The Cuneiform script was used in the writing of various languages – Akkadian, Sumerian, Urukan, Elamite, Babylonian, Old Persian – over millennia, becoming something of a lingua franca for the people who lived in all parts of the Near East. The documents ranged from the mundane to the extraordinary. Cuneiform records give us the world’s oldest love poem – an invocation from a woman to her bridegroom to be both sweet to her, and also to take her to the bedchamber on her wedding-night (Museum of the Ancient Orient, Istanbul, 2461) – and the world’s first complaint letter, in which Ea-nașīr is called out for the poor quality of copper ingots he sold to an unnamed consumer (British Museum, London, 131236). They also record the foundation of temples, the great deeds of kings, and in one, the Cyrus Cylinder, what is widely considered the first universal declaration of human rights (British Museum, London, 90920). The vast majority of Cuneiform tablets, however, deal with the ordinary business of daily life. They record the donations made to temples, the rations of government workers, the business transactions of traders, and the remarkable intricacies of the palace economy of the Ancient Mesopotamian states.

This tablet comes from the Neo-Sumerian Period, something of a restoration of the power of the Sumerians, who were perhaps the characteristic Mesopotamian people. Living in the region ‘between the rivers’ (the literal meaning of ‘mesopotamia’ in Greek, referring to the Tigris and Euphrates), what would now be considered Iraq and Syria, the Sumerians operated a series of city-states connected by language and culture, but separated by the jealous power of their kings. Some of the most powerful of these kings lived in Ur, one of the world’s oldest cities. The Third Dynasty of Ur, that city’s most energetic and expansionist monarchs, were able to attain a territorial empire which cut through a swathe of the Near East, and incorporated some thirty or forty different cities or polities in its sway. In order to govern this unprecedented number of people, the Empire relied on royal messengers, who criss-crossed the Empire on roads specially constructed for the purpose, carrying the messages and edicts of the King. Amar-Sin (also known as Amar-Suena), the King referred to in this document, was especially noted for his expansionist expeditions, and for subjecting those city-states already under his rule to frequent inspections to prevent insurrection.

This remarkable document, written in a clear scribal hand which implies it was produced in the royal scriptorium, dates to the final year of Amur-Sin’s reign, which spanned 2038 BC and 2037 BC. It records the rations afforded to various state messengers, including a Mr Ili-sukkal, who carried the King’s messages requesting sesame (presumably sesame oil), and Nur-ili, who went on some kind of tour to inspect the activities of local governors. Lu-shara travelled further afield, to the city of Der, near the modern city of al-Badra, Iraq, right on the Empire’s periphery. The importance of these tasks is reflected in the rations given: most receive merely 1 sila (0.85 litres, 3 1/2 cups) of soup, most likely a nutritious barley broth consumed by the majority of Sumer’s inhabitants. Others, like Nur-ili, who presumably had to entertain the governors he visited, was given a roasted sheep to sweeten the deal. In the non-monetary economy of Ancient Mesopotamia, gifts of food from the King were considered not only a vital means of payment, but also an indication of one’s closeness to the monarch, and, since the King was considered a god, an indication of one’s moral goodness.

Translation: [Obverse] 1 […], 2 sila of soup, 2 fish: Mr Ili-sukkal, king’s messenger when he went for the sesame, 1 […] 2 sila of soup, 2 fish: Mr Nur-ili,[…]ma when he went to the governor 1 roast (?) sheep, 2 sila of soup, 2 fish: Mr Huhu….in, regen when he went [for] […], 2 sila of soup, [2 fish]: Mr ..[….] king’s [messenger] when [he went…..]
[Reverse] 2 [sila of soup, 2] fish: Mr Ur-sukkal, king’s messenger when he went for the guard for roasted barley, 1 sila of soup, 1 [fish], Mr Lu-Shara, king’s messenger when he went to Der.
Total: 1 roasted (?) sheep […] Total: 4 […] Total: 9 sila of sou Total: 9 fish. Disbursement of the month Festival of Shulga, Year: the high priestess of Inanna of Karzida was installed (i.e. 2038 BC)
Left edge: 6th day

Translation by the late Prof Wilfred G. Lambert, FBA
Professor Emeritus of Assyriology, University of Birmingham