Sumerian Cuneiform Tablet, 2027 BCE
Clay
2.2 x 4.37
CT.006
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:
Clay tablet, with 28 lines of Sumerian cuneiform on obverse and reverse. Lower right-hand corner lost, otherwise the tablet complete and in good condition save for one or two rubbed signs. An Administrative document listing quantities of barley issued from official stores over a certain year as wages (or rations) for gardeners, who looked after palm groves. It dates from the second year of Ibbis-Sin, last King of the Third Dynasty of Ur, c.2027 B.C.
Translation:
219.270 gur of barley.
Total in stock, from which:
10.120 gur rations for the workmen when the earth was dredged from the Mamma-Sharrat canal.
48.10 received, via Ilum-rabi.
57.20 gur: …….umti: received by Midam (for the gardeners), via Enu’s.
115.150 gur: a disbursement.
(…..)3.150 gur.
(…..) umti………..: document of Azum-shar.
31 gur: store of Anzagar.
40.75 gur: store of Pappas: document of Ilum-rabi, head gardener.
104.120 gur: store.
Total: 219.270 gur of barley: disbursement from the store.
Balanced account for barley for the gardeners.
Year: the high-priestess of Inanna of Uruk was chosen by lot.
The barley was measured by bulk, not weight, and the measures were the gur, which consisted of 300 sila. The sila was about .85 of a litre.
Thus when a figure is given as:
219.270 gur,
it means: 219 gur, 27 sila.
Barely was the chief crop in Sumer and provided both food 9bread) and drink (beer), and since money as such did not exist, barley was often handed out as wages.
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:
Clay tablet, with 28 lines of Sumerian cuneiform on obverse and reverse. Lower right-hand corner lost, otherwise the tablet complete and in good condition save for one or two rubbed signs. An Administrative document listing quantities of barley issued from official stores over a certain year as wages (or rations) for gardeners, who looked after palm groves. It dates from the second year of Ibbis-Sin, last King of the Third Dynasty of Ur, c.2027 B.C.
Translation:
219.270 gur of barley.
Total in stock, from which:
10.120 gur rations for the workmen when the earth was dredged from the Mamma-Sharrat canal.
48.10 received, via Ilum-rabi.
57.20 gur: …….umti: received by Midam (for the gardeners), via Enu’s.
115.150 gur: a disbursement.
(…..)3.150 gur.
(…..) umti………..: document of Azum-shar.
31 gur: store of Anzagar.
40.75 gur: store of Pappas: document of Ilum-rabi, head gardener.
104.120 gur: store.
Total: 219.270 gur of barley: disbursement from the store.
Balanced account for barley for the gardeners.
Year: the high-priestess of Inanna of Uruk was chosen by lot.
The barley was measured by bulk, not weight, and the measures were the gur, which consisted of 300 sila. The sila was about .85 of a litre.
Thus when a figure is given as:
219.270 gur,
it means: 219 gur, 27 sila.
Barely was the chief crop in Sumer and provided both food 9bread) and drink (beer), and since money as such did not exist, barley was often handed out as wages.