Position in chronology
BE 03/1, 137
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P105689.
Transliteration
4(u) 6(disz) tug2 usz-bar 2(disz) tug2 guz-za du 1(u) 1(disz) tug2 mug# sag-nig2-gur11-ra x[ de6-a?] sza3-bi-ta [(x)] 1(disz) tug2 usz-bar ki-la2-bi 1(disz) 5/6(disz) ma-<na> 6(disz) gin2#? 1(disz) tug2 mug ki-la2-bi 2(disz) ma-na 1(disz) [gin2 ...] tug2!?(E2) sa-gi4-a im-babbar2 ga2 [...] kab2-du11-[ga ...] iti [...] mu# [...] [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — BE 03/1, 137. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (P105689) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P105689..
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.