Position in chronology
USC 6725
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 P235535)
Transliteration
[...] 4(disz)# kusz3 kin# [...] x [...] 4(disz) kusz3 kin kas4 i7-pa-e3#?-[a?] 4(disz) kusz3 kin kas4 da-du-mu#? 5(disz) kusz3 kin kasz-de2 lugal-ku3-zu i3-dab5 1/2(disz) ninda kin# ur#-gigir sukkal lugal-nesag-e i3-dab5 1/2(disz) ninda kin# sag-gu4 lugal-e2-mah-e x i3-dab5# 3(disz) kusz3 kin musz-lah5 lugal-e2-mah-e i3-dab5 1(disz) kusz3 kin musz-lah5 2(disz) kusz3 aga3-us2 ur-szu-ku3-ga i3-dab5 5(disz) kusz3 kin eb-gal ur-gigir i3-dab5 5(disz)? kusz3 kin sukkal lugal-gu4-e i3-dab5 1(disz) lu2-iri-bar-ra ur-gu2-x? lu2-kal-la u3 lu2-me-lam2 1(disz) 1/2(disz) kusz3-ta ib2-dab5 1/2(disz) lu2-x [mu? ...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — USC 6725. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Archaeological Research Collection, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA (P235535) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P235535..
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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.