Position in chronology
ARET 03, 072
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P242257.
Transliteration
sa-[nab]-zu-gum2 1(asz@c) _gu-mug_ 1(asz@c) _|IB2+3(DISZ@t)| dar tug2_ en-nu-LUM _maszkim_ [x x]-lu 3(asz@c) _gu-dul3_ a-zi ma-nu-wa-ad 1(asz@c) _gu-mug_ a-du-na ma-nu#-wa-ad#[]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ebla (ca. 2350-2250 BC)) — ARET 03, 072. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: National Museum of Syria, Idlib, Syria (P242257) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P242257..
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.