Sumerian Cuneiform Tablet, 2028 BCE
Clay
1.49 x 2.04
CT.001
Sumerian cuneiform is one of the earlies known forms of written expression. Firs appearing in the 4th millennium BC in wha is now Iraq, it was dubbed cuneifor (‘wedge-shaped’) because...
Sumerian cuneiform is one of the earlies known forms of written expression. Firs appearing in the 4th millennium BC in wha is now Iraq, it was dubbed cuneifor (‘wedge-shaped’) because of the distinctiv wedge form of the letters, created b pressing a reed stylus into wet clay. Earl Sumerian writings were essentiall pictograms, which became simplified in th early and mid 3rd millennium BC to a serie of strokes, along with a commensurat reduction in the number of discrete sign used (from c.1500 to 600). The scrip system had a very long life and was used b the Sumerians as well as numerous late groups – notably the Assyrians, Elamites,
Akkadians and Hittites – for around thre thousand years. Certain signs and phoneti standards live on in modern languages o the Middle and Far East, but the writin system is essentially extinct. It wa therefore cause for great excitement whe the ‘code’ of ancient cuneiform was cracke by a group of English, French and Germa Assyriologists and philologists in the mi 19th century AD. This opened up a vita source of information about these ancien groups that could not have been obtained i any other way.
Cuneiform was used on monument dedicated to heroic – and usually royal –
individuals, but perhaps its most importan function was that of record keeping. Th palace-based society at Ur and other larg urban centres was accompanied by remarkably complex and multifacete bureaucracy, which was run by professiona administrators and a priestly class, all o whom were answerable to central cour control. Most of what we know about th way the culture was run and administere comes from cuneiform tablets, which recor the everyday running of the temple an palace complexes in minute detail, as in th present case. The Barakat Gallery ha secured the services of Professor Lamber (University of Birmingham), a renowne expert in the decipherment and translatio of cuneiform, to examine and process th information on these tablets. The following i a transcription of his analysis of this tablet:
The tablet consists of 15 lines of Sumerian cuneiform on the obverse, reverse and left edge. The condition is very good.
Translation:
2 sila of beer, 2 sila of bread: Shu-Ashtar, king’s messenger, when he went to call up workers for harvest.
3 sila of beer, 2 sila of bread: Puzur-Ashtar, king’s messenger, when he went to Der.
3 sila of beer, 2 sila of bread: Shu-Ishhara, king’s messenger, when he went to the governor.
2 sila of beer, 2 sila of bread: Nanna-uru, the spice-worker.
A disbursement. Month: Shuniggal. Year: Ibbi-Sin, king. 16th Day.
This tablet dates to the first year of Ibbi-Sin, last king of the Third Dynasty of Ur, c. 2028 BC.
A sila was a measure of capacity, about .85 of a litre. It is an obvious measure for beer, but the ancient scribes never explain how bread was measured by such a measure. Was it perhaps the flour, not the baked product, that was so measured?
This is thus an administrative document, an example of the bureaucracy produced under this dynasty, which is in these matters the best documented dynasty of the ancient world.
Akkadians and Hittites – for around thre thousand years. Certain signs and phoneti standards live on in modern languages o the Middle and Far East, but the writin system is essentially extinct. It wa therefore cause for great excitement whe the ‘code’ of ancient cuneiform was cracke by a group of English, French and Germa Assyriologists and philologists in the mi 19th century AD. This opened up a vita source of information about these ancien groups that could not have been obtained i any other way.
Cuneiform was used on monument dedicated to heroic – and usually royal –
individuals, but perhaps its most importan function was that of record keeping. Th palace-based society at Ur and other larg urban centres was accompanied by remarkably complex and multifacete bureaucracy, which was run by professiona administrators and a priestly class, all o whom were answerable to central cour control. Most of what we know about th way the culture was run and administere comes from cuneiform tablets, which recor the everyday running of the temple an palace complexes in minute detail, as in th present case. The Barakat Gallery ha secured the services of Professor Lamber (University of Birmingham), a renowne expert in the decipherment and translatio of cuneiform, to examine and process th information on these tablets. The following i a transcription of his analysis of this tablet:
The tablet consists of 15 lines of Sumerian cuneiform on the obverse, reverse and left edge. The condition is very good.
Translation:
2 sila of beer, 2 sila of bread: Shu-Ashtar, king’s messenger, when he went to call up workers for harvest.
3 sila of beer, 2 sila of bread: Puzur-Ashtar, king’s messenger, when he went to Der.
3 sila of beer, 2 sila of bread: Shu-Ishhara, king’s messenger, when he went to the governor.
2 sila of beer, 2 sila of bread: Nanna-uru, the spice-worker.
A disbursement. Month: Shuniggal. Year: Ibbi-Sin, king. 16th Day.
This tablet dates to the first year of Ibbi-Sin, last king of the Third Dynasty of Ur, c. 2028 BC.
A sila was a measure of capacity, about .85 of a litre. It is an obvious measure for beer, but the ancient scribes never explain how bread was measured by such a measure. Was it perhaps the flour, not the baked product, that was so measured?
This is thus an administrative document, an example of the bureaucracy produced under this dynasty, which is in these matters the best documented dynasty of the ancient world.