Texts and Labels: A Case Study from Neo-Sumerian Umma

This paper is aimed at a more accurate assessment of the Neo-Sumerian texts as the archaeological record. The archaeological and epigraphic analysis of a specific type of text, labels, has allowed the identification of relationships with other types of documents and reconstruct the function of a part of the central administration of the province of Umma.The aim of this paper is to proposed a new approach to Neo-Sumerian documents as archaeological artifacts. The archaeological and epigraphic analysis of a specific typology of texts, ie labels, Has allowed to understand how a part of the central administration of the provinces Umma worked.

Il presente contributo è teso ad una più corretta valutazione dei testi neo-sumerici come documenti archeologici. L’analisi archeologica ed epigrafica di una specifica tipologia di testi, le etichette, ha permesso di evidenziare le relazioni con altri tipi di documenti e ricostruire il funzionamento di una parte dell’amministrazione centrale della provincia di Umma. The aim of this paper is to propose a new approach to Neo-Sumerian documents as archaeological artifacts. The archaeological and epigraphic analysis of a specific typology of texts, i.e. labels, has allowed to understand how a part of the central administration of the Umma province worked.