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. His scanned
analysis is presented here. This document
records the grant of arable, irrigated land to
two individuals.
Professor Lambert’s translation is provided
below:
Clay tablet, 78x52mm., with 19 lines of
Sumerian
cuneiform on obverse and reverse. An
administrative document fom the period of the
Third Dynasty of Ur, dated to the 4th year of
Shu-Sin fourth king of the dynasty, c. 2034 B.C.
It is a record of arable, irrigated land being
assigned to two individuals: one iku to each
person. The surface is rubbed in places so that
reading is in parts difficult, and it is a very
unusual formulation not fully so far understood.
Translation
1 iku: Basum, excluded from the tablet, son of
Milala of the slave girls, mate Atanah, commoner
1 iku: Turam-ili, excluded from the tablet, son
of Shu-Ninshubur, mate of Shu-ilishu,
commoner: from Ibbi-Mu’ati and Ur- . . . ,
foreman
Shu-Amar-Sin, commoner made (?) the total
account of the mates and commoners.
Puzur-Haya was . . . foreman: Nur-Sin took
charge
Via Ur-Mes, governor
Month: Festival of Lisi
Year: Shu-Sin, king of Ur, built the West Wall,
“That which keeps the Tidnum at bay”
It appears that the two men receiving land (for a
season only) were at this point struck off the list
of regulars, entitled every year to a plot of
productive land. The men we have translated
“commoners” were apparently men in the king’s
service, who thereby forsook their civil rights.
