Line	Text original	Text translated
o. 1	5 gu2 gi	5 loads (ca. 150 kg) of reeds
o. 2	5 gu2 ĝešma-nu	5 loads (ca. 150 kg) of willow
o. 3	lal3 i3-nun sur-de3[glossary=sur]	to let butter and honey out[glossary=sur]
o. 4	ki šeš-a-ni-ta	from Šešani
o. 5	lugal-izim šu ba-ti	Lugalizim received it.
0	============
0	Seal of Lugalizim, scribe, son of Lugalemaḫe, temple administrator.

o. 1-2 In the Ur III period, each „load“ (gu2 = ca. 30 kg) could include between 11 and 18 „bundles“ (sa) of reed (Sallaberger 1989: 318; Waetzoldt 1992: 128). Hence according to this text, the processing of butter and syrup required between 55 and 90 bundles of reed and the same amount of willow. To put it in perspective: 20 bundles of reeds, i.e. about one „load“ (gu2), served to cook 60 litres of meat soup (Brunke 2011: 181). Hence 150 kg of reeds and 150 kg of willow could possibly cook between 330 and 540 litres of this specific kind of meat soup.

o. 3 The first sign of the line is not la2-ni „leftover“, but rather lal3 „honey“. I want to thank Jonathan Taylor, Curator in the Department of the Middle East at the British Museum, for providing me with some tablet pictures, otherwise only published in transliteration.

This receipt documents the use of 5 „loads“ (gu2 = ca. 30 kg each), i.e. ca. 150 kg of reed and 5 loads, i.e. ca. 150 kg of willow, for processing butter and honey. Reed and willow served hereby very likely as fuel to heat these products. The question is if it is possible to reconstruct the aim of this procedure, as the text does not indicate it. We can safely exclude that heat, in this case, was used for the manufacture of butter from fermented milk (stage 2.1 according to the reconstruction of the chaîne opératoire in Dossier A.2.1.01), as butter was always provided to the provincial administration directly by the herders or their flock overseer (e.g. BPOA 7 1557, a receipt of butter, cheese, wool and goats‘ hair from Kas4 to Lugalizim). We assume that it was manufactured by them (Dossier A.2.1.01, A.2.01.02).

On the one hand, butter and honey occur among the ingredients of a sweet dish called pad saĝ si3-ga (Brunke 2011: 210-211; 218-219), which is identified as a kind of paste basically made of fruits, fat and honey. Although the preparation of the sweet dish pad saĝ si3-ga did not require heat¹The mixture of butter, honey and various fruits could have resulted in a solid mass with chopped (dried) fruits that was easy to spread at room temperature. This is true for the niĝ i3-de2-a-paste, but we can assume it for the pad saĝ si3-ga-paste as well, as the latter was simply a luxury version of the niĝ i3-de2-a with more fruits and a relevant amount of syrup (Brunke 2011: 208 fn. 277), heating butter and honey would fluidify them to suit better for mixing with solid ingredients. On the other hand, butter represented together with „sesame oil“ (i3-ĝeš), the carrier substance at the base of scented oils and honey, is directly attested as an ingredient for aromatic oils in the Middle Assyrian recipes too (Brunke/Sallaberger 2010: 52; 61-62). According to our text, Šešani, a well-attested supplier of fuel in Umma, provided the fuel to Lugalizim, son of Lugalemaḫe, who was house administrator of the governor in Umma and, among other tasks, was also responsible for the supply of aromatics, fuel and oils/fats for the manufacture of scented oils/fats (Brunke/Sallaberger 2010: 43).

Therefore, this makes it more plausible that our text documents the use of heat very likely to liquefy butter and honey that did get crystallized and solid, possibly for their further processing. Moreover, reducing moisture content from butter makes it less prone to develop rancidity (stage 3 according to the reconstruction of the chaîne opératoire in Dossier A.2.1.01) and possibly more suitable as a base for scented oils/fats or even for sweet dishes.