Lists of Debts and Similar Memoranda (Nos. 27-48)

These texts, although externally very heterogeneous, are united by the common feature that each appears to deal in some way with debts to the palace or less specifically to the administration. In the broken state of nearly every piece, this is often difficult to detect or to prove, but there is usually a clue of some kind to show that the text is listing debts, and not receipts or payments: sometimes a word meaning "debt" (habullu and hibiltu), sometimes the formulation of the text. Some of the pieces are included here as much for their physical resemblance to others as for the actual wording of the tablet.

The main body of these texts is formed by nos. 27-40. These all seem to be lists of debts of various kinds. They may be silver alone (as in no. 27, which is slightly different from the remainder), or a mixture of items. These include silver (all texts), grain (nos. 31(?); 32; 36; 38; 39); sheep and wine (30); real estate (28 villages and orchards; 30 village); people (farmers and soldiers: 28; 30). Most of these texts were large accounts in several columns. Regrettably only fragments survive today. Several joins have been made within these pieces, and it is very likely that some of the unjoined fragments belong to the same tablet. However, each piece has been fairly systematically tested against the others and it is doubtful if any further physical joins will be found unless new pieces are identified.

Their fragmentary condition makes it very difficult to reconstruct what is going on, but there are definite indications. First there is the word habullu "debt," found in nos. 30 i.9' habul [e]girāte labīrāte; 34 in the total; and in 35 habul GAL-URU.MEŠ-ni. The next most suggestive phrase is when amounts are said to be ina pān someone: this is of course the standard phrase of contemporary contracts to state that someone owes something, translated conventionally (and I believe correctly) as "at the disposal of." We find it in nos. 27 r.12'; 28 i.5; 30 r.iii.6', 19', 22', 24', r.iv.2' and 6'. Given the undoubted mention of debts in no. 30 and in other texts of this group, it is certainly correct to interpret ina pan in this way. What is less clear is whether entries giving "x minas ša PN" (e.g. no. 31) also refer to debts, or (again following the usage of contracts) to creditors; in no case is the document sufficiently complete to resolve this uncertainty. In no. 27, which is however somewhat atypical, there do seem to be payments (tadin) as well as debts. A decision is even more difficult for the occasional entry without either ina pān or ša (e.g. in nos. 27; 28; 29; 39).

There is some evidence that the financial relationships here being expressed are scattered through both time and space. In no. 30 the debts are according to "old tablets," and in no. 34 different transactions are dated by the eponyms for 715 and 713 B.C.. The social and geographical horizon of the individuals listed, probably debtors, is also wide. They are mostly lowranking members of the administration; they include subordinates of various governors and mayors (of Assur province, Nineveh, Haurina, Harran, Habruri), village managers (rab alāni), scribes, military officers, and members of large households, among others. Where their place of origin is mentioned it is often an unknown village; however we do hear of someone of Tyre (no. 40), another from Cammagene (no. 31) and probably a village inspector from the province of Lahiru (no. 35). The whole text of no. 28 seems to relate to the province of Si'imme.

To sum up, this group appears to a lista very miscellaneous range of debts owed either to the central administration ("the palace?") itself, or to members of it individually, or even to persons not directly part of it. Given that our only firm dates are the years 715 and 713 mentioned in no. 34, it is reasonable to suppose that the circumstances surrounding the record of these debts belong in the middle of Sagron's reign, and it would be perverse not to guess that it has something to do with Sargon's financial arrangements for the construction of Dur-Šarruken, which is known to have involved the suspension of debts owed to Assyrian citizens (cf. ABL 1442 = SAA 1 159). It is worth noting that of the 18 fragments which compose nos. 27-40 only one (part of no. 29) comes from the 83-1-18 group which, as we explained above, is generally attributable to the reigns of Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal.

Nos. 41-48 form a less homogeneous group although they probably all concern debts. A number of them are what we have called "Memoranda": this is a class of tablets which tend to include rather more circumstantial comments than the usual administrative text, often including statements in the 1st person by some of the parties concerned, introduced by the particle mā (nos. 43-47). Mostly they are single-column vertical tablets, often ruled into sections; two of them (nos. 45 and 48) began with a two line introductory heading (unfortunately broken), and others whose beginning is lost may of course have been similar. No. 47 is an exception in having two columns on each face, but similar in other respects. In general the debts and obligations listed in this group do not resemble those of group 5; they may partly however belong to Sargon's reign too, since there is a clear connection between no. 45 and the Sargon letters about the Qappateans (SAA 1 238-39), which are also concerned with work at Dur-Sarruken. None of them comes from the 83-1-18 collection.

Putting on a torc (reign of Assurbinipal). Cf. p. XXIII

F.M. Fales & J.N. Postgate

F.M. Fales & J.N. Postgate, 'Lists of Debts and Similar Memoranda (Nos. 27-48)', Imperial Administrative Records, Part I: Palace and Temple Administration, SAA 7. Original publication: Helsinki, Helsinki University Press, 1992; online contents: SAAo/SAA07 Project, a sub-project of MOCCI, 2021 [http://oracc.org/saao/saa07/administrationofpersonnel/listsofdebtsandsimilarmemorandanos2748/]