Position in chronology
MMFM 2005, 20, 03
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P113019.
Transliteration
[x] masz2#-gal# isz#-[me]-da-gan lu2 ma#-ri2#[] 1(u) masz2-gal bu-ud-ra lu2 ur-szu 1(u)# masz2-gal zu-ri2-um lu2 eb-la ARAD2#-mu maszkim [n] ab2# 1(u) 4(disz) udu [n] 1(disz)# u8 4(disz) masz2 [n] 1(u)# ud5 szu#-gid2 e2-muhaldim-sze3 u4 1(u) la2 1(disz@t)-kam ki na-sa6-ta ba-zi iti# ezem-mah [mu us2]-sa# ki#-masz [ba-hul]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MMFM 2005, 20, 03. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Medelhavsmuseet, Stockholm, Sweden (P113019) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P113019..
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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.