Position in chronology
Amar-Suena 2023add / CDLI Seals 005882 (CDLI Seals 005882 (composite))
Written in modern English
Amar-Suena, powerful king of Ur and king of the four quarters of the world — Baddari, overseer of the dumudaba workers and son of Gulum, declares himself your servant.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — scholar edition
ETCSRI(i 1) Amar-Suena, the powerful king, king of Urim, king of the four quarters: Baddari, overseer of the dumudaba workers, child of Gulum, is your servant.
Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Royal Inscriptions — scholar edition (Vienna).
Scholarly note
Sumerian royal inscription, published in the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Royal Inscriptions (ETCSRI) by Gábor Zólyomi and collaborators. Translation reproduced from the ETCSRI edition. ORACC text Q004125.
Attribution
Image: .
Translation excerpted from Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Royal Inscriptions (ETCSRI), University of Vienna, edited by Gábor Zólyomi et al. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/etcsri/Q004125/.
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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.