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 is an administrative document from the period of the Third Dynasty of Ur, dated to the 5th year of Shu-Sin, fourth king of the dynasty, c. 2033 B.C. It is a list of foods (mostly meat, birds and fish) assigned to various groups and purposes in a named month. The number of people being fed must have been considerable in view of the quantities involved:

Translatio
15 sila of soup: for the king’s eshesh-offering. 8 roast sheep. 10 …….. 115 sila of soup. 115 fish: the clerk Habil, king’s messenger and 2 disbursements. 53 carcasses of oxen. 134 carcasses of sheep. 35 carcasses of ducks. 5 carcasses of wild doves. 98 carcasses of pigeons. 880 small birds. 1290 sila of soup. 12 of beer: clerks of oxen (and) the woman weavers with Ali-lissu. 10 carcasses of oxen. 21 carcasses of sheep. 5 carcasses of ducks. 1 carcass of wild dove. 12 carcasses of pigeons. 380 small birds. 1464 sila of soup. 1190 fish: women oil-pressers, women grain grinders, brewery women and fattening house women. 10 carcasses of sheep: labourers. 780 sila of soup: .[…..]….. […..] carcasses of oxen. […..] carcasses of sheep: [……] of the palace. […..] +33. [……..] … the Leather Bag failed. [……..] farm manager. [Month: Nig]ega. Year after: Shu-Sin, king of Ur built the west wall “That which keeps the Tidanum at bay.’ Left: Abba-shut …..; Shelibum; Ishar-ramash.

This is a rare tablet for the summing up of the vast quantities of food consumed by the staff of some temple or palace at this time. Curiously it leaves out barley and bread, which was the most common food at this period. Perhaps the king’s offering in the first entry applies to the whole list: it gives the luxuries handed out at a major religious festival, and so ignores the ordinary bread, and fish, which was the main protein for ordinary people. The sila was a measure of capacity, about .85 of a litre.’