This is the first volume to appear in a series dedicated to the publication of the cuneiform
texts from the Iraqi Excavations at Umma (Jokha) that were conducted in the years 1999-2002 by
the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage. The expedition was successful in uncovering the
temple of the city-god Shara built by king Shu-Suen of the Third Dynasty of Ur (2035-2027
BCE). About 130 years later in the early years of king Sumuel of Larsa (1894-1866 BCE) the
temple was still in use as documented by the more than one hundred bullae discovered in a
small room near the main entrance. The cuneiform documents written in Sumerian allow detailed
insights in the functioning of the main temple of a Mesopotamian town. Every month the priests
received large amounts of grain for offerings for the temple's personnel or as fodder for its
oxen donkeys horses and sheep. The texts provide important new data for the history of
lowland Mesopotamia in the Early Old Babylonian period. The cuneiform texts are published in
transliteration English and Arabic translation with introduction indexes glossary and
photographs. The book also includes an archaeological chapter on the temple of Shara by N. A.
Al-Mutawalli and H. S. Al-Harbi and a study of the seal images by A. Otto.
