Position in chronology
Orient 16, 082 118
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 P124731)
Transliteration
4(disz) gu4 niga numun ma-an-szum2 4(disz) gu4-numun ur-zigum-ma 4(disz) gu4-numun ur-igi-gal2 4(gesz2) gu4-gesz-ur3 lu2-x giri3 lu2-giri17-zal 4(disz) gu4-numun di-de3 u3 szesz-kal-la ugula ur-utu 4(disz) gu4-numun ur-mes u3 a-kal-la ugula ab-ba-mu 9(disz) gurusz erin2 u2 ku5 2(u) sar-ta ur-sze-il2-la szesz-gal 7(disz) lu2 hun-ga2 nig2-gul a-sza3 dur9-re-gar-ra iti ezem-dumu-zi u4 2(u) 1(disz)-kam
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Orient 16, 082 118. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: World Museum Liverpool, Liverpool, UK (P124731) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P124731..
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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.