Position in chronology
TAD 53
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 P131095)
Transliteration
1(u) 2(disz) gu4 niga x 5(u) 8(disz) udu 3(u) la2 1(disz) masz2-gal kasz-de2-a ur-iszkur ensi2 ha-ma-zi2 esz3-esz3 e2-u4-1(u)-5(disz)#-ke4 ba-ab-dab5#? gu4 udu bala ar-szi-ah ensi2 babila-ka ba-[szi]-ku5 u4 x-kam szunigin 1(u) 2(disz) gu4 niga szunigin 5(u) 8(disz) udu szunigin 3(u) la2 1(disz) masz2-gal 1(gesz2) 4(u) la2 1(disz) mu-kux(DU) didli ab-ba-sa6-ga i3-dab5 iti ezem-me-ki-gal2 mu hu-uh2-nu-ri ba-hul#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — TAD 53. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK (P131095) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P131095..
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.