Position in chronology
Proverbs: collection 12
Translation — scholar edition
ETCSL(= Alster 1997 12 Sec. B 1) 4 lines fragmentary (= Alster 1997 12 Sec. B 2) The master ...... does not eat ...... dough ....... (= Alster 1997 12 Sec. B 3) The master ...... his servant ....... (= Alster 1997 12 Sec. B 4) The master knows. The steward does not know. (= Alster 1997 12 Sec. B 5) May the master sleep at your side, and may the mistress slap your face. (= Alster 1997 12 Sec. B 6) The lord of the house, your ......; ......, a restraint. (= Alster 1997 12 Sec. B 7) The lord and lady of the house touch the figurine. (= Alster 1997 12 Sec. B 8) The granary collects. (= Alster 1997 12 Sec. B 9) Outgoings are a matter for both, and now I also am one of them.
Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature — scholar edition (Oxford, Black/Cunningham/Robson/Zólyomi).
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
Scholarly note
Composition c.6.1.12 in the ETCSL catalogue. Sumerian literary text reconstructed from multiple cuneiform manuscripts, the great majority Old Babylonian (c. 1900–1600 BCE). Translation reproduced from the ETCSL edition.
Attribution
Image: .
Translation excerpted from ETCSL c.6.1.12: Proverbs: collection 12. Black, J.A., Cunningham, G., Robson, E. & Zólyomi, G. (eds.), The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford. https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=c.6.1.12.
Related tablets
Related sources
A window into the world's first total state. The Ur III administration tracked every animal, every worker, every shekel — for a population in the millions. The level of paperwork was not exceeded until the modern era.
Part of the earliest known body of international diplomatic correspondence. Akkadian, written in cuneiform on clay, was the lingua franca of Late Bronze Age statecraft — used between Egypt, the Hittites, Mitanni, Babylon, Assyria, and the Levantine vassals.