Text	Type of Record	Quantity6See Quantities below	Oils & Fats	For	From	Date
VL 070	various incoming deliveries for elûnum-festival	1 qa = 1 or 0.8 l	“scented oil” (i₃.du₁₀.ga)			15/v/Ḫk
VL 155	receipt?	0.0.2 8 qa = 28 or 22.4 l	“sesame oil” (i₃.giš)?			10/vi/Ḫk
VL 153	receipt	1 qa = 1 l	“first-class (sesame) oil” (i₃.sag)		“gift” (tâmarti) of PN, merchant from Mammâ	5/vii/Ḫk
VL 151	expenditure?	1 qa = 1 l	sesame oil	[PN], scribe		10/viii-bis/Ḫk
VL 156	expenditure by intendants	0.0.2 = 20 or 16 l + 1/3 qa = 0.33 or 0.26 l	“oilve” (serdum) + “lard” (i₃.šaḫ)	PN, released by the king		20/ix/Ḫk
VL 146	expenditure?	0.0.2 = 20 or 16 l	sesame oil	“delegate soldiers” (erin₂.meš šeprūti) + “soldiers” (erin₂.meš) + various PN		18/x/Ḫk
VL 149	expenditure by intendants	7 qa = 7 or 5.6 l	sesame oil	delegate soldiers		1/xi/Ḫk
VL 160	expenditure by intendants	7 qa = 7 or 5.6  l	sesame oil	delegate soldiers		1/xi/Ḫk
VL 157	expenditure by intendants	7 qa = 7 or 5.6 l	“sesame oil” (i₃.[giš])	“delegate auxiliaries and citizens” (ana šeprūt lu₂.diri.ga.meš ù dumu.meš mātim)		15/xi/Ḫk
VL 150	expenditure?	5 qa = 5 or 4 l	sesame oil	delegate auxiliaries and citizens		16/xi/Ḫk
VL 147	expenditure?	[x]	?	delegate auxiliaries and citizens		17/xi/Ḫk
VL 159	expenditure by intendants	5 qa = 5 or 4 l	sesame oil	delegate auxiliaries and citizens		19/xi/Ḫk
VL 154	expenditure by intendants	3 qa = 3 or 2.4 l	sesame oil	delegate auxiliaries and citizens		23/xi/Ḫk
VL 161	expenditure by intendants	3 qa = 3 or 2.4 l	sesame oil	delegate auxiliaries and citizens		24/xi/Ḫk
VL 152	expenditure [by intendants]	3 qa = 3 or 2.4 l	sesame oil	delegate auxiliaries and citizens		[…]/xi?/Ḫk
VL 148	expenditure?	3 qa = 3 or 2.4 l	sesame oil	delegate auxiliaries and citizens		[…]
VL 158	expenditure by intendants	0.0.6 = 60 or 48 l	[…]	a delegation?		[…]/Ḫk
IL 089	receipt?	2 “flasks made of leather” (kušḫi-im-tu ša)	“scented oil” (i₃.du₁₀.ga)		brought from Kubšum	[x+]3/i/Amur-Ištar
IL 128	expenditure by intendants	0.0.1 = 10 or 8 l	“oil made from hulled sesame” (i₃.giš bara₂)	king’s sacrifices, priestess and Gutis‘ rations		3/iv/Amur-Ištar
IL 126	expenditure by intendants	3 qa = 3 or 2.4 l	sesame oil, 1 litre/pers.	various PN (mercenary, general)		[x]+18/iv/Ipiq-Ištar

1. Types of Oils and Fats

1.1. Animal Fat

Lard is the only animal fat documented in Tell Leilān administrative texts. In the text Vincente Leilan 156, a man kidnapped but freed by the king was given 1/3 litre of “lard” (i₃.šaḫ) and olive (oil).

1.2. Oils

1.2.1. Sesame Oil

Regular “sesame oil”, indicated by the logogram i₃.giš, is the most vegetable oil documented⁷Expenditures Vincente Leilan 146, 148, 149, 150, 151, [152], 154, [157], 159, 160, 161 and Ismail Leilan 126. Maybe also the receipt Vincente Leilan 155..

However, oil made from hulled sesame (see ḫalāṣum[glossary=ḫalāṣum]) is once attested in text Ismail Leilan 128 (The logogram bara₂, for Akkadian ḫalṣum[glossary=ḫalṣum], is used after the logogram i₃.giš).

“First-class (sesame) oil” (i₃.sag) is attested by text Vincente Leilan 153: one litre of this first quality sesame oil was offered to/by a merchant.

Finally, “scented oil” (i₃.du₁₀.ga) is attested by two texts, Vincente Leilan 070 and Ismail Leilan 089.

1.2.2. Olive Oil

The expenditure Vincente Leilan 156 mentions some “olives” (serdum[glossary=serdum]). The man, kidnapped but freed by the king, was not only given lard (see above) but also 20 (or 16) litres of olive (oil?)⁸For olive oil, see Dossier A.1.2.01 and A.1.2.02.. Although the text does not include the logogram for oil (i₃), it is possible that the recipient received olive oil, as it is mentioned just before lard.

Remark that the only occurrence of olives and lard in the corpus is in the same text describing a particular situation: an expense for a man who had been captured by another and freed by the king (see Vincente Leilan 156). Caution must be exercised, and what appears to be a particular expense, given the present state of the documentation at our disposal, may not be. However, although it is difficult to get an idea of the proportions of the different types of fat used, sesame oil seems to have been used in the main.

