Position in chronology
AAICAB 1/3, pl. 235, Bod S 241
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.
Transliteration
4(u) 3(disz) udu niga saga 1(disz) 1/2(disz) sila3 sze-ta 1(disz) 1/3(disz) sila3 2/3(disz) gin2 duh saga 1(u) gin2 duh du-ta sze#-bi 6(asz) 1(barig) 1(ban2) 1/2(disz) sila3 gur [duh] saga#-bi 5(asz) 2(barig) 5(ban2) 6(disz) 1/2(disz) sila3 9(disz) 2/3(disz) gin2 gur duh du-bi 3(barig) 2(ban2) 7(disz) 2/3(disz) sila3 sza3-gal udu niga saga iti li9-si4 mu si-mu-ru-um ba-hul
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — AAICAB 1/3, pl. 235, Bod S 241. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šulgi y23 — Simurrum destroyed based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK (P249148) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P249148..
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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.