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An Inscribed Jar from Tell al Rimah

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

J. N. Postgate
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Extract

With increasing interest in the economic aspects of Mesopotamian history, precise determinations of the metrology in use at different times and places are becoming ever more urgent. Measures of capacity are particularly badly served, and the position for the Old Babylonian period is well described by M. Bottéro when he writes: “Quant à la métrologie absolue (ou plus exactement: ajustée à notre propre système métrique), aucune donnée ne nous permet jusqu'à ce jour de la connaître, et nous sommes contraints, si nous voulons en avoir une idée, de faire fond sur les calculs effectués autour des mesures proprement babyloniennes ou assyriennes, sans nous dissimuler que les mêmes mots pouvaient impliquer des valeurs différentes…” (ARMT VII, 347). The brief note which follows is therefore intended to convey the essential information about an Old Babylonian jar from Tell al Rimah with a note of its capacity inscribed on it. The accuracy of the determination leaves much to be desired, but in the absence of any more accurate data any such clues seem worth following up.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 40 , Issue 1 , Spring 1978 , pp. 71 - 75
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1978

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References

1 This is a far more realistic Statement than that found in Salonen, A., Die Hausgeräte der Alten Mesopotamier II, 270Google Scholar: “Die altmesopotamischen Hohlmässe sind vermittels des Wassers (ähnlich wie unser Liter) in Verbindung mit den Gewichtsmassen zu setzen. Als Grundlage des Systems galt 1 sila3 = qû und zwar so, dass 1 sila3 Wasser (bei 20°C) genau 5 ma-na-tur wog. Hier handelt es sich natürlich um das normale sila3, dessen Grösse in Babylonien immer dieselbe geblieben ist, und zwar = 0,842 Liter”.

2 We would like to express our gratitude to Dr. Isa Salman, Director General of Antiquities, Dr. Fawzy Rashid, Director of the Iraq Museum, and Sd. Ali Naqshabandi, head of the Museum laboratory for the assistance given to us in the course of our work on this jar, and Professor Oates for permission to publish the results.

3 Unfortunately the shoulder sherd which has this decorative pattern has become separated from the remainder of the vessel, and it was necessary to restore the jar without it.

4 It should be noted that the inscribed sherd was given the number TR 5710 in addition to the jar's own number TR 5055; there is not therefore a second such inscribed sherd as the note on no. 274 in the Rimah volume might lead one to suppose.

5 Mention of these inscribed jars is made by Parker, B., Iraq 19 (1957), 128Google Scholar (“Provisional calculations … gave a figure of 184·2 litres for the homer”), Oates, D., Iraq 21 (1959), 103Google Scholar (“The value obtained for the qa in two experiments was 1·83 litres, but the problem of the capacity of the homer is further complicated by our ignorance of the precise meaning of the expression “in the sutu of x qa”, which frequently accompanies measures of capacity …”), and by Mallowan, M. E. L., ILN 11 23rd, 1957, p. 874Google Scholar, with photographs. Note that the quotations in Salonen, A., HAM II, 271Google Scholar are not an accurate reflection of what the authors quoted in fact wrote.

6 See Freydank, H., Altorientalische Forschungen I (Berlin 1974), 74 on Col. I. 541 ffGoogle Scholar.; from the overall context it seems likely to us that the “old sūtu” is a short way of writing “sūtu of the (bīt) hiburni”, since there is no other obvious reason why the scribe should convert the “small sūtu” into the other, and then express the total in “old sūtus”. To Saporetti's list of the different Middle Assyrian sūtus one may add the GIŠ.BÁN ša GIŠ.GÁR (TR 2025; Iraq 30 (1968), 160Google Scholar).

7 I should like to thank Mr. Christopher Watkins for making this calculation of the capacity of the Nippur jar; more exactly, his maximum and minimum values were 183·1 and 180·3 litres, but the possible sources of error in extrapolating a figure like this from a 1:10 reduction do not need to be stressed.

No doubt other inscribed vessels or sherds of vessels have been published, and we make no claim to have given an even remotely exhaustive list here.