A Note on the Regular Offering to Ninlil at Tummal

Changyu Liu

In ASJ 8, Setsuko Oh'e gave a systematic discussion of the agricultural festival in Tummal (Oh'e 1986: 121-132). In recent years, an increasing number of new texts have become available on this subject. In this article, I will focus on the regular offering (sa₂-du₁₁) to Ninlil at Tummal by collecting all related documents and correcting several errors made in previous publications.

There are currently 13 Ur III administrative documents concerning the regular offering to Ninlil at Tummal, all of which are from Drehem, dated from Š 42 to ŠS 2. According to the date of these texts, they can be divided into two categories: one category of documents dated on the 29^th day of the month (u₄ 30-la₂-1-kam); the others, simply contained in the monthly record (iti 1-kam). Based on terms for expenditures, the documents may also be subdivided into two different categories: the first one with the terms “zi-ga / ša₃ Tum-ma-al / ki PN”; the second, with the terms “ša₃ Tum-ma-al / ki PN-ta ba-zi.”

The species of livestock accounted for in the documents are all barley-fed sheep and goats (mainly udu niga and maš₂ gal niga, as well as a few gukkal niga, u₈ niga, u₈ gukkal niga, and sila₄ niga). There were typically 30 sheep and/or goats recorded in all monthly records, 29 sheep and goats in all texts dated on the 29^th day. In each transaction, the number of sheep is certainly higher than that of the goats, with two transactions (TCND 196 and TCND 203) transpiring entirely without goats.

There are three disbursal officials involved in these transactions, initially Ašne'u (in Š 42), then En-diĝirĝu (from Š 45 to AS 8), and finally Kurbilak (ŠS 2 and unknown). It should be noted that the texts involving Kurbilak also include a ĝiri₃ official Enum-Adad, the “šar₂-ra-ab-du”-official (RA 79: 26 16), but the texts involving the other two disbursal officials are without ĝiri₃ officials (also see Tsouparopoulou 2009:102-106 and Tsouparopoulou 2013). Additionally, the names of the years were destroyed in two texts (PDT 2, 1268 and P313095 [unpubl.]).

The following are my corrections and comments for part of the texts:

TCND 196: line 4 should be iti 1-kam, not u₄! 1-kam. The sign iti is clear, and the tablet is surely a monthly record. W. Heimpel's review for this publication did not refer to this error. (Heimpel 1994: 278-282)
TCND 199: the end of line 3 lacked la₂, correctly sa₂-du₁₁ ^dNin-lil₂-la₂, by rechecking its photograph in CDLI.
SumTemDocs 13: the end of line 4 also lacked la₂.
RA 9: 48 SA 99: the obverse cannot be currently available, and was probably destroyed. According to the parallel texts, it may be recovered with a total of 30 sheep and/or goats on the basis of its monthly record. The end of line 1 of the reverse lacked la₂, as well.
Nisaba 8, 131: line 4 should be sa₂-du₁₁ ^dNin-lil₂-la₂, not ki inim-^dNin-lil₂-la₂.
AUCT 1, 694: line 5 should be iti 1-kam, not u₄ 1-kam. (for the error, see Sigrist 1984: 53)
TCND 203: line 3 should be iti 1-kam, not u₄ 1-kam.
PDT 2, 1189: line 1 can be probably recovered with 20 [udu] niga; line 2 can be certainly recovered with 10-la₂-[1] maš₂ gal niga; the sum of animals is 29, matching the 29^th day. The end of line 3 lacked la₂. Finally, the left edge should be 30-la₂-1 ^⌜udu^⌝, not 30 ^⌜udu^⌝.
RA 79, 26 16: for the discussion of the title šar₂-ra-ab-du, see Garfinkle 2003: 171.
PDT 2, 1268: this text's year name was totally destroyed. Based on the presence of disbursal official Kurbilak, it probably belongs to ŠS. In addition, the ends of lines 1 and 2 lacked niga, and line 3 lacked la₂. Finally, the left edge can be recovered with [30 (udu)].
P313095 (unpubl.): The reverse of this unpublished text from a private collection containing the name of the disbursal official, month, and year is almost destroyed. I would like to thank Prof. R. Englund and CDLI for providing me with the tablet's photograph and agreeing to publish this tablet here.

P313095:

Obverse	1	11 udu niga	11 barley-fed rams
	2	2 gukkal niga	2 barley-fed fat-tailed rams,
	3	2 u₈ niga	2 barley-fed ewes,
	4	1 u₈ gukkal niga	1 barley-fed fat-tailed ewe,
	5	13 maš₂ gal niga	13 barley-fed male goats,
	6	sa₂-du₁₁ ^dNin-lil₂-la₂	as regular offering to Ninlil,
	7	^⌜u4^⌝ 30-la₂-1-kam	which is on the 29th day (of the month),
Reverse	8	[zi]-^⌜ga^?⌝	were expended?
	9	[ša₃ Tum-ma-a]l^?	at Tummal?
	10	[ki PN]	from somebody;
	11	[iti ...] x	Month of [...]
	12	[mu ...]	Year: [...]
Left edge	13	30-la₂-1	Sum: 29 (sheep).

