Position in chronology
SACT 2, 074
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P129031.
Transliteration
1(u) 2(disz) gurusz u4 1(disz)-sze3 ki-su7-ra a-sza3 bad3-du3-<a>-ta sze ma2-a si-ga guru7 a-pi4-sal4-sze3 8(disz) gurusz u4 1(disz)-sze3 ki-su7-ra a-sza3 e2-gir-gi4-lu-ka sze bala-a sze ga6-ga2 ugula lugal-ezem kiszib3 gu-du-du mu en eridu ba-hun inim-szara2 dub-sar dumu ur-nigar[] szusz3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — SACT 2, 074. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Spurlock Museum, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, USA (P129031) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P129031..
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.