Position in chronology
UET 3, 0690
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P137012.
Transliteration
1/2(disz) ma-na 5(disz) gin2 ku3-babbar la-ga-ma-al 1(disz)-sze3 ki ur-gu2-edin-na-ta a-hu-wa-qar szu ba-ti iti sze-sag11-ku5 u4 9(disz) ba-zal mu x x x
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — UET 3, 0690. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: IM — (National Museum of Iraq, Baghdad, Iraq) — from Ur (mod. Tell Muqayyar) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P137012). source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P137012..
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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.