ASJ 16, 043-046 Barton Cylinder

Not yet translated

This tablet is catalogued with its transliteration and photographed, but no English translation is stored in this record yet. Our translation engine works through the untranslated corpus every night, oldest first — this page will update the day its turn comes. If you are a specialist and can read it, we would love your help.

The world it comes from

City-states, kings, the first wars.

Read the Early Dynastic chapter →

From the same catalogue range (near P222183)

P222188 · ~2400 BCE

MVN 03, 005

“[x] 1(u@c)(?) bundles of reed ... 43 bundles of reed [...] cut reed(s) [...] (break) ... "good word" (Inim-dug…”

P222192 · ~2400 BCE

MVN 03, 009

“Its area: 1 bur3, 1 eše3, 4 iku, (of) iku(-measure). [...the] nig₂-en-na(-goods) [...] ... [...] ... [...] ...…”

P222173 · ~2550 BCE

FTP 106

“2 (units of) first-quality butter-cream, KA-GABA; 2 small ban-vessels(?) of cream: (for) E-gissu-du, Mes-sanga…”

P222172 · ~2550 BCE

FTP 105

“(obverse) [...] 2? sila of ghee (clarified butter), 3 sila of šu-tag cheese — (for) Enki. 3 (gur) 3 barig of o…”

Transliteration

[CDLI ATF excerpt: first 16 of 268 numbered lines; remaining columns are not included. Damage and column markers are retained.]
@object cylinder
@surface a
@column 1
1. u4#-ri2#-a# u4-ri2-sze3
2. na-nam
3. ge6-ri2-a ge6-ri2-sze3
4. na-nam
5. mu-ri2-a mu-ri2-sze3
6. na-nam
7. u4 na-du7-du7
8. nim na-gir2-gir2
9. esz3 nibru{ki}
10. u4 na-du7-du7
11. nim na-gir2-gir2
12. an-ne2 ki-da
13. inim an-dab6-e
14. ki an-da inim an-dab6-e
$ rest broken
@column 2
1. [igi-zi-gal-an]-na#
2. nin-gal {d}en-lil2

Scholarly note

Barton Cylinder (P222183, CBS 08383), dated by CDLI to ED IIIb (c. 2500–2340 BCE, uncertain). The source marks its administrative genre identification as uncertain. CDLI supplies a transliteration and an English rendering; this site stores the photograph and a 16-line transliteration excerpt, but no English translation. Published studies include Alster and Westenholz (1994); Lisman (2016–2017) discusses interpreting it as a lament for Kesh. It must not be described as previously untranslated. ATF source retrieved on 26 October 2026: https://cdli.earth/inscriptions/2346706/atf

Attribution

Image: CBS 08383 — University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA / Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (P222183). source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no English translation stored at ingestion. P-number P222183..

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Related sources

~3200 BCE

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~2050 BCE

Umma Livestock and Personnel Account (AnOr 1, 243)

A surviving administrative record of named people and livestock in the Ur III period. Together with other archives, such accounts reveal the work of managing animals, deliveries and institutional responsibility.

~3300 BCE

AoF 30, 238,1