Un bilancio neo-sumerico dell’attività di pescatori

Abstract

The tablet here published belongs to the collection of the British Museum and it is a balanced account that registers the expected and real labour performance of a crew of fishermen and, in addition to it, a quantity of “fish-oil”, both under the responsibility of the Lugal-nilagare. The second section of the text, that relating to the “credits” (zi-ga), includes amounts of various kinds of fish, and, moreover, rodents and a raven (?). These animals have been converted into the workdays necessary for their capture and preparation. The difference between “debits” and “credits” has produced a deficit of 1.807,5 workdays and 135 sìla of “fish-oil”, which have to be recorded in the account of the following year or have to be paid in silver. The account comes from the archives of the provincial capital of Umma and is dated to the second year of Šu-Sîn.