Sumerian Cuneiform Tablet, 2050 BCE - 2010 BCE
Clay
2.36 x 3.85
CT.036
Sumerian Cuneiform is one of the earliest known forms of written expression. First appearing in the 4th millennium BC in what is now Iraq, it was dubbed cuneiform (“wedge-shaped”) because...
Sumerian Cuneiform is one of the earliest known forms of written expression. First appearing in the 4th millennium BC in what is now Iraq, it was dubbed cuneiform (“wedge-shaped”) because of the distinctive wedge form of the letters, created by pressing a reed stylus into wet clay. Early Sumerian writings were essentially pictograms, which became simplified in the early and mid 3rd millennium BC to a series of strokes, along with a commensurate reduction in the number of discrete signs used (from c.1500 to 600). The script system had a very long life and was used by the Sumerians as well as numerous later groups – notably the Assyrians, Elamites, Akkadians and Hittites – for around three thousand years. Certain signs and phonetic standards live on in modern languages of the Middle and Far East, but the writing system is essentially extinct. It was therefore cause for great excitement when the ‘code’ of ancient cuneiform was cracked by a group of English, French and German Assyriologists and philologists in the mid 19th century AD. This opened up a vital source of information about these ancient groups that could not have been obtained in any other way.
Cuneiform was used on monuments dedicated to heroic – and usually royal – individuals, but perhaps its most important function was that of record keeping. The palace-based society at Ur and other large urban centres was accompanied by a remarkably complex and multifaceted bureaucracy, which was run by professional administrators and a priestly class, all of whom were answerable to central court control. Most of what we know about the way the culture was run and administered comes from cuneiform tablets, which record the everyday running of the temple and palace complexes in minute detail, as in the present case. The Barakat Gallery has secured the services of Professor Lambert (University of Birmingham), a renowned expert in the decipherment and translation of cuneiform, to examine and process the information on these tablets. The following is a transcription of his analysis of this tablet:
This tablet consists of 17 lines of Sumerian cuneiform on the obverse and reverse. It is administrative document from the Third Dynasty of Ur, not as preserved dated, but c. 2050-2010 BC. The obverse is well preserved, with only the top corners chipped, but the reverse is less well preserved, especially at the bottom. The scribe rolled her cylinder seal over the whole surface after the text was written so that the seal inscription was repeated, and the metal caps have left grooves in the surface of the tablet. All edges are similarly. The content is a record of amounts of barley paid out for the persons or purposes specified, with summary at the end:
Translatio
20 gur of barley: Iddin-E[a].
8 gur: ur-Ninsi’a[nna].
2 gur: Lu-shalasu.
2 gur: barley rations of Adallal, stock fattener of Shu-Eshtar.
2 gur: for buying pitch, in 140 sila lots.
2 gur: for buying . . . . . .
3 gur: rations for hired men working on. . . . . ..
120 sila: for buying beer.
100 sila for buying leek seed.
180 sila: fodder for oxen, in two lots (remainder similar, but too damaged for translation).
The last preserved line begins: ‘Total”, followed by a large figure. The seal inscription can be made out by comparing the many repeats:
Column i:
Ur-mes,
governor o
the city Sharik:
Column ii:
Ninshaga,
his daughter.
This is a rare and possibly unique seal inscription of this period. Normally the two columns contain in the first the names and titles of the king, then in the second the details of the male official who was working for the king and used the seal, with the pattern:
So-and-so, son of So-and-so, scribe, your servant.
Women very rarely held such official posts, and perhaps only here is the lady in question the daughter of the one named in the first column. No doubt a case of paternalism! A sila was a measure of capacity, about .85 of a litre and a gur was 300 sila.
Cuneiform was used on monuments dedicated to heroic – and usually royal – individuals, but perhaps its most important function was that of record keeping. The palace-based society at Ur and other large urban centres was accompanied by a remarkably complex and multifaceted bureaucracy, which was run by professional administrators and a priestly class, all of whom were answerable to central court control. Most of what we know about the way the culture was run and administered comes from cuneiform tablets, which record the everyday running of the temple and palace complexes in minute detail, as in the present case. The Barakat Gallery has secured the services of Professor Lambert (University of Birmingham), a renowned expert in the decipherment and translation of cuneiform, to examine and process the information on these tablets. The following is a transcription of his analysis of this tablet:
This tablet consists of 17 lines of Sumerian cuneiform on the obverse and reverse. It is administrative document from the Third Dynasty of Ur, not as preserved dated, but c. 2050-2010 BC. The obverse is well preserved, with only the top corners chipped, but the reverse is less well preserved, especially at the bottom. The scribe rolled her cylinder seal over the whole surface after the text was written so that the seal inscription was repeated, and the metal caps have left grooves in the surface of the tablet. All edges are similarly. The content is a record of amounts of barley paid out for the persons or purposes specified, with summary at the end:
Translatio
20 gur of barley: Iddin-E[a].
8 gur: ur-Ninsi’a[nna].
2 gur: Lu-shalasu.
2 gur: barley rations of Adallal, stock fattener of Shu-Eshtar.
2 gur: for buying pitch, in 140 sila lots.
2 gur: for buying . . . . . .
3 gur: rations for hired men working on. . . . . ..
120 sila: for buying beer.
100 sila for buying leek seed.
180 sila: fodder for oxen, in two lots (remainder similar, but too damaged for translation).
The last preserved line begins: ‘Total”, followed by a large figure. The seal inscription can be made out by comparing the many repeats:
Column i:
Ur-mes,
governor o
the city Sharik:
Column ii:
Ninshaga,
his daughter.
This is a rare and possibly unique seal inscription of this period. Normally the two columns contain in the first the names and titles of the king, then in the second the details of the male official who was working for the king and used the seal, with the pattern:
So-and-so, son of So-and-so, scribe, your servant.
Women very rarely held such official posts, and perhaps only here is the lady in question the daughter of the one named in the first column. No doubt a case of paternalism! A sila was a measure of capacity, about .85 of a litre and a gur was 300 sila.