Position in chronology
AAICAB 1/3, pl. 184, Bod A 46
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
A bureaucratic golden age, the Code of Ur-Nammu.
Transliteration
6(szar2) 5(gesz'u) 3(gesz2) 5(u) geme2 u4 1(disz)-sze3 geme2 tu-ra ugula-iri-bi 2(gesz'u) 4(u) 1(disz) 1/2(disz) geme2 u4 1(disz)-sze3 1(szar2) 1(gesz'u) 4(gesz2) 1(u) 1(disz) 1/3(disz) sa gu 1(asz) 1(ban2) 4(disz) sila3 naga gur x [...] x [...] x [...] szunigin 1(szar2)# [n] ge6#? [...] [...] ni [...] iti# szu#-numun# [u4 1(u) 8(disz) ba-zal] mu na-ru2-a-mah-ta# iti szu-numun u4 1(u) 9(disz) ba-zal mu i-bi2-suen lugal-sze3 iti 4(u) 9(disz) u4 1(disz)-kam iti diri 2(disz)-am3 sza3-ba i3-gal2
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — AAICAB 1/3, pl. 184, Bod A 46. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Ibbi-Suen y1 — Ibbi-Suen became king based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK (P248981) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P248981..
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One of the earliest specimens of human writing. Not literature, not law — accounting. The need to keep track of grain in a temple bureaucracy is what pushed marks-on-clay into a system that could one day carry epics.
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.