Position in chronology
BCT 2, 295
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P105535.
Transliteration
2(u) duh ki szesz#-[...] 2(u) ki x-lu2-[...] 1(u) ki lugal-x-[x] 2(u) ki ku3-ga-[...] bala u4 1(u) 6(disz) [...] sza3-gal gu4 niga# u3? amar niga x lugal-dub-la2 szu ba-ti#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — BCT 2, 295. 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 (P105535) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P105535..
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.