Position in chronology
SACT 2, 293
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P129250.
Transliteration
1(asz) 4(barig) 1(ban2) kasz saga gur 3(u) 1(asz) 3(barig) 1(ban2) kasz du gur na-ap-ta2-num2 ki lu2-x-[x]-x kiszib3 ur4-sza3-ta iti li9-si4 mu sza-asz-szu2-ru-um ba-hul ur4-sza3-ta-lu dumu ur-szu-ku3-ga [gudu4]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — SACT 2, 293. 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 (P129250) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P129250..
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.