2. Containers

The administrative documentation from Tell Leilān usually does not precise the containers used to store or transport oil. However, a leather flask is attested by one text: Ismail Leilan 089 documents “two flasks made of leather containing scented oil brought from Kubšum” (2 ^kušḫi-im-tu ša i₃.du₁₀.ga ša iš-tu ^uruku-ub-ši^ki [ub-lu]-nim). This locality was the stage between Tundā and Bakītanum, on the “Old Babylonian Itinerary” and could not be further than Harrānum (modern Harran, about 200 km as the crow flies from Tell Leilān, see Ismail Leilan 089).

Sesame oil could be carried in jars as evidenced by one expenditure of a silver ring given to a messenger “when he brought 20 jars of [sesame] oil” (Vincente Leilan 1: 5-7, ⸢i⸣-[nu-ma] 20 dug i₃.[giš] ⸢ub-lam⸣).

Furthermore ,another administrative text, Vincente Leilan 169, mentions an ašnum-flask. Although this text does not specify its contents, a letter from Tell al-Rimāh attests to the use of this flask to carry good oil (OBTR 134: 19, 1 ^dugaš-na-am ša ša-am-nim ṭà-bi-im, “1 ašnum-flask of good oil”).

3. Quantities

Although texts record the quantities⁹In the Tell Leilān epigraphic documentation, we notice that oil was mainly measured according to the standards of Šamaš. This system used in Northern Mesopotamia is known thanks to an inscribed jar from Tell al-Rimāh that allowed to estimate the values as: 1 anše (imēru) = 80 litres, 1 ban₂ (sūtu) = 8 litres, 1 sila₃ (qû) = 0.8 litre (see (???), “Masse und Geschichte”, §IV A.5). Thus large quantity of oil are measured by the wooden sūtu-measure of Šamaš (^gišban₂ ^dutu), as in Vincente Leilan 146 and 158, while smaller quantities of oil were measured according to the qû-measure of Šamaš (sila₃ ^dutu), as recorded in Vincente Leilan 148-152, 154, 156, 157, 159-161 and Ismail Leilan 126. This measure was also used in Leilān for honey (Vincente Leilan 120, 125, 127 and 129) and vegetables (Vincente Leilan 132, 134, 136, 138, 139-143, 145); C.-A. Vincente described it as one of the three standard measures, with the “wooden seah-measure of Shamash” and the “wooden seah measure for commercial exchange”, and she wrote about the qû-measure of Šamaš: “Its first attestation seems to be in the Hk texts; there is no mention of it exists at Mari, Rimah, nor Chagar Bazar. It should belong to the “imeru” system as well.” (Vincente 1991: 15). It definitely seems that both mentions of the sūtu-measure and the qû-measure of Šamaš refer to the same northern Mesopotamian system. It appears that the specification of the sūtu-measure usage occurs when the quantity reaches at least one sūtu (ban₂) and that the specification of the qû-measure usage occurs when the quantity does not reach the sūtu (ban₂) and thus stay in qû (sila₃). Morevover, we now know some attestations of the sila₃ of Šamaš in the Mari texts, as Charpin MARI 3 47 [M.12398] for example. The doubt remains when no standard is precised: which equivalent can we apply (C.-A. Vincente continued: “A general observation is that the standards of Shamash are specified only when the commodity is the object of an intra-palatial transaction, and thus susceptible to be measured again. It is not clear if this means that in all other records the measures should be understood in relation to the Mari system. The normal Mari silà was somewhat larger than the silà of the “imeru” system, being closer to the Babylonian silà (cf. Powell:500a). A convenient equivalence is 1 silà = 1 liter.” (Vincente 1991: 15). The examination of the documentation does not allow us to conclude to a constant pattern of usage of the specification (or the absence) of the Šamaš‘ measures system: no correlation seems to be possible with the type of commodity or the type of accounting record). of oils and fats received or given, they do not often specify the number of recipients, nor the duration and the supposed use of these commodities. Thus, the documentation at our disposal does not always allow us to estimate the quantities needed daily.

However, two texts from Tell Leilān provide some information. They belong to the group of expenditures sealed by Teki, recording the sesame oil offered to official delegates of soldiers and citizens (see above). According to Vincente Leilan 146, 9.6 litres of sesame oil were given to 110 people for 3 days, thus 0.029 litre/pers./day. In the same way, according to Vincente Leilan 149 (and its duplicate 160), 5.6 litres of sesame oil were given to 220 people for one day, thus ca. 0.025 litre/pers./day.

4. Uses

The texts at our disposal only sometimes specify the purposes or uses of the oils and fats distributed. We know that the main use of oil was for the care and protection of the skin (anointing). But administrative texts rarely mention it.

In the Tell Leilān documentation, we notice one fragmentary text mentioning sesame oil given as allowance si.la₂, Akkadian piqittum: “8 (or 6.4) litres of oil, soldiers‘ allowance” (8 sila₃ i₃.giš si.la₂ erin₂.meš si-zu^?–ti in Vincente Leilan 146: 17-18). Oil was also given as “ration” (i₃.ba) in text Ismail Leilan 128.

Oil made from hulled sesame was also used for the king’s sacrifices (1 or 0.8 litres) and a priestess (4 or 3.2 litres) in the text Ismail Leilan 128.

In addition to rations or offerings, oil was also a diplomatic gift offered in high places. Thus the receipt Vincente Leilan 153 records “0.8 (or 1) litre of first quality oil as a gift from/of Innaya, a merchant” (1 sila₃ i₃.sag ta-ma-ar-ti in-na-a-ia lu₂.dam.gar₃). The group of disbursements of sesame oil given to official delegates and sealed by Teki (see above) also document sesame oil as a diplomatic gift offered to high-rank visitors.