Position in chronology
BCT 1, 002
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P105104.
Transliteration
1(disz) sila4 ur-en-lil2-la2 1(disz) sila4 ga2-a-kam 1(disz) sila4 da-da-a mu-kux(DU) iti ki-siki-nin-a-zu mu si-mu-ru-um u3 lu-lu-bu a-ra2 1(u) la2 1(disz)-kam ba-hul u4 3(u) la2# 1(disz)-kam
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — BCT 1, 002. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, Birmingham, UK (P105104) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P105104..
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.