Sources

The Middle Babylonian Nuzi corpus is rich of approximately 5000 tablets mostly found during the American excavations (1925-1933) conducted in different places on the tell (Yorghan-Tepe nowadays). Cdli MB Nuzi tablets collection

The written data cover a time span of around five generations (1450-1350 B.C.E.) and stop with the site destruction due to an Assyrian campaign during the first part of king Aššur-uballiṭ I’s reign. Within this period, Nuzi was one of the provincial towns of the kingdom of Arraphe, whose eponymous capital lies beneath modern Kirkuk, about 15 km from the tell. The designation “Nuzi  tablets” also includes some hundreds of tablets found at Kirkuk and Tell al-Fahhar.

Nuzi tablets mainly consist of administrative texts accounting for economic operations, records of business activities and law documents which are connected with various agents such as the palace, very large households and smaller family units.

Scope

The MB Nuzi metrological and numerical system is broadly equivalent to the contemporary Mesopotamian systems. However, there are some characteristic features which should be highlighted. Firstly, a special system of weight is documented for wool. Moreover, most of the Arraphean populations were probably Hurrian native speakers, as shown by the textual documentation. In the linguistic sphere, Hurrian influence is discernable on Akkadian, the common language of the texts, at various levels (syntactical, grammatical and lexical levels). So it is hardly surprising that Hurrian terminology is also commonly used for measures of length and numbers as well as for the wool measurement.

Bibliography

• Abrahami, P. (2014) Wool in the Nuzi Texts. In C. Breniquet and C. Michel, (eds), Wool Economy in the Ancient Near East and the Aegean: from the Beginnings of Sheep Husbandry to Institutional Textile Industry. Ancient Textiles Series 17. Oxford, p. 305.
• Andrews, S. J. (1996) Duck Tales at Nuzi: A Note on the Trused-Duck Weights Excavated at Yorgan Tepa. In D. I. Owen and G. Wilhelm (eds.), Richard F. S. Starr Memorial Volume, SCCNH 8. Bethesda, p. 241-243.
• Cross, D. (1937) Movable Property in the Nuzi Documents. AOS 10. New Haven, Connecticut, p. 9-14.
• Friberg, J. (1987-1990) Mathematik. In Reallexikon der Assyriologie vol. 7, p. 537.
• Gordon, C. H. (1934) Numerals in the Nuzi Tablets. RA 31, p. 53-60.
• Grosz, K. (1988) The Archive of the Wullu Familly. CNIP 5, Copenhagen, p. 113, 118 n. 5.
• Hallock, T. R. (1957) The Nuzi Measure of Capacity. JNES 16/3, p. 204-206.
• Lion, B. and Sauvage, M (2005). Les Textes de Nuzi Relatifs aux Briques. In D. I. Owen and G. Wilhelm (eds.), General Studies and Excavations at Nuzi 11/1, SCCNH 15. Bethesda, p. 82 n. 71.
• Maidman, M. P. (1994) Two Hundred Nuzi Texts from the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Part I. SCCNH 6, Bethesda.
• Mayer, W. (1978) Nuzi-Studien I. Die Archive des Palastes und die Prosopographie der Berufe. AOAT 205/1. Neukirchen-Vluyn, p. 219.
• Pfeiffer, R. H. and Speiser E. A. (1936) One Hundred New selected Nuzi Texts. AASOR 16. New Haven, Connecticut, p. 131-135.
• Powell, A. (1987-1990) Masse und Gewichte. In Reallexikon der Assyriologie vol. 7, p. 462, 472-473; 477 (length measures); 485-488 (surface measures); 500-501 (capacity measures); 514-515 (weight measures).
• Richter, T. (2012) Bibliographisches Glossar des Hurritischen. Wiesbaden.
• Starr, R. F. S.  (1937) Nuzi. Vol. 2. Plates and Plans, Cambridge, pl. 122-124.
• Starr, R. F. S.  (1939) Nuzi. Vol. 1. Texts, Cambridge, p. 464-467.
• Wilhelm, G. (1980) Das Archiv des Šilwa-Teššup Heft 2. Rationen Listen I. Wiesbaden, p. 27.
• Wilhelm, G. (1984) Hurritisch nari(ya), “Fünf”. SMEA 24, p. 223-224.
• Wilhelm, G. (1996) Nuzi Notes. 18. A New word in –arbu: kirarbu. In D. I. Owen and G. Wilhelm (eds.), Richard F. S. Starr Memorial Volume, SCCNH 8. Bethesda, p. 347-348.
• Wilhelm, G. (1988) Zu den Wollemaßen in Nuzi. ZA 78, p. 276–283.
• Zaccagnini, C. (1976) Tummu and par(as)-ṣehru. Note on Two Measures of Weight at Nuzi. JAOS 96, p. 273.
• Zaccagnini, C. (1979) Notes on the Nuzi Surface Measures. UF 11, p. 849-856.
• Zaccagnini, C. (1981) A Note on Nuzi Textiles. In M. A. Morrison and D. I. Owen (eds), Studies on the Civilization and Culture of Nuzi and the Hurrians in Honor of Ernest R. Lacheman on his Seventy-Fifth Birthday April 29, 1981. Winona Lake Indiana, p. 349-360.
• Zaccagnini, C. (1990) The Nuzi Wool Measures Once Again. Orientalia 59, p. 312-319.
• Zaccagnini, C. (1999-2001) The Mina of Karkemiš and Other Minas. SAAB 13, p. 39-56.

