Position in chronology
BCT 2, 167
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P105408.
Transliteration
1(asz) 2(barig) sze gur lugal sze-ba za3-mu e2-kikken-ta pa3-da nu-kiri6 szu ba-ti iti min-esz3 mu us2-sa ur-bi2-i3-lum ba-hul
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — BCT 2, 167. 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 (P105408) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P105408..
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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.