Position in chronology
MVN 15, 203
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 P118483)
Transliteration
n 1(barig)# 5(ban2) 6(disz)# sila3 [...] sze gur a2 geme2 zi3 ar3#-[...] sa2-du11 u4-de3 gid2-da u3 na-ap-ta2-num2 nu-gu7#?-a mu ur-bi2-lum ba-hul 1(gesz2) 1(asz) 2(barig) 3(ban2) 8(disz) 1/3(disz) sila3 4(disz) gin2 sze gur sze-bi nig2 u4-de3 gid2-da u3 na-ap-ta2-num2 nu-gu7#-a 4(gesz2) 4(u) 2(asz) 1(barig) 3(ban2) 7(disz) sila3 duh du gur [sze]-bi 3(u) 1(asz)# 3(barig) 1(ban2) 2(disz) 5/6(disz) sila3 6(disz) gin2 gur mu ki#-masz ba-hul kiszib3-bi ki ki-tusz-lu2-ka mu-gal2 3(u) sze gur utu-GIR2@g-gal 5(asz) gur da-gi-mu mu ki-masz ba-hul
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 15, 203. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA (P118483) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P118483..
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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.