The Achaemenid Elamite texts found at Persepolis add a little flesh to the picked-over bones of early Achaemenid history. They inform us about the far-reaching organization of men and materials for economic purposes and give us hints about the difficulties which the organizers faced in setting up the system and in promoting its efficient operation. These texts are in two distinct groups: the fortification texts and the treasury texts.

The fortification texts, which date from the thirteenth to the twenty-eighth year of Darius I (509–494 B.C.), record many kinds of transfers of food products. Most numerous are ration payments, monthly, daily, and special, to named individuals (including huge daily payments to high officials), to travellers, to mothers, to wide-spread work groups, and even to horses, camels, cattle and fowls. The fortification texts are very numerous.

The treasury texts are later in date, coming from the thirtieth year of Darius I to the seventh year of Artaxerxes I (492–45 8 B.C.). Also they have a different function, namely, the recording of disbursements of silver from the Persepolis treasury. Like the fortification texts they chiefly deal with ration payments. But here silver is paid in lieu of part (rarely all) of the ration. There are only 139 of these texts, and many are incomplete. They have their own interest and provide useful sidelights. Yet in the material as a whole they constitute a special case. The following discussion refers to the treasury texts only when they are specifically mentioned.

The fortification texts were written at many sites in a region which, it seems, surrounds the Persepolis–Susa axis. As we shall see, many of the geographical names (mostly not known from other sources) can be assigned to three areas: one around Persepolis, another around Susa, and a third which lies between. Few texts seem to have originated at Persepolis or at Susa. Though these cities are often mentioned in various connections, activities at Persepolis and Susa normally lay outside the purview of our materials.