Position in chronology
Fs Jones 038 3
Not yet translated
This tablet is catalogued with its transliteration and photographed, but no published translation exists yet. Our translation engine works through the untranslated corpus every night, oldest first — this page will update the day its turn comes. If you are a specialist and can read it, we would love your help.
The world it comes from
A bureaucratic golden age, the Code of Ur-Nammu.
From the same catalogue range (near P109342)
Transliteration
[... x x] n(barig) 1(ban2)# 5(disz)# [amar-suen] sipa kalam#-[ma] [... x x x] 3(barig)# 1(ban2) 5(disz) amar-[]suen# []isztaran-gin7 si-sa2 [... x x] 1(ban2)# 5(disz) amar-suen# ki-ag2 [nanna] [...] [... x x] 2(ban2) 1(ban2) 5(disz) [amar-suen] ur kalam#-[ma] [...] sila3 2(ban2) 1(ban2) 5(disz) amar#-[suen] iri-na hi-li-[bi] [...] 4(disz) sila3 2(ban2) 1(ban2) 5(disz) amar-suen# [x ...] [...] 2(disz) 1(ban2) x [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Fs Jones 038 3. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: British Museum, London, UK (P109342) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P109342..
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.