BUFFALO SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCES 115 



number of wooden instruments and utensils. Unfortunately the 

 identification of many of these objects is impossible at the present 

 state of our knowledge, but it is interesting to know the names 

 of many of the objects with which an old Sumerian sanctuary 

 was furnished. 



Xo. i relates to three temples in this same city of 

 Umma, namely, the temple of the god of the city, the tem- 

 ple of Ninurra, and the temple of Dungi, for King Dungi 

 introduced the innovation of the deification of the king in 

 his own life time, and the cult seems to have been a popular 

 one. It is an account of 314 calves taken from the stall, with 

 the names of their respective herdsmen. Nos. 3, 7, 12, and 

 19 also relate to cattle and come from the modern Drehem, a 

 mound which is about half an hour by boat from Nippur. 

 Large numbers of tablets from Drehem have recently come 

 into the market, and their decipherment shows them to be 

 the archives of a stock farm in connection with some temple 

 of unusual importance, presumably that of the ancient god Ellil 

 at Nippur. No. 3 is a list of cattle, asses, and mules with the 

 names of their herdsmen. The obverse, with the exception of 

 the last line, is occupied with the detailed part of the account ; 

 the reverse with a summary in which the animals are enumerated 

 and classified according to value and age. No. 7 is an account 

 of the ewes and rams that are on hand, those taken away for 

 sacrifice, the number of hides shorn, and number of goats. No. 

 12 is an acknowledgment from the butcher of eight sheep and 

 one kid. No. 19 records the delivery of sheep and goats for 

 sacrifice for three great festivals. The number written on the 

 left edge of the reverse is 3G8, the total number of animals for 

 sacrifice. 



Connected with the temples was a large staff of persons — in 

 the city of Lagash there were about a thousand such persons to 

 ten temples — for whose maintenance the cultivation of large tracts 

 of land was necessary. A more recent parallel is to be seen in 

 the ownership and management of large estates by the monas- 

 teries during the Middle Ages. The obverse of No. 9 has been 

 entirely erased by the scribe, but the reverse shows it to be an 

 account of wages paid laborers working on various tracts of land 

 for periods varying from 12 to 310 days. No. 10 is a record of 

 provision given to ten men for the barley harvest. No. 11 records 



