An Operational Device in Mesopotamian Bureaucracy,
Journal of Near Eastern Studies 17, pp. 121-28.
Publication of a bulla from Nuzi (about 1400 B.C.) that contained 48 small objects called stones in the text inscribed on the bulla. The author reconstructs the administrative system that made use of these tokens (as the stones may be interpreted), whereby each object represented a specific animal. He also collects evidence from other texts where the same stones are shown to have been in regular use in Syro-Mesopotamia.
Back to top: Leo Oppenheim 1958