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:

‘Condition excellent. An administrative document from the period of the Third Dynasty of Ur, dated to the 2nd year of Ibbi-Sin, last king of the dynasty, c. 2027 B.C. It is a list of rations issued to official messengers.

Translation:

1……, 3 sila of soup, 2 fish: La-qipum, cup-bearer, king’s messenger when he went for the king’s offering. 1 sila of soup, 1 fish: Sharrum-bani, king’s messenger. 1 sila of soup, 1 fish: Nur-ili, king’s messenger, 1 sila of soup, 1 fish: Ilum-muda, king’s messenger. 1 sila of soup, 1 fish: Ilum-dan, king’s messenger. 1 sila of soup, 1 fish: Abum-ili, king’s messenger when they went from Der to the king. 1 sila of soup, 1 fish: Lu-amana, king’s messenger when he went to Der. 1 sila of soup, 1 fish: Zallum, king’s messenger when he went to inspect the….of the fat-tailed sheep in their….. 1 sila of soup, 1 fish: Mat-ili, king’s messenger when he went to tour the arable land. 1 sila of soup, 1 fish: Pululu, groom when he went to Anshebaran-Zikum. Disbursement of the month Ezen-asig. Year: the high priestess of Inanna of Uruk was chosen by divination. 29th day.

A sila was a measure of capacity, about .85 of a litre. The importance of this tablet lies in its specifying the purposes of the trips of these messengers. Published tablets of this category lack such information. But it is unfortunate that the matter of ‘fat-tailed sheep’ here, while apparently unique, has two signs of uncertain meaning, so that we do not yet know this matter of animal husbandry. No doubt in time the matter will be solved.’