Position in chronology
MVN 20, 205
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P143138.
Transliteration
1(gesz2) 2(u) geme2 u4 1(disz)-sze3 la-ag ab-sin2-ta ri-ri-ga a-sza3 ma-nu ugula ur-nin-tu kiszib3 gu-u2-gu-a giri3# szesz-kal-la engar# u3 ur-ur3-bar-tab mu bad3 mar-tu ba-du3 gu-u2-gu-a dub-sar dumu ma-an-szum2
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 20, 205. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šulgi y37 — The Amorite wall was built based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation (P143138) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P143138..
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.