Administrative texts from Nimrud300dated to the 8thcentury B.C. (some of them as early as the reign of Adadnērārī III (810—783 B.C.) grant insight into the central supply management of the royal court. These long and detailed lists record the amount of food and wine rations allotted to court personnel (including military) and fodder for animals (characteristically for horses). For our convenience we used the conventional relation of 1 qa(= 1/10 of a sūtu= 1/100 emāru) to 1 litre.301 As has been discussed in detail in a previous volume of this project302these ration lists contain valuable information not only about the amounts of bread and wine distributed among court personnel and officers (a detailed reconstruction following later) but also on the group of officials who received (daily) rations at court. ND 2803, for example, is an administrative tablet, a long ration list detailing different amounts of bread and fodder issued to different personnel (Fig. 17).
It seems from this text that the given amounts of grain (bread and fodder) had to be provided by different towns (provinces) of the Empire (seebelow). In the section starting with Col. II:17’ the text lists (travel) provisions for several qurbūtu bodyguards sent on various official missions.303 As is generally known, the qurbūtu bodyguards were sent by the king to perform their duties throughout the Empire. This text probably lists the travel provisions assigned to them from the royal granaries. A separate passage of the same text enumerates the provisions of the qurbūtu bodyguards who had brought horses from different parts of the Empire.304 In this case the rations are probably fodder for the animals, and not bread rations for qurbūtu bodyguards. Two further bread lists are known from the Nimrud archives. ND 2489 lists court personnel (including the qurbūtu bodyguard) and staff who received daily rations from the court.305The list includes the king himself, with the queen and the Chief Eunuch as well. Another bread list (ND 2371) lists high officials and military personnel (including ‘third men,’ and ‘chariot owners of the bodyguard’). This list allocates a similar amount of (daily) bread to the qurbūtu bodyguard as the previous text did.306This amount is much larger than a person’s daily needs and can probably be attributed to the importance of his office. The ration list tablets enumerate individuals (or
wheat played the role of staple food. It is known that throughout the Mesopotamian history dates played a key role in the supply of the people. In the Neo-Assyrian royal correspondence, however, this item does not appear as part of the daily ration of the troops, but dates should have played a similarly important role in the Neo-Assyrian period as well.
300PARKER1961; KINNIERWILSON1972. For a study of a possible reconstruction of the size of the royal household seeKINNIERWILSON
1972, 115-120, esp. 118-119. and GROSS2014.
301For the other ’substandard’ sūtus (of 9 or 8 qas, or smaller amounts) seeFALES1990, 27, notes 14 and 15 with further references.
For the sūtuof 9 qa seeDALLEY– POSTGATE1984, no. 12 (ND 7010), 1; for the sūtu of 8 qa seeDALLEY– POSTGATE1984, no.
13 (ND 7054), 3; and for the sūtu of 10 qa seeDALLEY– POSTGATE1984, no. 11 (ND 7058), 3 (by the Assyrian qa!).
302DEZSŐ2012A, 127-128.
303PARKER1961, ND 2803, Col. II:17’-18’: [x] homers and 7 sūtu (70 litres) bread were issued to Sapunu, the qurbūtu bodyguard, for cow’s milk in the town of Qumbuna ...; 26’-27’: [x homers and x sūtu bread was issued to] Ibnia, the qurbūtu bodyguard of the crown prince, who went to Samaria (and)? the town of Si[don?]; 28’: 1 homer (100 litres) to Issar-Bābilā’ī, qurbūtu bodyguard […]; Rev. Col. 1-3: 20 homers, 4 sūtu (240 litres) to the qurbūtu bodyguard of the crown prince for a man […] who from the town of […] travelled to the country of Ḫarḫar; 4-5: 4 homers (400 litres) to Issar-dūri the qurbūtu bodyguard going to the country of Marbanai, who was given it in Nineveh; 8-9: […] the qurbūtu bodyguard of the crown prince who came from across the river (i.e. Euphrates); 11-12: 6 homers, 1 sūtu (610 litres) [to …] qurbūtu bodyguard for cows’ milk for the house in the lower country; 33: […]-ili-[…] the qurbūtu bodyguard […]; 35-36: […] Šulmu-ēreš the qurbūtu bodyguard […] from Laḫiru.
