Position in chronology
AAICAB 1/3, pl. 203, Bod B 08 (115)
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
1(u) 3(disz) 1/3(disz) ma-na 6(disz) 1/3(disz) gin2 siki ak hi-a 9(asz) gu2 1(u) 4(disz) 5/6(disz) ma-na 1/2(disz) gin2 1(u) sze siki mug 1(szar2) 1(gesz'u) 6(gesz2) 1(u) 1(disz) sa gu si-i3-tum nig2-ka9-ak ki lu2-usz-gi-na-ta kiszib3 lugal-ku3-zu! su-su-dam giri3 lu2-ba-ba6 iti sze-sag11-ku5 u4 1(u) 2(disz) ba-zal mu na-ru2-a-mah ba-du3-ta iti szu-numun u4 2(u) la2 1(disz@t) ba-zal mu i-bi2-suen lugal-sze3 lugal-ku3-zu dub-sar dumu lu2-dingir-[ra] sza13?-[dub-ba]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — AAICAB 1/3, pl. 203, Bod B 08 (115). 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 (P249028) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P249028..
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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.