Position in chronology
ArOr 87, 033-057 11
Not yet translated
This tablet is catalogued with its transliteration, 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 P498525)
Transliteration
4(barig) zi3 gu2-na giri3-ni nar 2(ban2) 8(disz) sila3 lugal-ku3-zu ki szara2-a-mu szandana 1(barig) 5(ban2) 6(disz) sila3 a-kal-la szu-[ku6] 3(ban2) ur-dumu-zi-da 1(barig) 5(ban2) [ad]-da [dub-sar]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — ArOr 87, 033-057 11. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: PPL 01 (Phoenix Public Library, Phoenix, Arizona, USA) — from Umma (mod. Tell Jokha) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P498525). source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P498525..
Related tablets
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.