304PARKER1961, ND 2803, Rev. Col. II:14-15: [x] homers, 1 sūtu (10 litres) to Gaiâ, the qurbūtu bodyguard of the crown prince for horses from Bīt-Daltâ; 17-19: 1 homer, 4 sūtu (140 litres) to Kanūnāiu, qurbūtu bodyguard for horses which he brought from Arzuḫina.
305KINNIERWILSON1972, 35 (ND 2489), 8’; PARKER1961, ND 2489, Col. I:7’: the qurbūtu bodyguard (qur-ub-tu) got 1 sūtu 3 qa (13 litres) grain.
306KINNIERWILSON1972, 34 (ND 2371), 7’; PARKER1961, ND 2371, 7’: the qurbūtu bodyguard (ša qur-ru-ub-tu) got 1 sūtu 5 qa (15 litres) grain.
categories, as the qurbūtu bodyguard) and groups (for example ‘third men,’ and ‘chariot owners of the bodyguard’) as well, hence the impossibility of comparing the amounts with each other, and it is difficult to determine the prestige of the offices on the basis of the amounts they obtained.
The other type of ration list is the wine list. 33 such lists are known enumerating the court officials who obtained daily wine rations from the court.307It seems that some of them received rations ex officio, some of them ad hominem (their office is unknown). The wine lists raise the same question as the bread lists: it is unclear whether qurbūtu bodyguard denotes a single soldier on duty at the court who received rations, or a complete unit or collective body. The amount of wine is exceeds one person’s needs by far, and probably relates to the office of the qurbūtu.308
A further standard item on these lists is the ‘cohort of Šamaš,’ member(s) of which got a standard ration of wine between 2.5 and 3 qa (2.5—3 litres) daily.309This amount was enough for one or two people, so the possibility of rationing a whole unit can be excluded. This unit might have been a contingent of soldiers or workers attached to the god or an army contingent bearing the name of the god, a practice known from the cuneiform evidence (for a detailed study seethe next volume of this project).
Summing up the information collected from ration lists, it is important to note that high officials and large numbers of military personnel received daily rations from the court. These ration lists probably allocated supplies only to people who actually stayed at court. A further question remains whether these lists designated the amounts of daily rations in terms of general categories (daily rations for each of several qurbūtu officers), or whether it is possible that there was always one single qurbūtu officer on duty at the court who received this amount. Since at least three of the lists are dated to the same day (11thof Nisan)310it is possible that they fixed the amount of rations for a certain period of time (a month or year).
The other question is: is it possible to reconstruct the daily rations (bread for soldiers and fodder for horses) from these administrative texts? Figs. 17—18. list all the amounts of bread and fodder which are relevant from our point of view and can be reconstructed from these tablets.
ND 2803.311The most important difficulty with the interpretation of ND 2803 is that the periods for which the given amounts of grain rations were issued, can hardly be established. Our tentative reconstruction is based on periods of 1, 3, 6, and 9 months of service, for which these personnel and their equids might have obtained rations from the central logistical organization of the Palace. For this reason, with the help of Fig. 17, we tried to reconstruct the most likely time spans (1, 3, 6, and 9 months), for which the given amounts of grain (bread and fodder) could serve as the minimum or even the main sources of subsistence for personnel and equids as well.
Several important inferences can, however, be drawn from the examination of ND 2803. At least two categories (determined by the amount of grain rations) of military personnel can be reconstructed from the list. It has to be emphasized that the slaves (77 palace slaves) – who are not at the centre of the present study – seem to be plied with a very low daily ration: if our
307For a discussion on the purpose of these wine lists – whether these were ration lists (Parpola) or served a single festive occasion (Fales) – seePARPOLA1976, 165-174; FALES1994, 361-380, esp. 370.
