Position in chronology
Tavolette 171
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P131957.
Transliteration
2(disz) gu4 niga 1(disz) amar gu4 mu 1(disz) gun3-a 1(disz) udu 1(disz) u8 2(disz) sila4 ga 1(disz) kir11 ga ba-usz2 u4 1(u) 1(disz)-kam ki lu2-dingir-ra-ta ur-nigar szu ba-ti iti ezem-me-ki-gal2 mu amar-suen lugal-e ur-bi2-lum mu-hul 8(disz)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Tavolette 171. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Amar-Suen y2 — Urbilum destroyed based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: Museo di Antichità di Torino, Turin, Italy (P131957) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P131957..
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.