Position in chronology
MVN 03, 037
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P215692.
Transliteration
1(asz@c)#? 3(barig@c) sze gur e2 al-mu-ta szu ba-ti 1(asz@c) 1(barig@c) e2 za3-mu-ta szu ba-ti 2(barig@c) |SILA3x5(DISZ)|? lugal-an-ne2 i3-na-szum2 2(ban2) zu2-lum 1(ban2) sze gun3 2(barig@c) siki TUM i3-na-szum2 szu-nigin2-bi3 3(asz@c) 3(barig@c) 1/2(barig@c)? |SILA3x5(DISZ)|? in-ga? gur lugal-an-ne2-kam ur-en-lil2-ke4 szu# ba#-ti
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MVN 03, 037. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Free Library of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (P215692) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P215692..
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.