Athar Alrafedain

Abstract

Mesopotamia witnessed a noticeable achievement during the modern Sumerian Age in all different aspects of life in economy, policy and religion. The economic life in Mesopotamia was established basically on agriculture, livestock and their products, secondly on industry and trade. Agriculture and livestock were the fundmental factor for life in mesoptomia in most of the historical ages.
After the falling of the kingdom of Akkad by the Gutian invaders, a stage of chaos, political and economic disorders followed according to what has been given in the Sumerians kings lists. After defeating the Gutians, the the third age of Ur has come where five kings governed the country, they are: Ur-Namo and his son Shoolgy after that his two sons Amar–Sein and Shoo – Sein consecutively and then the king Abe – Sein.    
The topic of the research depends mainly on one of the cuneiform texts preserved in the Iraqi Museum numbered (IM.20547). The text cannot be identified from which city or the location found since it was confiscated for the benefit of the Iraqi Museum.
There are different reason which led me to choose this text and one of them it is related to one particular item which is barley. It was planted in the first place and wheat where both considered as economic importance since they are a main source of food and they were used in economic transactions. They were a mean of trading and pricing items and wages in an age where an official coin was not issued yet from the kingdom.
From this importance for barley, the topic of research came to shed light on the most neutrino prominent factor that Mesopotamia depended on. Barely was named in Sumerian language ŠE and its vocabulary in Acadian is še'u. And barely was distributed on some individuals, names and also on the Gods temple Gulah and the God's temple Nargal.
Also, we are able to identify in that time how to calculate different quantities distributed on different people according to measures and weights. In addition, the need to examine barley, its quantities and how to measure it in that time particularly, the need to identify its importance though there are some texts were read without paying attention to the distributed material. And to recognize the agricultural issues that were considered the backbone for human being in Mesopotamia until now.