Cuneiform Tablet, Messenger text listing provisions for various messengers, of beer, bread, onions, oil and soda ash.

Inscriptions

Incised, obverse, in cuneiform [translation]: "5 sila3 fine beer, 3 sila3 bread, 5 shekel onions (= 5 + 3 liter + 33.3 gram), / 3 shekel oil (and) 2 shekel alkaline (naga) plant (= 25 + 16.7 gram), / (provision for): Ur-dBa-ba6, the messenger. / 5 sila3 (ordinary) beer, 3 sila3 bread, 5 shekel onions (= 5 + 3 liter + 41.7 gram), / 3 shekel oil (and) 2 shekel alkaline (naga) plant (= 25 + 16.7 gram), / (provision for): Nam-ha-ni. / 5 sila3 (ordinary) beer, 3 sila3 bread, 5 shekel onions (= 5 + 3 liter + 41.7 gram), / 3 shekel oil (and) 2 shekel alkaline (naga) plant (= 25 + 16.7 gram), / (provision for): Aš-ni-u18. / 5 sila3 (ordinary) beer, 3 sila3 bread, 5 shekel onions (= 5 + 3 liter + 41.7 gram), / 3 shekel oil (and) 2 shekel alkaline (naga) plant (= 16.7 + 16.7 gram), / (provision for): Lu2-dUtu." Incised, reverse, in cuneiform [translation]: "5 sila3 (ordinary) beer, 3 sila3 bread, 5 shekel onions (= 5 + 3 liter + 41.7 gram), / 3 shekel oil (and) 2 shekel alkaline (naga) plant (= 25 + 16.7 gram), / (provision for): Šu-dNin-šubur. / Total: 5 sila3 fine beer (= 5 liter), / Total: 2 ban2 ordinary beer (= 20 liter). / Total: 1 ban2 (and) 5 sila3 bread (= 15 liter). / Total: 1/3 mina (and) 5 shekel onions (208.3 gram). / Total: 15 shekel oil (= 125 gram). / Total: 10 shekel alkaline (naga) plant (= 83.3 gram). / Day 20. / The month: sig4-geši3-šub-ba-gar. (ii)" Incised, left edge: "The second year after the year (when) the Amorite wall was built. (ŠS 6)"

Course History

REL 81, Dickinson Distinguished Scholar Seminar: Orientalism and the Origins of Religion, Susannah Heschel, Fall 2012

ANTH 12.2, The Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, Jason Herrmann, Spring 2013

ANTH 39, Archaeology of the Middle East, Jesse Casana, Fall 2019

ANTH 39.01/MES 3.02, Archaeology of the Middle East, Jesse Casana, Spring 2021

Anthropology 39.01, Middle Eastern Studies 3.02, Archaeology of the Middle East, Jesse Casana, Fall 2023

Exhibition History

From Discovery to Dartmouth: The Assyrian Reliefs at the Hood Museum of Art, 1856-2006, Alvin P. Gutman Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, October 19, 2006-June 17, 2007.

Publication History

Benjamin R. Foster, Yale University, "Texts and Fragments," Journal of Cuneiform Studies, April 31, 1979, p. 235.

Magnus Widell, From Discovery to Dartmouth: The Assyrian Reliefs at the Hood Museum of Art, 1856-2006, A Selection of Cuneiform Tablets from the Hood Museum of Art's Collection, Hanover, New Hampshire: Dartmouth College, 2006, no. 1.

Widell, Magnus, Ur III Economy and Bureaucracy: The Neo-Sumerian Cuneiform Tablets in the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College (I). Orient: Reports of the Society for Near Eastern Studies in Japan, 55 (1), 2019.

Provenance

Collected by Edgar James Banks (1866-1945), about 1898-1921 [purchase arranged through Professor W. H. (William Hamilton) Wood (1874-1953), Class of 1917H, Professor of Biblical History and Literature]; sold to present collection, 1923.

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