Position in chronology
CDLI Literary 000380, ex. 049
Not yet translated
This tablet is catalogued with its transliteration and photographed, but no published translation exists 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
Hammurabi, the Epic of Gilgamesh, mathematics.
Transliteration
[...] lu2# i3 nu#?-[...] [...] lu2# gar9#? nu#?-[...] [...]-ra# szakir3#-[...] [...] dugud#-bi i3-ra#?-[...] [...] x unu2 gal nanna#-[...] []suen#?-e a-a-ni en-lil2-ra# [...] [...] ugu#!?-gu10 iri#-gu10 a-na-x x [...] [...] uri2-gu10 a#-na#-x [...] [e2]-kisz#-nu#-gal2#?-gu10 a#-na-x x [...] [...] nesag#?-ga2 a-a ugu-gu10#?-[...] nindaba#-bi en-lil2 nibru#[-sze3 ...] en iri bar-ra# en iri sza3!-ga [...] uri2# iri# al#-e ri#-[...] x-ur2 ki? ni2 dub2#?-bu#? [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Babylonian (ca. 1900-1600 BC)) — CDLI Literary 000380, ex. 049. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: British Museum, London, UK (P346552) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P346552..
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.
The single most important literary discovery of the 19th century. It rewired the understanding of the Bible's literary context and proved that the Mesopotamian flood tradition is older. It is the oldest surviving epic poetry in human history.
The literary tradition is no longer anonymous from this point. Authorship — the idea that a specific human voice composes a specific work — enters the historical record with her.