Position in chronology
Syracuse 459
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 P131010)
Transliteration
9(disz) ninda gid2 1(disz) ninda dagal 2(disz) 1/2(disz) kusz3 bur3 kin-bi 2(u) 2(disz) 1/2(disz) sar 5(u) la2 1(disz) ninda gid2 2(disz) kusz3 bur3 kin-bi 1(gesz2) 3(u) 8(disz) sar 3(u) ninda gid2 1(disz) kusz3 bur3 kin-bi 3(u) sar kun i7 gibil-sze3 2(u) ninda gid2 1(disz) kusz3 bur3 kin-bi 2(u) sar 6(gesz2) 1(u) 5(disz) ninda gid2 1(disz) kusz3 bur3 kin-bi 6(gesz2) 1(u) 5(disz) sar szunigin 9(gesz2) 5(disz) 1/2(disz) sar kin sahar kin e <sa-dur2>-ra i7 amusz mu us2-sa ur-bi2-lum ba-hul
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Syracuse 459. 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 (P131010) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P131010..
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.