186 SHAWn ZeLIG ASTeR wine lists as definitive proof that Israelite ambassadors visited Assyr- ian capitals in the first third of the eighth century, but they did consider it a realistic possibility. But more recent research by Fales demonstrates conclusively that the suggestion cautiously advanced by Tadmor is the only possible ex- planation for the presence of Samarians in these lists. Fales begins by noting that kinnier Wilson’s interpretation of these lists as “random remnants” of a system in which individuals received a daily ration of wine as indicating “an indeed colossal permanent ration plan, which called for a new register of wine allowances every ten days” 38. Fales showed this to be intrinsically impossible 39. The total amount of wine allocated in only seven of the wine lists (nWL 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 11, 14) equals 1095 litres of wine. Such a large sum “can only have represented a one-day distribution”. He calculates that if indeed a thousand liters of wine were distributed daily, the palace wine-cellars would have had to accommodate an enormous quantity of wine, twenty-five times more than the estimated capacity of “one of the few discovered wine- cellars, our old acquaintance SW6.” Therefore, he concludes: “it is impossible to believe that such an enormous quantity was ever in stor- age in the nimrud/kalhu context” 40. Fales concludes that the wine consumed can only have represented a one-day distribution. He goes further and argues that the lists repre- sent a ceremonial feast in which wine was distributed “to all the per- sonnel of court, army and administration present in nimrud”. This feast occurred once a year, usually in nisannu and sometimes in Ad- daru or the intercalary month that preceded nisannu. This date is based on the fact that the Wine Lists date almost solely to the spring time. As Dalley and Postgate note, “The Wine Lists have nisan at least three times [...] and Addar twice (once intercalary)” 41. Parpola remarks: “Though the months and days preserved vary slightly, all the lists (with Presented to Hayim Tadmor (eds. M. CoGAn – I. ePH’AL) (Scripta Hierosolymitana 23; Jerusalem 1991) 36-45, here 40. This point is also noted by CoGAn – TADMoR, II Kings, 163. See also GALIL, Israel and Assyria, 48. 38 The ten-day pattern derives from the fact that nWL 8 and nWL 9 refer to the first of the month, nWL 2, 5, 19, while TFS 119 refers to the eleventh of the month (with nWL 1 referring to the twelfth day), and nWL 3 and 33 refer to the twenty-second day (FALeS, “A Fresh Look at the nimrud Wine Lists”, 367). 39 FALeS, “A Fresh Look at the nimrud Wine Lists”, 369. 40 Mallowan (cited in kInnIeR WILSon, The Nimrud Wine Lists, viii) estimated the capacity of SW6 at 4000 gallons (approximately 16,000 litres). 41 DALLey and PoSTGATe, The Tablets from Fort Shalmaneser, 24.