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 was well written by an excellent
scribe, and is in near perfect condition. Only
the lower left edge is worn, not resulting in
any loss of script. The text is an
administrative document dated to the
second year of Ibbi-Sin, last king of the Third
Dynasty of Ur, c. 2127 B.C., to the 11th day
of an unidentified month. It is a document
listing the rations paid out to official
messengers:
Translation:
1….., 8 sila of soup, 2 fish: Mr Laqipum, cup
bearer, king’s messenger when he went to
the king’s offering. 1 sila of soup, 1 fish: Mr
Akima, king’s messenger when he went
from Der to the king. 1 sila of soup, 1 fish:
Mr Ili-sukkal, king’s messenger. 1 sila of
soup, 1 fish: Mr Abu-tab, king’s messenger
when they went to Der. 2 sila of soup, 2
fish: Mr Anne-babdu, king’s messenger
when he went to call up palace men, grooms
on the Mamma-sharrat canal. 1 sila of soup,
1 fish: Mr Pululu, groom when he went to
Anshebaran-Zikum. Disbursement of the
Nigega month. Year: the high priestess of
Inanna of Uruk was chosen by divination.
Left edge: 11th day.
A sila was a measure of capacity, about .85
of a litre. While ‘messenger texts’ like these
are well known, those published do not give
the purpose of the various missions, which
are of much interest, and are given in this
case.’
