Position in chronology
MAD 4, 028
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P215190.
Transliteration
3(asz@c) gu4-gesz 1(asz@c) gu4 3(disz@t) 3(asz@c) ab2 1(asz@c) ab2 1(disz@t) 3(asz@c) amar da-ba 5(asz@c) u8 ama 1(asz@c) kir11 sza3-du10 3(u) 3(disz) ud5 ama 3(asz@c) as2-gar3 sza3-du10 1(asz@c) masz2 sza3-du10 szunigin 4(u) 3(disz) udu ud5 gub-ba ur-suen-kam
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MAD 4, 028. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P215190) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P215190..
Related tablets
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.