Tablet Transliteration and Translation

Cuneiform Clay Tablet in the George T.H. Fuller Collection,

Dept. of Classical, Near Eastern and Religious Studies, UBC

 

 

Provenance: possibly Puzrish-Dagan (ancient Drehem, southern Iraq)

Date: Ur III period, c. 2100-2000 BCE

Subject: receipt for the delivery of livestock (and oil?).

Cuneiform Tablet

TRANSLITERATION                                 TRANSLATION

Obverse                                                              Obverse

1. ? udu                                                                1. 3? sheep

2. 1 maš                                                               2. 1 goat

3. u₄-30-kam                                                    3. the 30th day

4. ki ab-ba-ša₆-x-x                                          4. from Abba-sha-? (place-name)

5. x i-x-u₄-x-x                                                   5. …oil?…

Reverse                                                                Reverse

6. i-dab                                                                 6. he received

7. iti ezen?-x                                                       7. The month…

8. mu ša-x-ki ba-ḫul                                         8. The year the city…was destroyed

For other examples of cuneiform tablets found in the same area and dated to the same period, check out the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative at UCLA. They have 3 tablets from the region in their digital library that are housed at Charles University in Prague.

Further reading:

The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago published the 499 tablets in their collection in 1998, and can be downloaded from their website.

Lluís Feliu and Adelina Millet published a paper titled “An Ur III Tablet from Drehem and Three Clay Cones of Lipit-Estar” in Aula Orientalis; the issue can be downloaded here.

Transliteration and translation by Dr. Lisa Cooper.