Position in chronology
UET 3, 0159
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P136476.
Transliteration
2(ban2) kasz du 2(ban2) [...] bur-ra ba-an-de2 2(ban2) kasz ge6 du bala-bala-e-de3 siskur2 ge6-par4#? nanna-ka a2 ge6-ba-a 1(ban2) zi3-gu 5(disz) sila3 esza e2-gi4-a a2 u4-te-na u4 1(u) 1(disz)-kam zi-ga siskur2 lugal iti ezem-mah mu bad3-gal ba-du3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — UET 3, 0159. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (P136476) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P136476..
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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.