188 SHAWn ZeLIG ASTeR An administrative text from the northwest palace at Calah, dating to later in the eighth century, specifically mentions that rations were issued to ṣērāni 46. This conclusion is strengthened by the fact that some of the for- eigners in some of the wine lists are explicitly identified as envoys. TFS 145 (nD 6218), which Dalley and Postgate date to 784 BCe, men- tions the Δ®ru of elam in line 26 47. And TFS 143 (nD 10030) mentions the nœsikœni of Itu’a and the ßakn∑te of Moab 48. While this does not mean that every foreigner in the lists was an ambassador, it does show that foreign envoys were allocated rations by the Assyrian palace. The simplest explanation for the rations given to foreigners in the nimrud Wine Lists is that the rations were allocated as part of the for- eigners’ reception in the capital. While this point can be made gener- ally about many of the Wine Lists, it is not necessarily true that each of the wine lists was prepared for an identical function. nevertheless, it is fairly clear that the foreigners in nWL 4 were participants in a royal banquet, since all of those listed in this tablet were palace offi- cials. Lines 6-r9 list classes of royal officials, such as the qurub∑ti (guards) in line 4, mußœkil iΔΔ∑r¥ (bird feeders) in line r5, and the ßa bit kudinni (in charge of mules) in line 20 49. Craftsmen are also listed: of biblical texts dating to different periods suggests that this practice was common in the ancient near east. 46 DALLey – PoSTGATe, The Tablets from Fort Shalmaneser, 255-256 (nD 2803). Although the text is fragmentary, lines i 18-19 record the issuing of bread, beer, and horse fodder to the Δerœni (L¨ MAÙ): see B. PARkeR, “Administrative Tablets from the northwest Palace, nimrud”, Iraq 23 (1961) 15-67, here 55-61. For a discussion, see PoSTGATe, Taxation and Conscription, 127. For its dating, see S. TePPo, “The Role and Duties of the neo-Assyrian Íakintu in Light of Archival evidence”, SAAB 16 (2007) 257-273, here 261. 47 This tablet was also discovered in SW6. 48 “The mention of an envoy or ambassador from Moab makes a date in the reign of Tiglath-Pileser III or Sargon II very probable” (DALLey – PoSTGATe, The Tablets from Fort Shalmaneser, 253). Nāsik usually designates the leader of a no- madic or semi-nomadic group. ßaknu (here written L¨ GAR-nu) usually indicates an appointed governor. Dalley and Postgate (The Tablets from Fort Shalmaneser, 253 n. ii) nevertheless suggest that these officials were on the same diplomatic level as the Δ®ru mentioned in TFS 145. See also the discussion in J.M. RUSSeLL, Sennacherib’s Palace without Rival at Nineveh (Chicago 1991) 233. 49 Postgate (Taxation and Conscription, 194) understands qurub∑ti to signify “an officer with wide-ranging functions, who seems to have operated under the direct orders of the king”, attributing to him the function of a “trouble-shooter” and paramilitary agent. For the term mußœkil iΔΔ∑r¥, see kInnIeR WILSon, The Nimrud Wine Lists, 88.