Position in chronology
YOS 18, 098
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P142492.
Transliteration
4(gesz2) 5(u) 3(disz) udu bar-gal2 nig2-ka9 udu-ta sza3-bi-ta 5(asz) gu2 5(u) la2 1(disz) ma-na siki-gi udu-bi 4(gesz2) 4(u) 6(disz) kiszib3 ensi2 x x x x x la2-ia3 [...] nig2-ka9-ak udu mu sanga?-sze3 ur-nigar szu kuruszda mu ma2 en-ki-ka ba-ab-du8
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — YOS 18, 098. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Colgate University Libraries, Hamilton, New York, USA (P142492) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P142492..
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.