Position in chronology
CDLB 2016/001, §2.1.1
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 P392629)
Transliteration
la2#-ia3# 5(asz) sze gur lugal si#-i3-tum [nig2-ka9-ak] a#-ba-ni-se3-ge-e su-su-dam iti# sze-sag11-ku5 mu# amar-suen lugal [la2-ia3 5(asz) sze] gur# lugal [si-i3-tum] nig2#-ka9-ak [a-ba]-i3-se3#-ge#-e# [su-su]-dam [iti sze-sag11]-ku5# [mu amar-suen lugal] a#-ba-i3-[se3-ge]-e#? dumu szi-x-[...] x tag-x
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — CDLB 2016/001, §2.1.1. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Amar-Suen y1 — Amar-Suen became king based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: Los Angeles Unified School District, Los Angeles, California, USA (P392629) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P392629..
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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.