Position in chronology
Syracuse 069
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 P130620)
Transliteration
[n] 5(disz) gurusz u4 6(disz)-sze3 ka i7 amar-suen ga2-ra sahar si-ga 1(u) 5(disz) gurusz u4 1(disz)-sze3 a-sza3 en-du8-du u2 zex(SIG7)-a 1(u) 7(disz) gurusz u4 2(disz)-sze3 a-sza3 en-du8-du-ta ka i7 amar-suen-ke4 ga2-ra-sze3 u2 ga6-ga2 ugula inim-szara2 giri3 szesz-kal-la kiszib3 gu-u2-gu-a mu# en ga-esz ba-hun gu-u2-gu-a dub-sar dumu ma-an-szum2
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Syracuse 069. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Syracuse University Library, Syracuse, New York, USA (P130620) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P130620..
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.