Position in chronology
BM 014751
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P316112.
Transliteration
4(asz) 1(barig) ku6 nig2-ki gur 6(asz) 4(barig) 4(ban2) ku6-sze6 gur 2(gesz'u) 5(u) 2(disz) ba saga 1(gesz'u) 8(gesz2) 2(u) 4(disz) ba du a2 gesz-gar-ra ki lu2-nin-szubur-ta ugula ARAD2-mu mu-kux(DU) ur-mes szu ba-ti iti sze-sag11-ku5 <u4> 2(u) 4(disz)-<kam> mu si-mu-ru-um <<lu-lu-bu>> lu-lu-bu a-ra2 1(u) la2 1(disz@t)-kam#-asz# ba-hul
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — BM 014751. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: BM 014751 (British Museum, London, UK) — from Puzriš-Dagan (mod. Drehem) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P316112). source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P316112..
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.