Records and Agreements

This is a record of expenses and merchandise written in Akkadian.

Here we have a mercantile agreement in which the silent partner consigns certain goods to the active partner, presumably in the expectation of realizing or at least sharing in the proceeds of their sale.

The invention of coinage is commonly attributed to Kings Gyges and Andrys of Lydia around 630 BC; but the Babylonian economy complete with a sophisticated credit system flourished long before the invention of coinage. Payments were made in weights of silver and volumes of barley. Although there is considerable debate, it is probable that silver arm bands which could be sectioned were used as a means of payment long before the introduction of coinage.

Part of the translation here is "Let him give my messenger 1/3 (mina) silver ring(s) (armbands?)".