A group of 4,000-year-old clay tablets that survived looting,
confiscation by U.S. customs officials, and the 9/11 terrorist
attacks is shedding light on what everyday life was like in
ancient Iraq as an agricultural official. The tablets are from
an archive near the city of Nippur, the Sumerian religious
capital in southern Iraq. Benjamin Studevent-Hickman, a lecturer
on Assyriology in Harvard’s Department of Near Eastern Languages
and Civilizations, spent months translating the tablets, which
are inscribed with cuneiform characters, and is preparing a
monograph on his findings. The tablets are the “papers” of an
official named Aradmu, who held a high position, Studevent-
Hickman said. He was an agricultural official, directing people
who were plot managers, cultivators, and ox drivers. The records
show the activities of Aradmu and his family, whose members held
similar positions. His father, Lugal-me-a, and his brothers are
all represented in the tablets, Studevent-Hickman said. Aradmu
appears to have attain