Ur III dairies: 4 (2024-08-08)

Created by: Englund, Robert K.

A subsection of the dairy account AO 5499 records the herd size and required dairy product deliveries for Shulgi 45 (ca. 2045 BC).

The theoretical herd consists in Šulgi’s 45th regnal year of 20 animals, differentiated by gender and age. Delivery norms for dairy cows were based on a calculation of 5 sila3 (ca. 5 liters) of butter oil and 7.5 sila3 of kašk cheese per adult cow. The products listed at the bottom of this section were then the equivalents of 6 milk cows and not 7 as registered here; these products were therefore, naturally enough, calculated based on the count of the previous year that indeed showed 6 adult cows. Bull calves and oxen were eventually culled from dairy herds and put to the plows of the large households in which the dairy herds were situated. CDLI entry: P131589.

credit: Englund, Robert K.