(M714) The tablets which have reached our museums from Telloh, Nippur, and
elsewhere, belonging to the ages before the First Dynasty of Babylon, are
for the most part temple accounts. They often concern the offerings made
by various persons, often officials of high standing, and some may well
have been the notes sent with the offerings. But many were drawn up as
records of the receipts for a certain day, month, or year. Interesting as
they are for the class of offerings, for the names of offerers, or of
priests, and for the cult of particular gods, or the localities near
Telloh and Nippur, and often containing valuable hints for the history and
chronology of those times, they do not give us the same insight into the
daily life of the people that the longer legal documents do, in later
periods.
(M715) An important class consists of receipts for loans. Those drawn up
at full length and witnessed, have already been considered. But the
majority may only contain a list of articles delivered, with the name of
the receiver, the lender being the holder as a temple official, while the
receiver is a subordinate. These may have been as effective as the fuller
bonds, but they furnish little information, except regarding the current
prices of articles.
(M716) Some tablets are concerned with hire. The amounts paid by the
temple for repairs, fresh robes for gods and officials, even maintenance
of the workmen, are all set down with their totals for a week, or a month.
(M717) An important class consists of the records of the measurements,
length, breadth, and area of fields, together with the amounts of corn
which they were expected to produce. Were these available for a widely
extended area, we might be able to map out the district round the temple
from whose archives they come.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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