Position in chronology
MVN 05, 089
Not yet translated
This tablet is catalogued with its transliteration, 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 P114309)
Transliteration
1(disz) kasz dida 5(disz) sila3 kasz saga 1/2(disz) ninda 4(disz) gin2 i3 2(disz) gin2 naga 3(disz) ku6 3(disz) sa! szum2! i3-li2-ma-a-zu gaba-asz 3(disz) sila3 kasz 4(disz) sila3 ninda 2(disz) gin2 i3 4(disz) gin2 naga 1(disz) ku6! 1(disz) sa szum2! u-bar u4 7(disz)-kam iti min-esz3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 05, 089. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Anonymous 114309 (private: anonymous, unlocated) — from Umma (mod. Tell Jokha) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P114309). source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P114309..
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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.