308KINNIERWILSON1972, 3 (ND 6218), I:14: 4 sūtu (40 litres); 8 (ND 10047), 8: 3 sūtu 4 qa (34 litres); 13 (ND 10027+), 2: 3 sūtu 5 qa (35 litres); 22 (ND 10061), 11: 3 sūtu (30 litres); 33 (ND 6213+), I:4: 1 sūtu (10 litres).
309KINNIERWILSON1972, 3 (ND 6218), I:26: ša ki-iṣ-ri ša dUTU (2.5 qa), 784 B.C.; 6 (ND 6219), 14: ki-ṣir ša dUTU (3? qa); 8 (ND 10047), 19: ki-ṣir dUTU, (791 B.C.); 10 (ND 10057), Rev. 8: ki-ṣir ša dUTU (2.5/3 qa); 13 (ND.10027+), 13: ki-ṣir ša dUTU (3 qa); 19 (ND 10051), 16: ki-ṣir ša dUTU; 35 (ND 2489), 8: ki-ṣir [ša dUTU] (6 qa of wine).
310KINNIERWILSON1972, 2 (ND 6230), 5 (ND 6214), 6 (ND 6219)?; DALLEY– POSTGATE1984, 119 (ND 10036).
311 PARKER1961, 55-61, ND 2803.
Rations
reconstruction is correct they received 0.62 litre of grain per diem. A similarly meagre ration (0.66 litre) went to the ‘man who fed the birds’; the women listed in ND 2803 – probably due to their social status – got rations between 0.5 litre and 1.21 litres. The governess (šakintu) received a very large ration, 4 litres of grain daily.
According to the list, (1) the first category of military personnel comprised 201 chariot men (LÚ.GIGIR), who got 18,720 litres of grain. If they obtained this amount for three months, their daily ration was still a very low, and amounts to 1 litre each.312(2) The second category included different types of qurbūtubodyguards (Rev. I:112). They received different sized rations, but if we reconstruct the different periods of service, for which they might have obtained them, we get a very coherent result: each of the qurbūtubodyguards got about 2.2—2.3 litres as a daily ration, which befitted their social status. It has to be admitted that it is not known, whether these amounts were the only sources of their daily subsistence or supplemented an income from other sources.
A similarly coherent picture emerges from the rations of the equids. If we reconstruct the different time periods in ND 2803, for which the equids might have gotten fodder rations, it seems that the horses to be sent or to be brought received a daily ration between 7.5 and 9.5 litres each (7.5, 8.5, 8.5, 9.0, 9.5). This amount seems much more than the modern standard (of the 3 kg fodder and 6 kg hay daily) and was abundantly sufficient for the daily sustenance of a (war)horse.
312Fales argued correctly that 1 qa= 1 litre = 0.8 kg of grain was a „minimum survival” daily grain ration, which could have yielded 600—650 grams of bread (FALES1990, 29).
TEXTHORSES/MENFODDER/BREADRATION/MONTHRATION/DAY ND28031 month3 months 6 months9 months O.i:10-11114women38,580litres(for9.3months)4,140litres1.21litres/woman 23-2477palaceslaves10,760litres(for7.5months)1,422.5 litres0.62litre/slave 261manwhofeedsthebirds20litres20litres0.66litre/man 29-307women15litresdaily(for6.5months)0.5litre/woman 321šakintuwoman1,450litres(for12months)120litres4litres/šakintu O.ii:4’120pít-[ېal] 184,000litres/6months(fromElul (VI)totheendoftheyear?) 