158 THE BABYLONIAN TABLETS 



(15) 1 female lamb, 16 sheep, 

 commissioner, Banaha ; 

 1 female lamb, 16 sheep, 

 commissioner, Basha-Ishtar ; 

 superintendent, Ahum, sahar. 



Rev. ( 1 ) 22 sheep, commissioner, Elagnua, 



superintendent, Bashagaga, sahar, 



the 7th day 



of the month Ezenmah. 

 ( 5 ) 57 sheep, 8 large kids, 



commissioner, Banaha ; 



23 large kids, commissioner, Abiga ; 



superintendent, Ahuni, sahar. 

 (10) 6 large kids, commissioner, Ibshika ; 



superintendent, Bashagaga, sahar, 



the 17th day 



of the month Ezenanna. 



Delivered by Abbashagga, 

 (15) Nur-Enzu took (them) in charge. 



The year of the installation of the high priest 



of Eridu. 



Tablet No. 20 



This is an acknowledgment of the payment to Ishtarilu of 

 certain amounts of copper and lead, and by Ishtar-ilu to Abu- 

 waqar and Shamash-ilu of amounts of silver and gold. The 

 ratio of silver to copper, lead, and gold is given, but owing to a 

 break in the first line, and line five not being quite clear, the 

 computation is not as certain as one could desire. The broken 

 space in line one of the obverse would suggest that only one 

 wedge is to be supplied. In that case the relative value of silver 

 to copper would be 1 : 93.5. If 2/3 mana 8 shekels of gold was 

 worth 1 mana 7^ shekels of silver, the relative value of silver 

 to gold was 1.66 :1. In Egypt silver was more valuable than gold 

 until the Eighteenth dynasty, when the ratio of silver to gold 

 became 1 2/3 :1 (See Breasted, A History of Egypt, pp. 98, 185, 

 338). In an article on the relative value of gold, silver and 

 copper (Revue d' Assyriologie 1911, pp. 92-93), Fr. Thureau- 

 Dangin has shown that in Sippar at the time of Hammurapi the 

 ratio of eold to silver was 6:1. This tablet is undated but the 



