Volume 112, Issue 2

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the operation of the še ur₅-ra system of institutional loans of barley in late third millennium BCE Babylonia. In particular, it focuses on the še ur₅-ra-loans stemming from the Ĝirsu-Lagaš province, one of the most important areas for cereal production of the entire Ur III kingdom. The article argues that the še ur₅-ra system, which was based on the availability of large quantities of barley in the provincial network of rural storage facilities, was designed and implemented to (1) reduce food losses, (2) provide state dependents with economic support in times of need, and (3) counteract and mitigate the impact of local crop failures on the institutional workforce at large.

This paper presents the complete reconstruction of the Sumerian tale ‘The Old Man and the Young Girl.’ The identification of a new manuscript permits not only the recovery of the hitherto missing beginning and end, but also a reassessment of the text’s plot, function, and socio-cultural context. Rather than as a folktale, I propose to interpret it as a satirical morality tale, which was composed in scribal milieux.

The present article recognizes a new category of documents in the Middle Assyrian administrative archives — drafts of kiṣirtu s. It uses two archives as case studies: the flock-master’s archive from Tell Ali and the archive of Mutta, the animal-fattener from Assur. The identification of kiṣirtu drafts contributes to the reconstruction of the Middle Assyrian administrative record-keeping practice.

The article contains the first edition of a hymn known in Antiquity as Eriš šummi, in which the major gods of the Mesopotamian pantheon are explained as aspects of Marduk. Two large tablets, one from the Sippar Library and one from Nineveh, are published here for the first time, along with several smaller manuscripts of the text. The apparent monotheistic agenda of the hymn is discussed and compared with other syncretistic texts from Ancient Mesopotamia. In addition, it is argued that the new hymn can be regarded as a pastiche of Enūma eliš VI-VII.