Position in chronology
TCBI 2/2, 10
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 P381664)
Transliteration
1(gesz2) 4(u) 1(barig) 2(ban2) sze gur 2(asz) 2(barig) 3(ban2) gur igi gur-sag gal2-la szunigin 1(gesz2) 4(u) 2(asz) 3(barig) 5(ban2) sze gur sag-nig2-gur11-ra-kam sza3-bi-ta# 4(u) 5(asz) gur a2 lu2 hun-ga2 3(u) gur numun mur-gu4 szunigin 1(gesz2) [1(u)?] 5(asz)#? sze gur zi#-[ga]-am3# x [...] sze gur x [...] sa6 [x (x)] BI ki#? [...] x mu# [na-ru2]-a#-mah ba-du3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — TCBI 2/2, 10. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Banca d'Italia, Rome, Italy (P381664) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P381664..
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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.