The Reconstruction Of The Archive Of Ur-Mes, The Fattener(Kuru(?)da)of The Livestock Agency Of Ur-? Dynasty In Puzri(?)-Dagan(AS 2 Iii—IS 1 Xii)

The Ur ? Dynasty ?2112-2004 BCE? is the last and most powerful Sumerian dynasty. In the second half of ???ulgi's reign, the Ur ? state entered into a period of rapid territorial expansion, and this resulted in a more complex administrative organization. With the increase of national power, a great amount of tributary animals were dedicated to the king. During Ur ? the main financial sector was the ???-Puzrish-Dagan livestock agency, which was set up in the 38th year of ???ulgi ?2056 BCE? and closed under Ibbi-Sin ?2024 BCE? due to the poor tribute at that time, however lasting for 33 years. Frequently, animals of fine quality were sacrificed to the temples or donated as gifts to foreign envoys or leaders by the royal family and governors. Then, this central livestock agency played an important role in the economic and administrative system of the Ur ? Dynasty.The aim of this thesis is to reconstruct the working archives of Ur-mes, who is the fattener ?kuru???da? of livestock agency. According to statistics, there are 553 unearthed archives refer to Ur-mes in ???-Puzrish-Dagan. Ur-mes worked in the livestock agency from the 3^rd month of the 2nd year of Amar-Sin to the 12^th month of the 1^st year of Ibbi-Sin. This thesis is divided into two parts:the first part is a discussion of Ur-mes's identity, main responsibilities and contacts; the second part is a reconstruction of relevant documents following the chronological order, by giving the Sumerian transliteration, English and Chinese translation of the extant text. Through the construction and analysis of the archives referring to Ur-mes, we can conclude the following conclusions:The main aspect of his occupation was to take over sheep/goats, including fine qualitied and eliminated class, from local governors or other bureaucrats of livestock agency. Firstly, the scribe Dug4-ga was Ur-mes's superior. When Dug4-ga was In-ta-???-a's assistant, Ur-mes stamped Dug4-ga's archives as Dug4-ga's assistant. Secondly, Ur-mes took over sheep/goats from other fatteners or herdsmen and then fattened them. Thirdly, he also handed over sheep/goats to Ur-kug-nun-na, Ur-Ba-ba and other officials accoding to a small number of text from the extant archives.