Position in chronology
Syracuse 276
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 P130827)
Transliteration
1(u) 5(disz) gurusz u4 2(disz)-sze3 kun i7-da i7 ma2-gur8-ra-ka-ta sahar zi-ga 1(u) 7(disz) gurusz u4 6(disz)-sze3 sze gurx(|SZE.KIN|)-a a-sza3 szara2 1(u) 5(disz) gurusz u4 2(disz)-sze3 kab2-ku5 i7 sal4-la-ta sahar zi-ga ugula a-gu kiszib3 ur-dun gesz?-ra? mu en eridu ba-hun ur-dun dub-sar dumu da-da
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Syracuse 276. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Syracuse University Library, Syracuse, New York, USA (P130827) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P130827..
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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.