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A Note on the Talent AT Alalah (At 401)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

C. Zaccagnini
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Extract

Since its publication, AT 401—a delivery-note of copper—has been considered as an important piece of evidence for the reconstruction of the weight system at Alalah (Level IV). The interest of this text lies in the fact that consignments of copper are reckoned in talents and shekels, and that the total, also reckoned in talents and shekels, is provided. Consequently, we may have a clue for establishing the amount of shekels comprising the talent at Alalah. The various interpretations so far suggested have—in my opinion—failed to offer a convincing explanation of the text itself, with the result that the metrological value of the talent at Alalah is still far from established.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 40 , Issue 1 , Spring 1978 , pp. 67 - 69
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1978

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References

1 Wiseman, D. J., The Alalakh Tablets (London, 1953), 105 and cf. 11, fn. 1Google Scholar; Tsevat, M., “Alalakhiana”, HUCA 29 (1958), 123Google Scholar; cf. 128; CAD K, p. 49b.

2 I am most gratefully obliged to Mr. C. B. F. Walker, who collated the text for me. My thanks are also due to Professor W. G. Lambert, who confirmed Mr. Walker's collation.

3 The exact meaning of ZU in this context is not clear to me. It is conceivable that the expression refers to the fact that 400 shekels of copper are actually a bronze alloy, obtained by adding tin. The equivalence ZU = ruddû, “add” (ŠL, II/1, p. 17: 17Google Scholar; cf. AHw, p. 967) might offer a clue for the passage, though admittedly a very hypothetical one.

4 Cf. Parise, N. F., “Per uno studio del sistema ponderale ugaritico,” Dialoghi di Archeologia 1 (1970–1971), esp. 13–23Google Scholar; Liverani, M., “Il talento di Ashdod,” OA 11 (1972), 193–199Google Scholar.

5 For both texts see Liverani, M., “Il fuoruscitismo in Siria nella tarda età del bronzo,” Rivista Storica Italiana 77 (1965), 328–330Google Scholar; cf. id., “L'estradizione dei rifugiati in AT 2,” RSO 39 (1964), 111–115.

6 Note that the tribute imposed by Suppiluliuma on Niqmadu II, king of Ugarit, consisted, inter alia, of 500 shekels of gold, i.e. 1/6 of the (Syrian) talent: PRU IV, 81Google Scholar (RS 17.382+: 25).

7 There are several possible correspondences of Sum. LÁ(.LÁ) in Akkadian, which could suit this passage, e.g. LÁ = maṭû (ŠL, II/4, p. 930Google Scholar: 25; cf. AHw, p. 636a, 5b).

8 Cf. also CAD K, p. 49b.