Position in chronology
Princeton 2, 164
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 P201162)
Transliteration
1(disz) dug dida 5(disz) sila3 kasz saga sila ninda 2(disz) gin2 i3 2(disz) gin2 naga 3(disz) ku6 3(disz) sa szum2 a-i3-li2 gaba-asz 5(disz) sila3 kasz 6(disz) sila3 ninda 2(disz) du i3 2(disz) du naga 1(disz) ku6 1(disz) sa szum2 u-bar sukkal gaba-asz 2(ban2) sila3 kasz sila ninda 1/3(disz) sila3 <i3> sza3-gal kas4 gaba-ta bala-a giri3 u-bar sukkal szunigin 1(disz) dug dida du 1(ban2) szunigin 5(disz) sila3 kasz saga szunigin sila3 kasz du szunigin sila ninda szunigin 1/3(disz) sila3 4(disz) gin2 i3 szunigin 4(disz) gin2 naga? nigin2 4(disz) ku6 szunigin 4(disz) sa szum2 u4 7(disz)-kam iti min-esz3 mu [... ba]-hun
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Princeton 2, 164. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey, USA (P201162) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P201162..
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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.