Position in chronology
MVN 20, 166
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 P143099)
Transliteration
2(barig) 4(ban2) zi3-gu saga szar3 a2-bi u4 3(u) 2(disz) ki-a-nag 2(u) 2(ban2) la2 1(disz) sila3 zi3 sig15 gur a2-bi 1(gesz'u) 6(gesz2) 4(u) 2(disz) 1(asz) 4(barig) 3(ban2) [x] 1/2(disz)#? sila3# esza gur a2-bi [u4] 2(u) 8(disz)# 1/2(disz) 3(gesz2)? [x] 5(disz)# sila3 dabin gur a2-[bi] u4 2(szar2) 3(gesz'u) [x] 3(disz)# 1/2(disz) a2 zi3 ar3-a nig2-ka9 lugal-inim-gi-na-ka ki# da-da-ga-ka igi kar2-kar2-dam kiszib3# lugal-inim-gi-na mu us2-sa ki-masz ba-hul lugal-inim-gi-na dub-[sar] dumu lugal-nesag-e
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 20, 166. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation (P143099) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P143099..
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.