Position in chronology
KM 89253
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P235007.
Transliteration
1(disz) gu4 mu 3(asz) 3(disz) u8 1(disz) ud5 lugal-ku3-zu dub-sar 2(disz) u8 2(disz) sila4 ARAD2 dumu ur-nim szunigin# 1(disz) gu4 mu 3(asz)# szunigin 5(disz) [u8] szunigin 2(disz) sila4# szunigin 1(disz) ud5# mu-kux(DU) szara2 iti sze-kar-ra-gal2-la mu szu-suen lugal-e na-ru2-a-mah mu-du3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — KM 89253. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šu-Suen y1 — Šu-Suen became king based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA (P235007) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P235007..
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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.