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:
‘It is an administrative document from the
period of the Third Dynasty of Ur, dated to
the second year of Ibbi-Sin, last king of the
dynasty, c. 2027 BC. It is a listing of rations
issued to official messengers. The measures
used for the bread and beer are the sila
(about .85 of a litre), and the gur (300 sila).
They are measures of capacity, obvious for
beer, but not for bread, a problem for us
never explained by them. Perhaps the flour
was measured, not the baked product.
Translation:
60 sila of beer, 70 sila of bread: Nur-
Shamash, rider, king’s messenger. 3 sila of
beer, 2 sila of bread: Shu-Ashtar, cup-
bearer. 5 sila of beer, 5 sila of bread: Dagan-
dan butcher. 5 sila of beer, 5 sila of bread:
Adda-kalla, butcher. 5 sila of beer, 5 sila of
bread: Zali’a, diviner. 2 sila of beer, 2 sila of
bread: Abbamu, diviner when they went for
the king’s offering. 30 sila of beer, 30 sila of
bread: Ur-Shu-Sin, deputy grand vizier. 3
sila of beer, 2 sila of bread: Shalim-ahum,
king’s messenger when they went for barley
for (the god) Nanna. 20 sila of beer, 20 sila
of bread: Puzur-Sin, son of the grand vizier
when he went to call up men to flail the
barley. 30 sila of beer, 30 sila of bread:
Sharrum-bani, colonel when he went to Der.
3 sila of beer, 2 sila of bread: Sin-alshu,
king’s messenger when he went from Der to
the king. 5 sila of beer, 5 sila of bread: [
…]mi’a, king’s messenger [when] he went to
Der. [5] sila of beer, 5 sila of bread: Nur-ili,
king’s messenger when he went for barley.
5 sila of beer, 5 sila of bread: Hulal, king’s
messenger when he went on the road to
Anshebaran-Zikum. 2 sila of beer, 2 sila of
bread: Pululu, groom when he went to
Anshebaran-Zikum. 5 sila of beer, 5 sila of
bread: Sheshkalla, king’s soldier: sick when
he went as a guard to the harvested barley
and smashed the bandits. 3 sila of beer, 2
sila of bread: Ahu-tab, king’s messenger
when he went to save the harvested barley
that was under water. 3 sila of beer, 2 sila of
bread: Awilumma, king’s messenger when
he went for oil. 5 sila of beer, 5 sila of bread:
Ur-ab…ga, scribe when he went to bring out
the barley of the….2 sila of beer, 2 sila of
bread: Lugal-amashku, the…when he went
for spices. Disbursement of the month ‘plow’
Year, the high priestess of Inanna of Uruk
was chosen by divination. 30th day. Total:
201 sila of beer, 206 sila of bread.
Save for one small spot of damage, the
tablet is in fine condition.’
