Position in chronology
TCNU 514
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P135360.
Transliteration
1(ban2) 8(disz) 1/2(disz) sila3 kasz saga 5(ban2) 2(disz) sila3 kasz du u4 1(u) 4(disz)-kam ki ur-mes-ta kiszib3 ensi2-ka iti dal mu us2-sa ma2 en-ki ba-ab-du8 szu-suen lugal kal-ga lugal uri5-ma lugal an-ub-da limmu2-ba a-a-kal-la ensi2 umma ARAD2-zu
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — TCNU 514. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Museo di Antichità di Torino, Turin, Italy (P135360) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P135360..
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.