Position in chronology
MVN 21, 090
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120327.
Transliteration
1(disz) ur-hal-mu-sza4 u4 4(u) 4(disz)-sze3 di3-ni-ik-tum-sze3 gen-na di3-ni-ik-tum-ma sze bala-a u3 sze ga6-ga2 umma gur-ra ugula a-kal-la kiszib3 da-da-ga mu bad3 mar-tu ba-du3 da-da-ga dub-sar dumu ur-nigar szusz3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 21, 090. 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 (P120327) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120327..
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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.