Abstract
Auditing (nipiṣ nikkassī) was the main procedure for controlling the activities of any Paleo-Babylonian manager : a balance sheet was drawn up between, on the one hand, the goods he received (namḫartum) and, on the other, his expenses(ṣītum) and his balance (bašītum). In principle, the subtraction had to arrive at zero; otherwise, the manager had to reimburse the difference (ribbatum) from his own funds (not to mention incur the displeasure of his superiors). Documents were drawn up, and consulted when the accounts were cleared, to justify each receipt and expenditure operation. A little-studied file concerns the reconciliation of the accounts of Mukannišum, the steward of the Mari palace in the time of Zimri-Lim (1774-1761 BC ), which took place in month iv of the year ZL 7. Dozens of slips record the receipt and expenditure of precious metals by Mukannišum during the two years and five months preceding this date. Summaries were prepared prior to the oral and solemn proceedings, to facilitate the process. A comparison between the slips and the summaries provides a better understanding of how Mesopotamian accounting worked.
