College of Archaeology

The Department of Ancient Iraqi Languages at the College of Archeology, University of Mosul, held a seminar entitled (Unpublished Cuneiform Texts from the Period of Ur III) on Wednesday, March 27, 2024. The workshop delivered by Assistant Professor Dr. Mahmoud Hamid Ahmed and part of it was attended by Assistant Professor Dr. Moaz Habash Khadr, Head of the Languages Department and the workshop was held in Dr. Behnam Abu Al-Souf’s hall in the college
The study of cuneiform texts is considered one of the most important historical sources for knowing the reality of the economic, political, religious and cultural life of the people of Mesopotamia. The research at hand dealt with an important aspect of these aspects, which is the economic aspect, as the research included four unpublished cuneiform texts dating back to the era of Ur III (2004-2012). BC), which is preserved in the Iraqi Museum, and after reading and analyzing it, we found that it had diverse economic implications, including numbers of clothes distributed to a number of people as taxes, areas of fields in which the number of furrows completed was determined, and the remaining days of work for a group of female workers, as well as quantities Of barley that was allocated to a number of people.
The texts of the study did not reach the Iraqi Museum through scientific archaeological excavations, but rather came through confiscation, which made them undiscovered. The texts were devoid of historical formulas, except for the second text, which was dated to the first year of the reign of King Abi-Sin. Likewise, the name of any of the months used to determine the calendar followed by the city in which these texts were dated was not mentioned in it, which makes it difficult for the researcher to determine the location. Geographer or city from which the texts came. However, we were able to determine the identity of these texts through the personal names that we traced in the published texts, as well as the names of jobs, professions, and names of fields, in addition to the comparisons that we made with many texts dating back to the era of Ur III. It was found that The first three texts of the research belong to the city of Uma, while the fourth text is likely to be from one of the three Sumerian cities of Krshana, Eri-Sakrek, and Uma.