Position in chronology
ASJ 16, 204, 1
Not yet translated
This tablet is catalogued with its transliteration 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.
From the same catalogue range (near P342791)
Transliteration
2(disz) gin2 kusz gu4 u2-hab2 ka-du3 tab-ba us2 gesz-nu2 kusz ba-ra-kesz2 sza3 e2-gal-sze3 giri3 isz-bi-er3-ra-zi-kalam-ma DU-DU8 4(barig) 3(ban2) esir2 pesz kid e2 ki-tusz ki suen du10-us2 e2 kun-ga2 u3 du10-us2 sza3 e2-gal-ke4-ne-sze3 giri3 lu2-nin-szubur u4 2(u)-kam ki szu-nin-kar-ta ba-zi iti apin-du8-a mu us2-sa bad3 li-<bur>-isz-bi-er3-ra ba-du3 gaba-ri
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Early Old Babylonian (ca. 2000-1900 BC)) — ASJ 16, 204, 1. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: New York Public Library, New York, New York, USA (P342791) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P342791..
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.