I got very excited when I saw this book reference. I was under the impression that one can read about economics in that old Babylonian Age. But alas, all it is are more like fragments of seals. They have been classified under:
- PERSONNEL LISTS
- GARMENT TEXTS
- TEXTS RELATED TO MANUFACTURED PRODUCTS, INCLUDING INVENTORIES
- CRAFT TEXTS LISTED ONLY IN CATALOGUE
- AGRICULTURAL AND ANIMAL PRODUCTS
- ANIMAL AND FIELD TEXTS
And the descriptions are like:
954. U 7060, 2.3 x 1.8, Fragment, Amount of gui-tur-tur, ar-za-na, suku-se, 7/-/-.
955. U 7040,6.9 x 4.5, Fragment, Records of amounts of i-gis, reverse almost completely destroyed, -
956. U 6716, 5.4 x 4.8, Fragment, List of dates, -/-/-.
957. U 5932, 4.7 x 4.0, Nearly Complete, Account of dates, also mentions kisib officials, n.d.
958. U 5593, 5.4 x 5.7, Fragment, Very fragmentary section of offering list including sa-dul _-Nanna
and ma6s-da-ri-a, 10th month in text/-/-.
959. U 5545, 4.7 x 7.4, Fragment, Small portion of two columns obverse, 2 columns reverse, mixed
account of commodities from? na-kads, sig, i-nun, ga-bar, -/-/-.
960. U 5536 + U 5553, 15.1 x 10.1, Three columns preserved on obverse and reverse, account of dates
and iamounts of oil with some personal names preserved, -/-/-.
961. U 5533, 3.9 x 3.5, Fragment, Monthly delivery of oil, -/-/-.
962. U 5531, 4.5 x 4.0, Fragment, Delivery (mu-TUM) of grain, 5/-/-.
So more like a catalogue rather than any description of how the economic system worked or the philosophy of taxes or something like that. But still, quite interesting if we could have got some more details on what exactly were these receipts, lists and points were all about. Still, you can see the drawings of the cuneiform seals.
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