Position in chronology
MLVS 919
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P247613.
Transliteration
[...] x [dar]-ra [x] x [a]-de2 [x x] [a]-de2 [x] gir dar#-ra 2(u@c)#? x gesztu dar-ra 2(gesz2@c) 2(u@c) gesztu a-de2 2(u@c) esirx(LAK173) 1(asz@c) KA-lu-ub2 2(asz@c) zubud 8(gesz2@c)#? [...] [...] 1(gesz2@c) 1(u@c) tar 2(u@c) nu-tar 1(u@c) 5(asz@c) ki-zi 6(asz@c) garigx(REC333)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — MLVS 919. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: de Liagre Böhl Collection, Netherlands Institute for the Near East, Leiden, Holland (P247613) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P247613..
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.