Position in chronology
UET 3, 1123
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P137448.
Transliteration
1(ban2) nig2 a2 e3-a 1(ban2) 5(disz) sila3 a-gar-a a-ra2 1(disz)-kam 1(ban2) a-gar-a a-ra2 2(disz)-kam 1(ban2) a-gar-a a-ra2 3(disz)-kam 5(disz) sila3 nig2 a2 e3-a a-ra2 4(disz)-kam 1(ban2) nig2 a-gar-a a-ra2 5(disz)-kam
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — UET 3, 1123. 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 (P137448) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P137448..
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.