ONE TALENT. FOR THE GOD SHARA

MS 4576
MS Short Title ONE TALENT. FOR THE GOD SHARA
Text ONE TALENT. FOR THE GOD SHARA, HER KING, ABBAEGALKALA, DAUGHTER OF NIRGALANNA, THE PRIESTESS OF THE GODDESS BABA, THE STRONG MAN, THE SUMERIAN, HER BELOVED SON FROM ANMEBALAUNU. UR.BILGAMESH, THE SUMERIAN, THE SERVANT OF THE GOD NAMMU WHO ESTABLISHED THE GOODNESS?, THE MAN WHO MADE SWEET, AND BROUGHT THE RULERSHIP OF SHULGI, FROM ITS HEAD TO THE GREAT FOUNDATION OF HELL, WHO BUILT AND RAISED, GATEMENA, HER KING, HE FASHIONED IT
Description MS in Neo Sumerian on stone, Umma, ca. 2100-1900 BC, 1 stone weight, 38x23x15 cm, 2 columns, (14x9 cm) 10 lines in archaizing cuneiform script, ancient holes near top to serve as handles, 1 hole at lower half, weight 27,5 kg.
Commentary The weight has probably been reused as a door socket supporting the weight of a very heavy door. Its original weight would have been ca. 30 kg. The talent was divided into 60 mina (0,5 kg), the mina into shekels (8 g), and the shekel into 180 barley corns of ca. 45 mg each. The oval shape is most unusual. Duck-weight were the rule, even for big weights of one talent. Shara is the patron deity of the town Umma. The text is unique, so far not duplicated in any other inscription.
Published Jöran Friberg: A remarkable Collection of Babylonian Mathematical Texts. Springer 2007. Sources and Studies in the History of Mathematics and Physical Sciences. Manuscripts in the Schøyen Collection, vol. 6, Cuneiform Texts I. pp. 127-129. Andrew George, ed.: Cuneiform Royal Inscriptions and Related Texts in the Schøyen Collection, Cornell University Studies in Assyriology and Sumerology, vol. 17, Manuscripts in the Schøyen Collection, Cuneiform texts VI. CDL Press, Bethesda, MD, 2011, text 19, pp. 23-24, pl. XIV.
Place of origin Sumer
Dates ca. 2100-1900 BC