The Haran Census is a group of
clay tablets from
Iron Age Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
, listing rural estates and their dependent peoples dated to the reign of
Sargon II
Sargon II (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , meaning "the faithful king" or "the legitimate king") was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 722 BC to his death in battle in 705. Probably the son of Tiglath-Pileser III (745–727), Sargon is general ...
.
Found in
Nineveh
Nineveh (; akk, ; Biblical Hebrew: '; ar, نَيْنَوَىٰ '; syr, ܢܝܼܢܘܹܐ, Nīnwē) was an ancient Assyrian city of Upper Mesopotamia, located in the modern-day city of Mosul in northern Iraq. It is located on the eastern ban ...
, the
census actually describes the area around
Harran. The census shows that the population in the estates and nearby cities was predominantly
Western Semitic, and had an average density of 5 persons per
household. The census also provides the name of many smaller towns and the main residents of the time, and provides evidence that the
Harran region was growing
wheat,
barley as well as
vines, at the time.
[Minna Silver]
Unearthing the Past at Ancient Harran and the Wells of Paddan-Aram
(March 2016).
References
{{reflist
Archaeological corpora
Ancient Syria
Samaritan culture and history
Clay tablets