Read Chronology Themes Tablets Engine About

Read
Chronology
Themes
Tablets
Engine
About

Sumerian · Book

Reading the tablets…

A curated narrative reconstruction of humanity's first great civilization, sourced from the tablets themselves. Open scholarship, beautifully accessible.

The site

About the project The engine Dossiers FAQ Methodology Sources & licensing Provenance & ethics Contact & support

Legal

Independent scholarship · No academic affiliation · No institutional funding · Tablet imagery attributed per item via CDLI, ETCSL, ORACC, Wikimedia, and public museum collections.

Home
All tablets

The corpus

All tablets.

Every tablet in the corpus — sortable by date, title or period; filterable by theme and period. Use the controls below or change the URL parameters directly.

Sort

Oldest first Newest first Title (A–Z)By period

Theme

Religion & Myth Law Economy Astronomy & Mathematics Daily Life Writing & Literature

Period

Ubaid Uruk Period Early Dynastic Akkadian Empire Ur III · Neo-Sumerian Old Babylonian Old Assyrian Middle Babylonian Middle Assyrian Neo-Assyrian Neo-Babylonian Achaemenid Persian

Source

Editorial Sumerian literature Sumerian royal Assyrian royal Assyrian archives

76,121 of 102,257 tablets · 5 filters activeClear filters

10301–10350 of 76121

Page 207 / 1523

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-SumerianETCSRI

Ur-Namma 39

Records Ur-Namma's excavation of a dedicated offering canal at Ur, linking royal hydraulic engineering directly to the provisioning of temple cult under Enlil's authority.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-SumerianETCSRI

Ur-Namma 40

Ur-Namma's canal dedication to the moon-god Nanna at Ur attests the Ur III state's hydraulic investment as an act of royal piety, linking irrigation infrastructure directly to divine patronage.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-SumerianETCSRI

Ur-Namma 42

A royal inscription of Ur-Namma, founder of the Ur III dynasty and promulgator of the oldest known law code, dedicated to the moon-god Nanna — one of dozens of such dedications anchoring royal legitimacy in divine patronage.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-SumerianETCSRI

Ur-Namma 47

Dedicatory vow on a vase from Nanna's temple at Ur links Ur-Namma's building piety to Gilgameš as divine protector — and preserves one of the earliest epigraphic curse formulae against inscription erasure.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-SumerianETCSRI

Ur-Namma 49

A fragmentary Ur-Namma royal inscription that adds one more manuscript witness to the corpus defining how Ur III kings projected legal and divine authority in their own words.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-SumerianETCSRI

Ur-Namma 54

Attests a daughter of Ur-Namma serving as en-priestess of the moon-god Nanna at Ur, documenting the dynastic strategy of placing royal women in Mesopotamia's highest cultic offices.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-SumerianOur engine

AAICAB 1/3, pl. 223, Bod S 182

1(aš) gur barley, royal (measure) — barley of the loan, (for) flour, by the bronze gur (measure), from Ur-lisi, in the name of Lugal-gigire, son of Ur-Ištaran — sealed by Ur-en(na), the carpenter; it is at hand (booked). Month: "Dumuzi", year: "the son of the king ..." [broken] Ur-li, the carpenter, son of Lugal-[...].

Law·Economy

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-SumerianOur engine

AAICAB 1/3, pl. 224, Bod S 187

Seal of the governor (ensi2): 5 grain-fed oxen, 68 grain-fed sheep — (recipient/authority) Nin-tur-tur, beloved child of Šulgi, the king. (Seal inscription:) Nigar-ki-du10, the chief constable (gal5-la2-gal), son of Giri-[...], is your servant.

Ur-Namma 39

Ur-Namma 40

Ur-Namma 42

Ur-Namma 47

Ur-Namma 49

Ur-Namma 54

AAICAB 1/3, pl. 223, Bod S 182

AAICAB 1/3, pl. 224, Bod S 187

AAICAB 1/3, pl. 224, Bod S 189

ABAA (KAO 4), 79 P351

Amar-Suena 01

Anonymous 429769

Anonymous 497570

ArOr 87, 033-057 07

ArOr 87, 033-057 11

AUCT 3, 337

AuOr 31, 232 02

AuOr 31, 232 03

AuOr 31, 233 04

AuOr 31, 233 05

AuOr 31, 233 06

AuOr 32, 175-176

AuOr 33, 215-220

AuOr 33, 215-220

AuOr 33, 215-220

BAOM 2, 26 24

BAOM 2, 30 61

BM 014751

Chicago 20060119d

CM 26, 146

CUNES 49-02-029

CUNES 51-04-018

CUNES 51-10-056

CUNES 52-04-082

CUNES 52-04-084

CUSAS 03, 0062

CUSAS 03, 0074

CUSAS 03, 0089

CUSAS 03, 0090

CUSAS 03, 0171

CUSAS 03, 0178

CUSAS 03, 0212

CUSAS 03, 0214

CUSAS 03, 0216

CUSAS 03, 0222

CUSAS 03, 0232

CUSAS 03, 0349

CUSAS 03, 0356

CUSAS 03, 0360

CUSAS 03, 0365