Sumerian·Book

Position in chronology

Sumerian - Protoliterate Tablet - Walters 41219 - View A

~1800 BCE·Old Babylonian·unique

Not yet translated

This tablet is catalogued 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

Hammurabi, the Epic of Gilgamesh, mathematics.

Read the Old Babylonian chapter →

Scholarly note

Tablet image sourced from Wikimedia Commons (Public domain). No scholarly translation referenced in source metadata. Source description: From a unique group of early documents recording the transfer of land (in this case one "b'uru"- about 150 acres), this tablet illustrates the transition from a writing system based on pictures to one

Attribution

Image: Anonymous ( Sumer ) Unknown author — Wikimedia Commons. source
Translation excerpted from Wikimedia Commons file: File:Sumerian - Protoliterate Tablet - Walters 41219 - View A.jpg. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ASumerian_-_Protoliterate_Tablet_-_Walters_41219_-_View_A.jpg. Description: From a unique group of early documents recording the transfer of land (in this case one "b'uru"- about 150 acres), this tablet illustrates the transition from a writing system based on pictures to one where signs represent sounds. The vase.

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