Position in chronology
Nisaba 05/1, 003
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.
Transliteration
1(u) 5(disz) ma-na siki gir2-gul ki giri3-ne2 kuruszda-ta lu2-me-lam2 szu ba-ti iti sze-sag11-ku5 mu us2-sa en nanna masz2-e i3-pa3 1(u) 5(disz) ma-na siki# [gir2-gul] ki giri3-ne2 kuruszda#-[ta] lu2-me-lam2# [x]-x [x] szu ba-[ti] iti sze-sag11#-[ku5] mu us2-sa# [en] nanna masz2#-[e i3-pa3] lu2-me-lam2 dumu lu2-inanna
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Nisaba 05/1, 003. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: British Museum, London, UK (on study loan from National Museum of Iraq, Baghdad, Iraq) (P331640) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P331640..
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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.