This list concerns the arrears in sesame that individuals owed to the palace of Mari. These individuals were probably “commoners” (muškēnum) who had the right to cultivate fields alongside the land reserve of the palace, which was in charge of the agrarian entrepreneurs (ikkarum). It is still unclear whether the muškēnum held these lands as individuals in their own right or as members of a community to which the king had granted a right to use the land (Durand 1998: 522-523). In any case, they had to pay the king a grain tax (called šibšum-tax) collected on the harvests in exchange for land use rights (Chambon 2020).

The tax payment in barley is already known according to tabular texts listing areas and expected yields of fields in different localities  (Reculeau 2018a: 35-40). The sibšum-tax for the winter crops (barley) was paid in June/July (Months III and IV in the Mari calendar), but, as it concerns here sesame (summer crops), the šibšum-tax should have been paid at the harvest time, in November/December (see ARM 08 097, ARM 21 135, ARM 21 137 and the comments in Reculeau 2009: 28). This was when the arrears had to be established.

These growers are grouped by localities, sometimes located on the right bank (Mišlān, Zurmaḫum, Suqāqum, Ḫiddān), sometimes on the left bank of the Euphrates (Ḫutnum, Nu’abum, Uraḫ, Šakkā), and listed from upstream to downstream; see Reculeau 2018a, map 1/2: “L’aménagement de la partie aval des Bords-de-l’Euphrate”, at the end of the book).