Harran Census
{{Short description|Group of clay tablets from Iron Age Syria}}
The Haran Census is a group of clay tablets from Iron Age Syria, listing rural estates and their dependent peoples dated to the reign of Sargon II.Edward Lipiński, The Aramaeans: Their Ancient History, Culture, Religion (Peeters Publishers, 2000) p. 515.Trevor Bryce, The Routledge Handbook of the Peoples and Places of Ancient Western Asia (Routledge, 2009) [https://books.google.com/books?id=AwwNS0diXP4C&dq=Harran+Census&pg=PA293 p. 293].Tony J. Wilkinson, Archaeological Landscapes of the Near East (University of Arizona Press, 2003) [https://books.google.com/books?id=DGne7r74GKUC&q=Harran+Census&pg=PA132 p132-133].
Found in Nineveh, the census actually describes the area around Harran.Gershon Galil, The Lower Stratum Families in the Neo-Assyrian Period (BRILL, 2007)[https://books.google.com/books?id=Er7X87O8Y1UC&dq=map+of+the+Harran+Census&pg=PA28 p28]. The census shows that the population in the estates and nearby cities was predominantly Western Semitic,Steven Winford Holloway, Aššur is King! Aššur is King!: Religion in the Exercise of Power in the Neo-Assyrian Empire (BRILL, 2002) [https://books.google.com/books?id=XiJDf4J3j50C&dq=Harran+Census&pg=PA406 p406]. and had an average density of 5 persons per household.Edward Lipiński, The Aramaeans: Their Ancient History, Culture, Religion (Peeters Publishers, 2000) p. 188. The census also provides the name of many smaller towns and the main residents of the time,On Assyrian “Lower-Stratum” Families, SAAB 18 (2009–2010), 163–186 [2011]. and provides evidence that the Harran region was growing wheat, barley as well as vines, at the time.Minna Silver, [http://asorblog.org/2016/03/03/unearthing-the-past-at-ancient-harran-and-the-wells-of-paddan-aram/ Unearthing the Past at Ancient Harran and the Wells of Paddan-Aram] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181001142848/http://asorblog.org/2016/03/03/unearthing-the-past-at-ancient-harran-and-the-wells-of-paddan-aram/ |date=2018-10-01 }} (March 2016).