Position in chronology
Akkadica 114-115, 106 44
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P145537.
Transliteration
1(gesz2) 2(u) udu 2(disz) sila3# 1(gesz2) 3(u) la2 1(disz) udu 1(barig) 1(ban2) 2(disz) sila3 sze-bi 1(disz) lu2-ma2-gan 1(gesz2) 2(u) udu 2(disz) sila3 1(gesz2) 3(u) 1(disz) udu 1(barig) 1(ban2) 2(disz) sila3 [sze-bi ...] x lu2-dingir [...] sze#-bi# 1(disz) [nanna-si-sa2] [szunigin x] 2(u)# udu 2(disz) sila3 szunigin 4(gesz2) 5(disz) udu 1(barig) 1(ban2) 2(disz) sila3 sze-bi 3(barig) 3(ban2) 5(disz) sila3# u4 2(u) 1(disz@t)-kam iti sze-il2-la
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Akkadica 114-115, 106 44. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Musées royaux d’Art et d’Histoire, Brussels, Belgium (P145537) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P145537..
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.