Sources: 22 500 old Assyrian private tablets have been excavated for the greater part in the houses of the Assyrian merchants in the lower town of Kültepe, ancient Kaneš. There are also some 180 old Assyrian tablets excavated in two other Assyrian trade settlements in Anatolia: Boğazköy, ancient Hattuš, and Alişar, ancient Amkuwa. The twenty old Assyrian computation school exercises excavated at Aššur use the same weight system. All these sources date for the most part to the 19th century BC. A substantial part of them are already available on CDLI (here).

Scope: The old Assyrian metrology is attested thus both in Aššur and in the Assyrian trade settlements in Anatolia during the 19th and 18th centuries BC. Since the Assyrians were interested mainly by the trade in metals, the weight system is the most used among the merchants. Capacities, length and surfaces are rarely attested.

Bibliography:

• Lewy, J. 1959: ‘The Old Assyrian Surface Measure šubtum’ Analacta Biblica 12: 216-26
  
• Michel, Cécile. 1998. Les marchands et les nombres: l’exemple des Assyriens à Kaniš, in J. Prosecky (ed.), Intellectual Life of the Ancient Near East, Compte-rendu de la 43e Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Prague, p. 249-267
  
• Michel, Cécile. 2006. Calculer chez les marchands assyriens du début du IIe millénaire av. J.-C., site Internet CultureMaths (site expert ENS/DESCO)-Juin 2006.
  
• Veenhof, Klaas, R. 2007. On Some Old Assyrian Linear Measures, Nouvelles Assyriologiques Brèves et Utilitaires 2007/50.
  

še		ca. 0,05 g
↓ × 180
gin2		ca. 8,3 g
↓ × 60
ma-na		ca. 500 g
↓ × 60
gun2		ca. 30 kg

When computing copper or wool in Anatolia, the unit gun2 was not always used ; instead quantities could be given in hundreds of ma-na.

The capacity system was used to quantify any liquid (oil, beer) or some solids linked to food (grain, hazelnuts, etc.). It is built on measuring vessels of standard capacity. Measuring units are written syllabically, except when specified.

sila3, qûm		-	0.85 l
↓ × 15
šaršarānu (15 sila3)	-		12.5 l
↓× 2
dug, karpatum (2 šaršarānu )		A jar	25 l
↓ × 4
naruqqum (4 dug)	-	A bag	100 l

The unit baneš/ ṣimdum (, also written ), equivalent of 30 sila3 could replace the dug/karpatum.

Another subdivision of the dug/ karpatum was the nabītum, however, its value is unkown (AKT 5:60).

There were other measuring vessels of standard capacity, as the mašqaltum of 1, 2 or 3 sila3, or as the kirrum, “a pitcher of beer” which capacity is unknown.

Measuring units are written syllabically.

Presumably in a parallel system we find the following measures:

Only the unit šubtum is attested; it most probably equals the Babylonian sar = mušarum, measuring ca. 36m²

Assyrian merchants use, to count object, a decimal additive system and not a sexagesimal system. Numbers 100 and 1000 are expressed with their nouns: meat and lim.

ištēn		1
↓ × 10
ešer		10
↓ × 10
me-at		100
↓ × 10
li-im		1000

Note that, in this decimal system, 60

1/6	1/4	1/3	1/2	2/3	5/6

Page prepared by CM
(digital version prepared by BG)

Return to Numbers & Metrology in the 2nd millennium