Position in chronology
BCT 2, 021
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P105262.
Transliteration
2(disz) gu4 ba-usz2 geme2 usz-bar-e szu ti-a da-da-a maszkim 1(disz) gu4 ba-usz2 [geme2] kikken-ke4 szu ti-a igi-szara2-sze3 maszkim iti ezem nesag zi-ga
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — BCT 2, 021. 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 (P105262) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P105262..
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.