Position in chronology
SANTAG 6, 057
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P211718.
Transliteration
5(disz) ab2-mah2 4(u) 5(disz) gu4-gesz 4(u) 8(disz) udu bar-su-ga 1(gesz2) [...] 2(u) ud5 6(gesz2) [...] 3(disz) masz2 ki ba-sa6-ta kas4 i3-dab5 mu en nanna masz-e i3-pa3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — SANTAG 6, 057. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation (P211718) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P211718..
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.