ABSTRACT
The cuneiform writing system was developed for the purpose of recording economic transactions, and throughout the three millennia of its use this remained one of its primary concerns. The number of cuneiform economic records available is unparalleled in the ancient world, except for Roman Egypt, and in many later pre-capitalist cultures. Tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of documents are known, many more remain unpublished in museum collections, and excavations constantly yield more archives. Considering the long time-span involved, the absolute numbers may seem small if averaged out per year, but the largest quantities are clustered in relatively short periods of time; for instance in Babylonia, in the twenty-first, eighteenth through sixteenth, and sixth centuries. For the study of the ancient economy these texts provide a unique data base. Unfortunately they remain insufficiently mined by scholars who are interested in broad economic structures rather than detailed analyses.
