Position in chronology
ACI 04
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P370979.
Transliteration
1(disz) udu za-ni-mu 1(disz) udu da-du-mu nu-banda3-gu4 1(disz) x x masz2 lugal#-a2-zi-da gudu4 1(disz) masz2 lugal-x-NI gudu4 iti li9-si4
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — ACI 04. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Albertson College of Idaho, Caldwell, Idaho, USA (P370979) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P370979..
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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.