Position in chronology
Umma 051
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P139560.
Transliteration
2(szar2) 4(u) sa gi 3(u) sa gi gil ki ab-ba-ta usz-mu szu ba-ti kiszib3 usz-mu u3 kiszib3 kas4! kiszib3 ab-ba zi-re-dam mu ur-bi2-lum mu-hul ab-ba dub-sar dumu [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Umma 051. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Institut Catholique, Paris, France (P139560) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P139560..
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.