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October 24, 2005
What Does This Have to Do with the Price of Olive Oil at Ugarit?
I spent most of today cleaning up my most recent work on the texts written in the short cuneiform alphabet. I've been working on the economic tablet KTU 4.710 for some time and I wanted to get it wrapped up and posted so I could move on to the next set of linguistic nightmares. I am also getting concerned that it has been a while since I posted on these texts and that readers who were once interested in all of this may have lost interest. Up until about an hour and a half ago, I thought I was done except for a couple of small loose ends in the secondary material that I could easily complete tomorrow.
Then it happened. While rereading two short paragraphs in Dietrich and Loretz' work on this tablet, I realized that how one interprets it depends in large measure on the price of olive oil in Ugarit. Without going into all the details, the tablet is some kind of what we would today call a "shipper" or perhaps an "invoice." Some scholars think it includes a set of commodities that are exchanged, "For a pitcher of oil, five portions of wheat." Others think the two lines that I have just translated should read something like, "with a pitcher of oil (and) five portions of wheat." In other words, as list of commodities delivered or traded.
You'd think that that would be clear, but it isn't. Real experts disagree and I, a lowly amateur, need to make a decision. To some extent, it depends on how one understands a very difficult string of letters at the beginning of one line and to some extent, it depends on how one understands the fact that one line wraps around onto the other side of the tablet. And to some extent it depends on whether or not the value of oil and the value of wheat make sense in relationship to each other when valued against a third commodity like silver. There is also a question of the extent to which these relationships might vary due to market conditions.
Well, I thought I had everything under control until Dietrich and Loretz' remarks made me look at two other economic texts (KTU 4.158 and 4.341 for those of you that are keeping score) in the long cuneiform alphabet. On the surface, these texts seem to indicate that the price of oil, when valued in terms of silver, was half to a fourth of what would support the interpretation that I was trying to advance; unless, of course, that much fluctuation in price was due to market conditions. In addition to the market factors, there are some other technical issues like the consistency of measurement standards. So back to the library and my old friend the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary to see if I can get a handle on this. I will also be spending a little more quality time with Michael Heltzer's Goods, Prices and the Organization of Trade in Ugarit as well as his Society and Economy in the Eastern Mediterranean (1500-1000 B.C.). I don't know if I can stand the excitement.
Posted by DuaneSmith at October 24, 2005 09:02 PM | Read more on Ugarit |
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Comments
"For a pitcher of oil, five portions of wheat."
Maybe it was a recipe!
Posted by: Aydin at October 25, 2005 09:33 AM
In context of this tablet, it can not be a recipe, unless you know someone who uses significant quantities of silver shekels in their cooking. However, in general, the idea is not that far fetched. Various recipes are known from antiquity.
Posted by: Duane at October 25, 2005 10:01 AM
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