The four units of the capacity system by ascending order are sila₃ (qû), ban₂ (sūtu), pi (pānu) and anše (imēru). They are used for both dry products and liquids. The commodities documented are seeds, cereals, oil, lard and beer. For the last three products, a specific unit, the tallu (DAL), a container of standard capacity is also used. Two values are attested for the tallu: eight sila₃ (HSS 13 50 = AdŠ 73; HSS 13 142 = AdŠ 72 see Wilhelm 1980, p. 27) and one ban₂ (HSS 15 248; HSS 15 249, see CAD T, p. 102b). The kukkubu, a small container, is also used for oil (HSS 15 291). Its capacity is of 2 sila₃ and 4 sila₃ in HSS 15 248 and HSS 15 249. The latter text is an account of beer. Straw was counted in šaharru, a type of net. It corresponds to the yearly ideal production of a field of one aweharu (CAD Š/1, p. 81b).

            The value of the ban₂ may have varied from place to place: it is suggested by the record of 12 anše of wheat and 45 anše of emmer measured “with the ban₂ of the city of Al-ilâni” (HSS 16 119).

sila3  (qû)		ca. 0,84 l.
× 8 or × 108)
ban2 (sūtu)	9)	ca. 6,7 l. or 8,4 l.
× 6
pi (pānu)10)		ca. 40,4 l.
× 10 ban2
anše (imēru)		ca. 60,7 l. or 84 l.

The three weight measures¹²⁾ are by ascending order the shekel (šiqlu, written su and not gin₂), the mina (ma.na) and the talent (gun biltu).

su (šiqlu)		c. 8.3 g
× 60
ma.na13)		c. 500 g
× 60
gu2.un (biltu)		c. 30 kg

Wool is also measured with specific units which by ascending order are šehtunu, kuduktu and nariu (all Hurrian terms). Their value is open to debate. The question is conveniently summarized in Lion and Sauvage 2005, p. 82 n. 71 and Powell 1987-1990, p. 515 where the following relationships are given: 3600 šiqlu = 60 mina = 1 talent = 24 nariu = 40 kuduktu = 80 šehtunu.

However, the value of the kuduktu as equivalent to 80 šiqlu (and not 90 šiqlu), relies among other things, on the sequential arrangement 1:2:4 found in other systems of weight for wool in the Near East and in the Aegean (see Zaccagnini 1990, 313-315 and Zaccagnini 1999-2001, 51-54). Regular delivery of wool for work assignment, given alternatively in both systems of weight, seems to support this view (Abrahami 2014, p. 305).

To count objects, a mixed decimal and sexagesimal system is used: sexagesimal values for numbers under 100 and decimal values above 100.

60 (šūši), 100, 1000, and 10,000 are expressed phonetically.

ilten (1-en)				1
	×10
				10
	× 6
šūši	or			60
	swtich from sexagesimal to decimal
mât				100
	×10
līmu				1000
	×10
nubi (hurrian)				10,000

Hurrian names of numbers are identified in several words and expressions; they are used especially to express the age of animals, which is formed in hurrian by a suffix –arbu.

Fractions are expressed with their nouns:

P. Abrahami et B. Lion.