Sumerian Cuneiform Tablet, 2038 BCE - 2029 BCE
Clay
2.95 x 4.96
CT.042
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 a total of 66 lines of Sumerian cuneiform on obverse and reverse, not all complete, and a few lost. The tablet is divided into two columns each side, the fist three fully inscribed originally, the final one blank at the top, the bottom giving a summary of the of the contents. This is an administrative document from the period of the Third Dynasty of Ur, and a precise date was probably given at the very end of the text, but that is now lost at the bottom of the last column. However, the clerk responsible is named as Nur-Shu-Sin, meaning “Light of Su-Sin”, and Shu-Sin was the fourth kind of the dynasty, ruling c. 2038-2029 B.C. Such a name would be of course only used during or shortly after the reign of the king in questions, and that gives a rough dating for the document. It consists of a series of identical data about pieces of irrigated farm land, each one giving three items: first the area of land, secondly the name of the field in question, thirdly, the name of the man responsible for its cultivation. The land was measured in ikus, and iku being 3528.36 square meters. The background of the document is that land had to be irrigated in order to produce crops, since there was virtually no rainfall, and the government, whether directly through the king, or through temples which worked much land, owned the land and organized the irrigation. A vigorous bureaucracy kept a precise check on everything, and this is one of it’s products. Since the first columne is the most damaged, we translate from the second line of the second column, since the first line is the third item of the preceding entry.
Translatio
19 (iku), field Tabum, Ku (…)
6 iku, field Ga’u
26+1/24 iku, field Umku
6+5/72 iku: field Eshtar-mali
4 iku, field Signani: …. – il
6+5/72, field Ishme-ilu
6+5/72, field Ishme-ilu
9 iku, field Tirum, Shu-Nissab
9 iku, field Sig-Si
12 iku, field Signani: Shu-Az
33+1/18 iku, field Taqa’u
11+1/18 iku, field Tirum: ….ni’
9+1/18 iku, field Ishme-ilum: ….ah-il
11 iku, field Sig(na)n
9+1/36 iku, field Eku’e: foreman En’um-il
12+1/72 iku, field Ahum-ilu
13+1/72 iku, field Siggula: Sin-nasi
25 iku, field Siggula: Ah-ta
18 iku, Lu-Nann
18 iku, Ahu-tab, field Lugal-saba
12+1/3 iku, field Signunani: En’um-ili …….
18 iku, field Qaqqaratum: Pu’
12+1/18 iku, field Tiwi
6 iku, field Lugal-e: Tuq
Total: 427+1/72 iku, their earth not worke
Surveyor: (N)ur-Sin (………
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 a total of 66 lines of Sumerian cuneiform on obverse and reverse, not all complete, and a few lost. The tablet is divided into two columns each side, the fist three fully inscribed originally, the final one blank at the top, the bottom giving a summary of the of the contents. This is an administrative document from the period of the Third Dynasty of Ur, and a precise date was probably given at the very end of the text, but that is now lost at the bottom of the last column. However, the clerk responsible is named as Nur-Shu-Sin, meaning “Light of Su-Sin”, and Shu-Sin was the fourth kind of the dynasty, ruling c. 2038-2029 B.C. Such a name would be of course only used during or shortly after the reign of the king in questions, and that gives a rough dating for the document. It consists of a series of identical data about pieces of irrigated farm land, each one giving three items: first the area of land, secondly the name of the field in question, thirdly, the name of the man responsible for its cultivation. The land was measured in ikus, and iku being 3528.36 square meters. The background of the document is that land had to be irrigated in order to produce crops, since there was virtually no rainfall, and the government, whether directly through the king, or through temples which worked much land, owned the land and organized the irrigation. A vigorous bureaucracy kept a precise check on everything, and this is one of it’s products. Since the first columne is the most damaged, we translate from the second line of the second column, since the first line is the third item of the preceding entry.
Translatio
19 (iku), field Tabum, Ku (…)
6 iku, field Ga’u
26+1/24 iku, field Umku
6+5/72 iku: field Eshtar-mali
4 iku, field Signani: …. – il
6+5/72, field Ishme-ilu
6+5/72, field Ishme-ilu
9 iku, field Tirum, Shu-Nissab
9 iku, field Sig-Si
12 iku, field Signani: Shu-Az
33+1/18 iku, field Taqa’u
11+1/18 iku, field Tirum: ….ni’
9+1/18 iku, field Ishme-ilum: ….ah-il
11 iku, field Sig(na)n
9+1/36 iku, field Eku’e: foreman En’um-il
12+1/72 iku, field Ahum-ilu
13+1/72 iku, field Siggula: Sin-nasi
25 iku, field Siggula: Ah-ta
18 iku, Lu-Nann
18 iku, Ahu-tab, field Lugal-saba
12+1/3 iku, field Signunani: En’um-ili …….
18 iku, field Qaqqaratum: Pu’
12+1/18 iku, field Tiwi
6 iku, field Lugal-e: Tuq
Total: 427+1/72 iku, their earth not worke
Surveyor: (N)ur-Sin (………