We are reminded of the many names to designate fishermen in Sumerian, even though specialization was certainly less narrow in the Mesopotamian cities. But the point I want to make is that, for all the guilds and professional skills which we find there, the population as a whole was concerned with the primary business of tillage and cannot be compared with any modern body of city dwellers. Since a considerable proportion of agricultural and other produce passed through the temple magazines, an elaborate system of administration was set up. To illustrate the kind of careful accounts kept of the expenses, we shall quote a record of the grain used in a certain operation. To understand it, it is necessary to know that the fields were ploughed twice, first to break up the ground, then to sow and cover the seed. For the second ploughing a seed funnel was attached to the plough to ensure an even distribution along the furrow. Since the second ploughing was less heavy than the breaking of the ground, the oxen used for it got only half the fodder allotted to the teams used in the first. (The Sumerian measures can be converted by taking the _gan_ at just under an acre and the _gur_ at about 3⅓ bushels.) 147 _gan_ arable land, the oxen put in the plough and seed: barley for food of the ploughing oxen 24½ _gur_ barley for food of the sowing oxen 12¼ “ seed-corn 12¼ “ waste 1½ “ 36 _gan_ sown in addition: seed-corn 3 “ fodder 3 “ Together: 183 _gan_ arable land. Its grain 56½ “ Expenditure for the Common[110] This grain came from the temple magazines which had been filled by the harvest of the Common.