Position in chronology
TCBI 2/2, 09
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 P381663)
Transliteration
2(ban2) sze a-bala min-a-bi 2(ban2) dabin ur-szul-pa-e3 3(ban2) sze ba-zi-ge 2(ban2) 2(disz) sila3# ad-da-kal-la 1(ban2) a-la 2(ban2) 2(disz) sila3 me-zi 1(ban2) 3(disz) sila3 usz-bar 7(disz) sila3 sza3-gal gu4 7(disz) sila3 e2-e-ba-ab-du7 3(ban2) sze munu4-sze3 7(disz) sila3 sza3-gal gu4 szunigin 3(barig) 8(disz) sila3 sze iti kin-inanna mu na-ru2-a-mah ba-du3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — TCBI 2/2, 09. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Banca d'Italia, Rome, Italy (P381663) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P381663..
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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.