30,666.6 litres8.5litres/horse 5’or250LÚ.pít-[ېal]184,000litres/year/250cavalry?736litres2.04litres/cavalry 6’-7’2pít-ېalšaLÚ.SAG.MEŠ5,120litres(for9months)570litres5,120litres9.5litres/horse 8’-9’20ur-ri-e64,800litres7,200 64,800 litres6litres/horse 10’-11’94SALANŠE.KUR.MEŠ24,100litres24,100 litres 8.5litres/horse 13’-14’201LÚ.GIGIR18,720litres6,240 litres1litre/man 17’SapunuLÚ.qur-bu-[tu]X+70?litres 26’IbniaLÚ.qur-[bu-tú] šaDUMU.MAN 28’Issar-BƗbilƗiaLÚ.qur-bu-te100?litres R.i:1LÚ.qur-bu-túšaDUMU.MAN204litres68litres2.26litres/man 4Issar-DnjriLÚ.qur-bu-tú400litres66.6litres2.22litres/man 8 […] LÚ.qur-bu-tešaDUMU.MAN 11[…]-a-aLÚ.qur-bu-te601litres66.7litres2.22litres/man 33[…]-ir-d[…]LÚ.qur-bu-teDUMU].MAN 35DI-mu-APIN-ešLÚ.qur-bu-te R.ii:10-11ANŠE.KUR.MEŠKUR.Man-na-a-a200litres 13ANŠE.KUR.MEŠKUR.Elam-[ma?]-a 14-15ANŠE.KUR.MEŠšaÉDaltâ(GaiâLÚ.qur- bu-tišaDUMU.MAN) 17-18ANŠE.KUR.MEŠa-naUrzuপinaú-bi-lu-u- ni(KannjnƗiuLÚ.qur-bu-te)104litres 22220ANŠE.KUR.MEŠ?qa-ni15litresfor2dayseach?7.5litres/horse ND10013 9’22MÍ.ANŠE.KUR.RA.MEŠ2,240?litres101litres/ mare 3.3litres/mare 10’175ANŠE.NÍTA.MEŠšama-’a-si17,500litres100litres/ donkey 3.3litres/donkey Fig. 17. Grain rations reconstructed from Nimrud bread and wine lists (ND 2803 and ND 10013).
Rations
ND 10013.313This text provides further details on the fodder rations of mares and donkeys, and it seems from this administrative list (Fig. 17) that the mares and donkeys of the (royal) stables got 6.3 litres and 3.3 litres fodder per diemrespectively. These amounts are fractions (approximately 1/3) of the 8.5—9 litres of grain per horse daily known from ND 2803 discussed above.
Fig 18.Grain rations reconstructed from Nimrud wine (ND 6218) bread and wine lists (ND 2371, ND 2489, and ND 2442).
ND 6218.314ND 6218 (Fig. 18), the only wine list included into this study, is a list which most probably contains daily rations of different personnel performed a service in the royal court, the daily ration of different members of military ranged from 0.5 litre to 2—3 litres of wine per diem.
The lowest ration went to the chariot men/grooms of the ta‹līpuchariotry (LÚ.GIGIR ša GIŠ.ta‹
líp).315We do not know whether the personnel of the three enigmatic categories (ša GIŠ.mušēzibāte,
TEXT MILITARY TITLE TOTAL RATION DAILY RATION
ND 6218
Col. i:7 ‘foreman/commander of the teams’ (šá pa-an ú-ra-a-te) 2 litres of wine Col. iii:1 recruits of the Chief Eunuch (L[Ú.ra]k-su-t[e GA]L
LÚ.SAG) 20 litres of wine
2 ‘of the mušƝzibƗte’ (ša GIŠ.m[u-š]e-zib-a-te) 5 litres of wine 3 ‘of the teams’ (ša ú-ra-a-te) 3 litres of wine 4 ‘of the dunƗni’ (ša GIŠ.du-na-ni) 1.5 litres of wine
5 taېlƯpu chariot man (LÚ.GIGIR ša GIŠ.taې-líp) 0.5 litre of wine
6 tracker (LÚ.UŠ kib-si) 2 litres of wine
7 commander-of-50 (LÚ.GAL 50.MEŠ-ni) 2 litres of wine ND 2371
6 ‘third men’ (LÚ.3.U5.MEŠ) 119 litres
7 bodyguards (ša qur-ru-ub-tú) 15 litres
8 chariot owners of bodyguard (EN GIŠ.GIGIR.MEŠ
qur-ru-ub-tú) 8 litres
9 kallƗpu soldiers (LÚ.kal-la-[pa.ni]) 60 litres
ND 2489
Col. i:6 chariot driver (LÚ.mu-kil KUŠ.PA) [x] qa(litres) 7 chariot owners (LÚ.EN GIŠ.GIGIR.MEŠ) 20 litres
8 bodyguard (qur-ub-tú) 13 litres
14 ‘of the dunƗni’(ša GIŠ.du-na-ni) 4 litres 15 taېlƯpu charioteer(s) (ša GIŠ.taې-líp) [x] qa(litres)
Col. ii:2 cohort of Šamaš (ki-úir [ša DINGIR.UTU]) 6 litres 8 recruits of kallƗpu soldiers (LÚ.rak-su-uti.MEŠ ša kal-lap) 1[x] litres
Col. iii:4-5 chariot men of the eunuchs (LÚ.GIGIR.MEŠ ša SAG.MEŠ) 50 litres ND 2442
Col. i:1’-2’ 2 ú-rat.MEŠ 20 litres / 2/4 horses 10/5 litres / horse 3’-4’ 2 ú-rat pít-ېal-lim? 16 litres / 2/4 horses 8/4 litres / horse 5’-6’ 2 ú-rat.MEŠ pít-ېal-lum 6 gam-mal 50 litres / 2/4 horses + 6
camels 5 litres / animal?
