and Military Administration. SAA 11. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa11/P335739/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[m]⸢PAB*⸣—ZU-ti / [m]PAB—ta-nu / [m]qit-ti—DINGIR-MEŠ / PAB 03 URU.a-bi-la-⸢te⸣ / ina KUR.i*-zal [o] / mḫal-di-ia-a [o] / m15—SUM—PAB-MEŠ / ⸢URU⸣.bu-šá-a URU*.ḫu*-⸢ub*⸣-[x (x)] / [PAB*] ⸢05⸣ mdPA—MAN—PAB ku maš-šur—⸢x⸣+[x (x)] / [m]nu-ri-⸢ia?⸣ [(x)] / [m]KAM-[eš—x (x)] / PAB 02 ⸢KUR*.x⸣ [x x x] / mEN—[x x x x] / m⸢x⸣+[x x x x x] / mbe-[x x x x] / PAB 03 [URU.x x x] / PAB 05 [mx x x] / m⸢x⸣+[x x x…
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian administrative record (provincial or military), edited by F.M. Fales & J.N. Postgate (SAA 11, 1995). ORACC text P335739.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P335739). source
Translation excerpted from Fales, F.M. & Postgate, J.N. 1995. Imperial Administrative Records, Part II: Provincial and Military Administration. SAA 11. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa11/P335739/.
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.