Position in chronology
AAICAB 1/3, pl. 189, Bod A 32
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P248990.
Transliteration
1(szar2) 4(gesz'u) 4(gesz2) 5(disz) udu eme-gi 1(szar2) 3(gesz'u) 1(gesz2) 5(u) 1(disz) ud5 masz2 hi-a 1(szar2) 4(gesz'u) 1(gesz2) 1(u) 5(disz) udu gukkal lu2-gu-la 1(szar2) 4(gesz'u) 9(gesz2) 2(u) 4(disz)# udu eme-gi 1(szar2) 3(gesz'u) 4(gesz2) 2(u) 3(disz) ud5 masz2 hi-a 1(szar2) 3(gesz'u) 1(gesz2) 1(u) 5(disz) udu gukkal a-a-kal-la 3(u) ur-lamma 3(u) ur-sa6-ga 1(gesz2) a-a-kal-la gab2-us2
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — AAICAB 1/3, pl. 189, Bod A 32. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK (P248990) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P248990..
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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.