Appendix: chronological listing of texts
on the regular offering to Ninlil at Tummal

Date	Text	Animals	Officials	Term
Š42 vi -	TCND 196	30 udu niga	Ašne'u	zi-ga
Š 45 vii 29	TCND 199	27 udu niga, 2 maš₂ gal niga	En-diĝirĝu	zi-ga
Š 47 ix -	SumTemDocs 13	26 udu niga, 2 u₈ niga, 2 maš₂ gal niga	En-diĝirĝu	zi-ga
AS 3 vi -	RA 9 48 SA 99	[...]	En-diĝirĝu	ba-zi
AS 5 xii 29	Nisaba 8, 131	13 udu niga, 1 gukkal niga, 15 maš₂ gal niga	En-diĝirĝu	zi-ga
AS 6 iii 29	TCND 403	18 udu niga, 11 maš₂ gal niga	En-diĝirĝu	zi-ga
AS 7 v -	AUCT 1, 694	17 udu niga, 2 gukkal niga, 11 maš₂ gal niga	En-diĝirĝu	zi-ga
AS 7 viii -	TCND 203	30 udu niga		zi-ga
AS 8 i 29	BPOA 7 2505	17 udu niga, 2 gukkal niga, 10 maš₂ gal niga	En-diĝirĝu	zi-ga
AS 8 iii 29	PDT 2 1189	20 [udu^?] niga, 9 maš₂ gal niga	En-diĝirĝu	zi-ga
ŠS 2 xii 29	RA 79 26 16	25 udu niga, 1 u₈ niga, 3 maš₂ gal niga	Kurbilak	ba-zi
XX iv -	PDT 2, 1268	17 udu niga, 13 maš₂ gal niga	Kurbilak	ba-zi
XX X 29	P313095	11 udu niga, 2 sila₄ niga, 2 u₈ niga, 1 u₈ gukkal niga, 13 maš₂ gal niga	[PN]	[zi-ga(?)]

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Garfinkle, S.
	2003	“SI.A-a and His Family: the Archive of a 21st Century (BC) Entrepreneur”. ZA 93:161-198.
Heimpel, Wolfgang
	1994	“Review of Testi cuneiformi neo-sumerici da Drehem, n.0001-0412 by Alfonso Archi; Francesco Pomponio”. JAOS 114:278-282.
Oh'e, S.
	1986	“An Agricultural Festival in Tummal in the Ur III Period”. ASJ 8:121-132.
Sigrist, Marcel
	1984	Neo-Sumerian Account Texts in the Horn Archaeological Museum, Volume 1, AUCT 1. Andrews University Press: Berrien Springs.
Tsouparopoulou, Christina
	2009	The material face of bureaucracy: Writing, sealing and archiving tablets for the Ur III state at Drehem. PhD Dissertation, Cambridge University.
	2013	“A Reconstruction of the Puzriš-Dagan Central Livestock Agency”. CDLJ 2013: 2.

Cite this Article

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Liu, Changyu. 2014. “A Note on the Regular Offering to Ninlil at Tummal.” Cuneiform Digital Library Notes 2014 (6). https://cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/articles/cdln/2014-6.

Liu, C. (2014). A Note on the Regular Offering to Ninlil at Tummal. Cuneiform Digital Library Notes, 2014(6). https://cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/articles/cdln/2014-6

Liu, C. (2014) “A Note on the Regular Offering to Ninlil at Tummal,” Cuneiform Digital Library Notes, 2014(6). Available at: https://cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/articles/cdln/2014-6 (Accessed: September 10, 2024).

@article{Liu2014Note,
	note = {[Online; accessed 2024-09-10]},
	address = {Oxford; Berlin; Los Angeles},
	author = {Liu, Changyu},
	journal = {Cuneiform Digital Library Notes},
	issn = {1546-6566},
	number = {6},
	year = {2014},
	publisher = {Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative},
	title = {A {Note} on the {Regular} {Offering} to {Ninlil} at {Tummal}},
	url = {https://cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/articles/cdln/2014-6},
	volume = {2014},
}

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SN  - 1546-6566
T2  - Cuneiform Digital Library Notes
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A Note on the Regular Offering to Ninlil at Tummal

Appendix: chronological listing of texts on the regular offering to Ninlil at Tummal

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Appendix: chronological listing of texts
on the regular offering to Ninlil at Tummal