Every object has a story. And a limit.
Nine individually identified clay tablets and archaeological objects, with collection numbers, editions, provenances and careful interpretation.
What this adds: the discussion now begins with a real record that can be looked up by an institutional number, edition or CDLI identifier. Entries explain what the text or catalogue reports, and what it cannot tell us about individual lives. Case files are editorial study guides, not newly discovered inscriptions or independent philological editions.
Chronology matters: eight Middle Assyrian objects belong in the social-history research pathway. The Babylonian Chronicle is a later comparative case concerning Nineveh and its destruction. Its surviving copy date differs from the year of the events it describes. The biblical account remains primary for what its own passages say.
Browse the objects.
- CASE 01 / Middle Assyrian original
KAJ 247: workers and a temple account
A Middle Assyrian tablet names a group of workers, a temple setting and an uncertain administrative receipt.
- Object
- VAT 08971
- Findspot
- Aššur, M 09 archive; excavation Ass 14446 df
- Edition
- KAJ 247 / CDLI P282259
- CASE 02 / Middle Assyrian original
MARV 10, 07: palace footwear and a hostage
An object-specific account of palace footwear, custody and a person called a hostage, with a disputed journey context.
- Object
- VAT 10052
- Findspot
- Aššur, M 07 archive; excavation Ass 21101 s
- Edition
- MARV 10, 07 / StAT 5, 07 / CDLI P282957
- CASE 03 / Middle Assyrian original
KAJ 233: barley for a service horse
A single dated barley receipt links horses, service obligations and an administrative recipient.
- Object
- VAT 08950
- Findspot
- Aššur, M 09 archive; excavation Ass 14446 p*
- Edition
- KAJ 233 / KAV 207 / CDLI P282245
- CASE 04 / Middle Assyrian original
MARV 1, 12: ten days of guard rations
A sealed Middle Assyrian receipt records a barley allocation to several named groups guarding the inner city.
- Object
- VAT 18012 and VAT 18088
- Findspot
- Aššur; individual archive affiliation not supplied by the consulted entry
- Edition
- MARV 1, 12 / VS 19, 12 / CDLI P281896
- CASE 05 / Middle Assyrian original
KAJ 144: lead and a house transaction
A Middle Assyrian legal-administrative tablet links lead, household property, named parties and a seal.
- Object
- VAT 08609
- Findspot
- Aššur, M 11 archive; excavation Ass 14987 b
- Edition
- KAJ 144 / CDLI P282157
- CASE 06 / Middle Assyrian original
Billa 30: barley obligations at Shibaniba
A receipt from Tell Billa shows provincial barley recording, witnesses and gaps in the names and legal reading.
- Object
- UM 33-58-133
- Findspot
- Šibaniba, modern Tell Billa; Aššur-kašid archive
- Edition
- Billa 30 / CDLI P282711
- CASE 07 / Middle Assyrian original
KAJ 118: forty sacks of palace straw
A named receipt involving palace straw, storehouse responsibility and multiple recipients at Aššur.
- Object
- VAT 08819
- Findspot
- Aššur, M 10 archive; excavation Ass 14327 by
- Edition
- KAJ 118 / CDLI P282131
- CASE 08 / Middle Assyrian original
The Met 62.85.3: a sealed administrative tablet
A Middle Assyrian museum object catalogued with two cylinder-seal impressions, without claiming to translate unread lines.
- Object
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art 62.85.3
- Findspot
- Mesopotamia in museum catalogue; exact excavated settlement not established in this record
- Edition
- The Met collection record 325514; no line edition verified for this study
- CASE 09 / Later Babylonian comparative record
BM 21901: the Chronicle of Nineveh's fall
A later Babylonian copy records the events of 616-609 BCE, including Nineveh's fall, alongside distinct prophetic passages.
- Object
- British Museum 21901; registration 1896,0409.6
- Findspot
- South Iraq (museum findspot field; precise site not supplied)
- Edition
- Babylonian Chronicle, Gadd 1923 edition cited in the BM catalogue
The identifiers travel with every claim.
Begin with the catalogue or CDLI ID, the physical provenance and date, and the line range of the edited text. Check damage, uncertain signs, archaeological context, translation choices and the difference between an official assertion and an observed outcome. The Evidence Register provides section-level source trails; the claim review queue documents what still needs qualified independent verification.
Explore Middle Assyrian everyday life or compare biblical and Assyrian records. See editorial review policy for corrections and specialist sign-off requirements.