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November 8, 2007
Teams of Horses for Teams of People
RS 20.211A is the largest of 11 or so fragments belonging to an administrative tablet from Ugarit. The tablet originally had over 35 lines of which line 8' is the most complete. And even it needs a little reconstruction.
1 ta-p[al ]ANŠE.KUR.RA a-na mAN-?[ . . . ]
1 team (pair) of horses for AN-????
It is reasonable to think that ever line had the following structure:
{NUMBER} ta-pal ANŠE.KUR.RA(sîsî) a-na {PERSONAL NAME}
In one line (fragment G:4'), the otherwise unreadable personal name, may have been preceded by DUMU/mâr, "son of" but I wouldn't bet much money on it. Not a single personal name can be read completely. The readable numbers of pairs of horses range from 1 to 3. Schaeffer discovered this tablet in the House of Rap'anu, the master scribe.
In the first 17 lines, the only ones where the number of pairs of horses are readable, the tablet records some 26 pairs or 52 individual horses. Assuming the same frequency of allocations per line for the remainder of the tablet, the tablet records the allocation of over 100 individual horses in pairs to over 35 individuals.
If you're wondering why I am telling you about this tablet, you'll need to wait a couple of days. I plan reference it and a couple of other tablets in my next post on the veterinary text from Ugarit.
Posted by Duane Smith at November 8, 2007 7:46 PM | Read more on Ugarit |
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