Umma Messenger Texts in the British Museum, Part One.

• Author: Sharlach, T.M.
• Position: Book Review

Umma Messenger Texts in the British Museum, Part One. By F. D'AGOSTINO AND F. POMPONIO. Nisaba (Studi Assiriologici Messinesi), vol. I. Messina: DIPARTIMENTO DI SCIENZE DELL'ANTICHITA DELL UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI MESSINA, 2002. Pp. 286. [euro]40 (paper). [Distrib. by Herder Editrice e Libreria, Rome]

In this book, D'Agostino and Pomponio have provided a valuable service to the field by publishing 315 new texts from Ur III Umma and in so doing have whetted our appetites for the second volume, which "will put together all the Umma messenger texts so far published, dealing [with] the meaning and content of this important category of documents." The authors' consideration in publishing the book in English rather than their native Italian is appreciated and will no doubt serve to make the book more widely utilized.

UMTBM I is the first volume in a new series called "Nisaba," published by the University of Messina in a handsome, copper-colored paperback. The series will apparently feature further studies on Ur III texts in the British Museum by Molina, Such, and Sigrist. The series will also include works on later periods, including the study of astronomical documents such as Enuma Anu Enlil and other monographs.

Messenger texts are quite plentiful in the archives of Umma and Lagash but many remain unpublished, in part because the tablets themselves are so small and so closely written that the eye strain experienced after reading even a few of them is considerable. A common size for messenger texts in this volume is approximately twelve lines of text written on each side of a tablet measuring only 25 X 30 X 12 mm. That is, six such tablets can fit easily on the surface of a credit card. We must be very grateful to the authors for undertaking such arduous labor.

Although they display slight differences in form, (1) messenger texts generally are lists of provisions, usually beer, bread, oil, onions, and soap allocated to named men. For instance, text No. 66 in this volume, which dates to the third year of the king Su-Sin reads as follows:

5 liters beer, 3 liters bread, 5 shekels onions, 3 shekels oil, 2 shekels soap -- Puzur-Su'en 5 liters beer, 3 liters bread, 5 shekels onions, 3 shekels oil, 2 shekels soap -- Ur-Nanse 5 liters beer, 3 liters bread, 5 shekels onions, 3 shekels oil, 2 shekels soap -- Ana 5 liters beer, 3 liters bread, 5 shekels onions, 3 shekels oil, 2 shekels soap -- Lu-Enki 5 liters beer, 3 liters bread, 5 shekels onions, 3...