313DALLEY– POSTGATE1984, 150-152, no. 89 (ND 10013).
314KINNIERWILSON1972, 3 (ND 6218), pls. 9-10: cols. i-ii; DALLEY– POSTGATE1984, 145 (ND 6218), pl. 44: cols. iii-iv.784 B.C.
315For the taḫlīpuchariotry seeDEZSŐ2012B, 70-71; for the chariot men/grooms of the taḫlīpuchariotry (LÚ.GIGIR ša GIŠ.taḫ-líp) seeDEZSŐ2012B, 115.
and ša GIŠ.dunāni) with their 5 and 1.5 litres of wine were a collective body or whether they provisioned a single person. 20 litres of wine for the ‘recruits’ of the Chief Eunuch (LÚ.raksute GAL LÚ.SAG)316provided rations probably for 20 ‘recruits’ per diem. The category ‘of the teams’
(ša urâte, obviously referring to personnel and not to horses) with their 3 litres of wine (for 2 or 3 personnel) differs from their official, the ‘foremen/commander of the teams’ (ša pān urâte), who got 2 litres of wine daily. It seems that an average of 2 litres of wine were provided for the military daily: this amount was allotted to the scout (rādi kibsi) and to the commanderof50 (rab ‹anšê). It is important to note that further entries of the texts listing the daily rations of civilian personnel show a fairly consistent picture: most of the individuals were supplied with 1 or 2 litres of wine per day.317
ND 2371.318ND 2371 is another bread list, which provides information for the reconstruction of the overall amounts of the grain rations, but unfortunately the number of personnel behind the general categories is unknown. ‘Third men’ obtained 119 litres of grain, which was sufficient for approximately 60 ‘third men’ (with an avarage of 2 litres per diemreconstructed from the previous lists and implied by the importance of the ‘third men’).319Following this logic and the avarage rations calculated from ND 2803, 15 litres of grain was the daily ration of 6 qurbūtubodyguards, 8 litres of grain was the daily allocation for about 4 chariot owners of the bodyguard, 60 litres of grain was the daily allotment of 30 kallāpusoldiers.
ND 2489.320ND 2489 is a similar bread list with only the overall amounts of the rations. These data are of no help in the reconstruction of the daily rations for the different types of military personnel, consequently we have to use the data deduced from the previous lists. This list most probably issued daily provisions for 10 chariot owners (2 litres each), 5—6 qurubtu/qurbūtu bodyguards (2.2 litres each), and 100 chariot men (0.5 litres each).
ND 2442.321After analysing ND 2442, the most important question remains whether the term urûmeans teams of horses, i.e. 2 horses, or whether it is used as a synonym to ‘horse.’ This results in obvious differences between the different ration calculations, with the daily rations varying between 4—5 and 8—10 litres daily, the latter correlating to a greater extent to the overall conclusion drawn from ND 2803 discussed above.