Position in chronology
SANTAG 6, 341
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 P211904)
Transliteration
1(gesz2) 3(u) 4(asz) 3(barig) 5(ban2) sze gur 4(asz) 4(barig) 2(disz) sila3 ziz2 gur 5(ban2)? gig sze-numun mur-gu4 1(gesz2) [...] 1(u) 4(asz) 1(barig) 3(ban2) [sze gur] [a2] lu2 hun-[ga2] a-[sza3-ga] 2(asz) 3(barig) sza3-gal amar gur ki lu2-szul-[gi]-ra-ta kiszib3 szara2-kam mu en inanna unu masz2-e i3-pa3 2(gesz2) 5(u) 2(asz) 1(barig) 2(disz) sila3 gur szara2-kam dub-sar dumu ur-ab-[zu]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — SANTAG 6, 341. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation (P211904) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P211904..
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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.