Position in chronology
MVN 02, 334
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 P113633)
Transliteration
1(u) 7(disz) gurusz u4 6(disz)-sze3 sze ma2-a si-ga us2-bi 3(gesz2) 3(u) 5(disz)-am3 u4 2(u) 2(disz)-sze3 ma2 gid2-da ma2 diri-ga# u4 5(disz)-sze3 na-ga-ab-tum ma2 ba-al u4 6(disz)-sze3 us2-bi 1(u) 2(disz)-am3 gu2 i7-da-ta tum-ma-al-sze3 u4 1(disz)-sze3 kun-zi-da masz-kan2-ta ma2 e3-a ugula ukken-ne2 kiszib3 nam-sza3-tam lu2-giri17-zal [mu] ki#-[masz] ba#-hul lu2-giri17-zal dub-sar dumu da-du#-mu#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 02, 334. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium (P113633) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P113633..
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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.