Position in chronology
CDLJ 2012/1 §4.25
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.
From the same catalogue range (near P416479)
Transliteration
1(disz) masz2-gal niga saga 2(disz) masz2-gal niga saga us2 7(disz) masz2-gal niga 4(disz)-kam us2 1(u) asz2-gar3 niga 4(disz)-kam us2 2(disz) asz2-gar3 niga 1(disz) masz2 gaba 2(disz) asz2#-gar3# [...] mu-kux(DU) u3# [...] tesz2-a szum2-de3 [gesz-bur2 nu-su-su] ki a-ba#-en#-[lil2-gin7-ta] du-u2-du [i3-dab5] mu szu-suen# lugal uri5-ma#-ke4 na-ru2-a mah en#-lil2# nin#-lil2#-ra# mu-ne-du3 2(u) 5(disz) udu
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — CDLJ 2012/1 §4.25. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šu-Suen y1 — Šu-Suen became king based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, USA (P416479) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P416479..
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Related sources
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.