Photo: The Girsu Project / Alberto Giannese
Archaeologists from the British Museum and Iraq have unearthed over 200 administrative tablets that shine a light on the early days of government systems. Dating back to 2300-2150 BCE, the clay cuneiform tablets were found in the ancient Sumerian site of Girsu, which is a city known today as Tello. Most interestingly, the tablets revealed the complicated bureaucracy of Akkadia, considered the first empire in history.
Girsu was settled around 4500 BCE as an ancient independent city located in modern-day Iraq. During its splendor, between 2600 BCE and 2200 BCE, it covered hundreds of hectares and was regarded as a sanctuary of the Sumerian heroic god Ningirsu. Around the year 2300 BCE, it was conquered alongside other Sumerian cities by Mesopotamian king Sargon, who established the Akkad dynasty—named after the city of Akkad, believed to be near modern-day Baghdad—that ruled over Girsu from 2300 to 2150 BCE.
The 200 tablets and 50 cylinder seal impressions found in Girsu belonged to Akkadian administrators, and were unearthed in a large state archive building made of mud-brick walls. Using cuneiform symbols, the tablets recorded all kinds of things down to the detail, from plans of buildings and maps of canals to purchases and deliveries of flour, animals, and textiles. The tablets also had thorough lists of names and jobs, and reveal that the Akkadian government had a standard metric system to measure precious metals, such as gold and silver, as well as liquids, such as beer.
“These are the spreadsheets of empire, the very first material evidence of the very first empire in the world—the real evidence of the imperial control and how it actually worked,” Sébastien Rey, the British Museum’s curator for ancient Mesopotamia, told The Observer. “The new finds were preserved in situ, so in their original context, and we can say for sure that we have indeed the very first physical evidence of imperial control in the world. This is completely new.”
The information contained in the tablets also reveal how women held important positions in this society. “So we have high priestesses, for example, although it was a society very much led by men,” Rey adds. Still, the researcher says that role of the woman was at least higher than many other societies, and it’s undeniable based on the evidence that they have gathered.
The tablets also represent the most insightful information on how this city operated, given there are few records from this time beyond unreliable copies of Akkadian inscriptions created later. “These finds also provide more context on how the Akkadians administered their empire, as many previous tablets came from looters but these finds come from the site itself,” Tobin Hartnell, the director of the Center for Archaeology and Cultural Heritage at the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani told Art Newspaper. “Finally, these finds demonstrate how the Akkadians managed a Sumerian city, especially one located on the frontier of the empire itself.”
Right now, the tablets are under the care of British-American conservator Dana Goodburn-Brown, who is cleaning them so that they can be transcribed. The tablets were found by archaeologists at The Girsu Project, a collaboration between the British Museum and the Iraqi government’s State Board of Antiquities and Heritage, devoted to safeguarding the archeological richness of the area. The tablets will then be housed at the Iraqi Museum in Baghdad, where they’ll be analyzed and studied, although The Observer notes that a loan to the British Museum is also a possibility.
The Girsu Project: Website
Sources: ‘Spreadsheets of empire’: red tape goes back 4,000 years, say scientists after Iraq finds; Ancient Mesopotamian clay tablets discovered in Iraq reveal intricate details of how empire was governed
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