Position in chronology
CDLJ 2012/1 §4.34
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 P416419)
Transliteration
2(disz) udu niga gu#-la 1(disz) udu niga an 1(disz) udu niga inanna 1(disz) udu niga nin-hur-sag sza3 unu-ga 1(disz) udu niga utu larsa 1(disz) udu niga nanna-an-na 1(disz) udu# niga# inanna 1(disz)# udu# niga# nin-gal sza3 tur3 gal zi-ga u4 4(disz)-kam ki a-hu-we-er-ta ba-zi iti masz-ku3-gu7 mu us2-sa gu-za en-lil2-la2 ba-dim2
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — CDLJ 2012/1 §4.34. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Ur-Nammu y15 — Year after: The throne of Enlil was fashioned based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, USA (P416419) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P416419..
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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.