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:
‘There is a spot of damage to the upper
right-hand obverse corner, and a patch on
the right-hand edge of the reverse, but most
is well preserved. The writing is in a large,
clear scribal hand. The text is an
administrative document from the period of
the Third Dynasty of Ur, dated to the 9th
year of Shu-Sin, fourth king of the dynasty,
c. 2029 BC. It lists men’s names in groups
as recipients of official hand-outs, with a
group leader specified for each group. Each
such name is introduced by a single vertical
wedge, which we render by insetting. Some
names are also introduced with a small
horizontal wedge, the meaning of which is
not clear. We put a dot in its place:
Translation:
Ali-i[li] Shulgi-.[…] * Ba.[…..] Ku-elak *
Turam-ili * Bishe’a Enu’a Ilum-asu 8 Ilum-
asu took Ur-Dumuzi Nene Basum Scribe:
Umkin… Nuhilum Adallal Bur-Mamma 7
Shutpil-ili took Ashtar-nuda Adallal * Shu-
Ashtar Qurudsa Head sailor Ilum-rabi, potter
Puzur-Lisi, bird catcher 7 Adallal took *
Abushu[…] * Ipqusha * Ela-nu’id Shu-
Mamma Idarrak 5 Shelibum took 27 Men
who received bread Year: Shu-Sin, king of
Ur, built the temple of Shara in Umma.’
While chattel slavery was rare in Suma at
this time, a large number of the population
were employed by the state and official
agencies, often drawing food as payment.
This tablet lists the names of four gangs of
men so fed, and the names of the person
responsible for picking up and distributing
their rations. Since no month is named this
arrangement apparently lasted for the whole
year. Very few professions are specified, the
rest were no doubt agricultural labourers.’
