Umma C


The archive of the governor (ensi2) of Umma, Mesag, during the time of Šarkališarrē of Akkade (2205-2181 BCE) covers both the agricultural regime and the management of products as food, textiles, or oils. The desgination as „Group C“ among the mu-iti archives from Umma stems from Foster 1982. Schrakamp 2020b: 645-48 highlighted the fact how the province (as reflected in the documents of the archive) was firmly integrated into the empire of Akkade.

The „Umma C“ archive includes one of the best files from the Sargonic period concerning oils and fats.Foster 1982: 116-24 shortly described the documents as „Group C.4“ under the heading of „other foods“, although documents mention mostly  that oil was used for „anointing“ (šeš4[glossary=šeš4]) in the rare cases that the usage was explicitly spelled out. The person responsible for the management of oils is Baalni[individual=Baalni] (ba-al-ne2, spelled Ba-al-li2/Balli by Foster 1982: 117-23). He handles „lard“ (i3 šaḫa2[glossary=i3 šaḫa2]), „butter“ (i3-nun[glossary=i3-nun]), „sesame oil“ (i3-ĝeš[glossary=i3-ĝeš]), and various aromatized oils, including oils with „(white) cedar“ (i3 eren[glossary=i3 eren] (babbar2)), and with the aromatic  ḫarranum (ḫar-ra-num2[glossary=ḫar-ra-num2]).

Bibliography

  • Foster 1982 = Foster, Benjamin R. (1982): Umma in the Sargonic Period. Memoirs of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences 20. Hamden, Connecticut: Archon Books.
  • Schrakamp 2020b = Schrakamp, Ingo (2020): The Kingdom of Akkad: A View from Within, in: Radner, Karen; Moeller, Nadine; Potts, Daniel T. (eds.), The Oxford History of the Ancient Near East Volume 1: From the Beginnings to Old Kingdom Egypt and the Dynasty of Akkad. Oxford: University press, 612–685.