The method of selecting officers for the annually appointed limu, or eponym office, seems to have varied throughout Assyrian history. For the century beginning with the reign of Shalmaneser III (858-824 B.C.E.), the order appears to have been relatively fixed with the king holding the office in the second year of his reign, followed by the commander-in-chief (turtanu). The sequence thereafter was not rigid, but included three state ministers—the chief cupbearer (rab shaqe), the palace herald (nagir ekalli), and the chief steward (masennu)—followed by the governors of major cities within the empire. The exact order was apparently determined by the casting of lots, that is, by randomly drawing or throwing dice, each die (puru) bearing the name of the prospective officeholder. The nearly cubical (27 x 27 x 28 millimeter) clay die of the chief steward Yahali...