Position in chronology
MVN 21, 163
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120400.
Transliteration
1(szar2) 3(gesz'u) 4(gesz2) 1(u) sa gi gu-nigin2-ba 2(u) 2(disz)-ta 4(u) 5(disz) gil ga2-nun e2-te-na-ka ba-an-kux(KWU147) ugula lu2-utu kiszib3 bi2-du11-ga iti pa4-u2-e mu amar-suen lugal bi2-du11-ga dub-sar dumu la-a-sa6
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 21, 163. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Amar-Suen y1 — Amar-Suen became king based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation (P120400) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120400..
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.