This note adds a number of spice, salt & fuel tablets to the sequence of Umma bala tablets that were discussed by Piotr Steinkeller in his paper, “Joys of cooking in Ur III Babylonia” (Steinkeller 2008).
Steinkeller brings together five texts which describe the daily contributions of spices, salt and fuel from Umma during its bala month, 8th month of Amar-Suen 8: MVN 13, 762; SAKF 111; MVN 13, 131, MVN 13, 132, MVN 13, 130 (for days 18, 20, 23, 24, 30, respectively). He also notes MVN 9, 187 (undated) which is a summary of similar contributions for the first ten days of the month.
To the daily tablets we can now add CUSAS 16, 306 for day 21. KM 89507 clearly deals with spices, salt and fuel, however, its format is sufficiently different that it probably is not part of the same sequence of tablets.
There are also two additional (undated) summary tablets: SAKF 127 summarises days 11-20 and CUSAS 16, 273 summarises days 21-30. Thus, taken together MVN 9 187, SAKF 127 and CUSAS 16 273 might have formed the complete listing for a month. However, it remains possible that these form parts of separate lists and that it is fortuitous that they appear to form a continuous list without gaps or overlaps.
days | šim (sila3) |
mun (sila3) |
sa gi | gešasal2 | gi-ru-uš (gu2) |
Tablet |
1-10 | ? | 24 | 1260 | 155? | 370 | MVN 9, 187 |
11-20 | 96 | 31.5 | 1010 | 247 | 326 | SAKF 127 |
21-30 | 108 | 29 | 1060 | 234 | 338 | CUSAS 16, 273 |
Daily Average | 10 | 3 | 110 | 21 | 34 |
Table 1a
The daily averages have been rounded to the nearest integer, except for sa gi, which is given to two significant figures. The average for šim is based on the two totals available, averaged over 20 days. The totals also include gikaskal and gikid but these are listed for isolated days and so it is not appropriate to give a daily average.
Although there are disagreements in detail between the summaries (shown in Table 1) and daily accounts (shown in Table 2), there is agreement, in broad terms in the quantities of spices, salt and fuel being provided. One notable difference is that daily accounts generally do not include gešasal2 (wood from poplar trees) but instead appears to compensate for this with additional quantities of gi-ru-uš reeds.
days | šim (sila3) |
mun (sila3) |
sa gi | gešasal2 | gi-ru-uš (gu2) |
Tablet |
18 | 20 | 7 | 90 | 54 | MVN 13, 762 | |
20 | 13 | 3 | 95 | 62 | SAKF 111 | |
21 | 15 | 4 | 70 | 48 | CUSAS 16, 306 | |
23 | 12 | 3 | 80 | 42 | MVN 13, 131 | |
24 | 10 | 3 | 90 | 72 | MVN 13, 132 | |
30 | ? | ? | ?+21 | 13 | 40 | MVN 13, 130 |
Table 2a
The quantities of reeds given in this table are the totals, including reeds specifically for cooking fish and sheep tripe (see Steinkeller 2008: 189).
Steinkeller (2008: 189, n. 8) suggests that the sequence of daily tablets and summary tablets served a different purpose. However, in view of the broad similarity between the quantities in these two sets of texts it is possible that the “summary” lists served as planning targets whilst the daily tablets record the amounts actually delivered. Certainly, the broad level of agreement demonstrates that the two sets of lists were closely related.
Steinkeller suggests that the sequence of tablets were from Umma and recorded part of Umma's bala obligation, because of the use of the Reichskalender month-name. He supports this further by noting the involvement of the official, Mu-ni, “who is known to have participated in the collection and transfer of Umma's bala contribution”.
He also goes on to suggest that the spices, salt and fuel were used to prepare the regular daily meal of the personnel of Puzriš-Dagan and that other provinces would have provided these things during their bala months. However, there is some difficulty on this latter point, because it would tend to imply that there were would be large numbers of such tablets from other administrative centres, whereas the examples given by Steinkeller are all from the same location and for the same month. Based on current evidence, it seems more likely that these tablets record the provision of spices, salt and fuel for a special event during the 8th month of Amar-Suen 8 and that this was not an everyday occurrence.
Steinkeller, Piotr | ||
2008 | “Joys of Cooking in Ur III Babylonia”. In: P. Michalowski (ed.) On the Third Dynasty of Ur. Studies in Honor of Marcel Sigrist (JCS Supplemental Series 1; ):185-192. |