Photograph and stop motion by Scott Beadles.

Sumerian Cuneiform Tablet of Third Dynasty of Ur
PJ3824 B33
From the Kenneth Lieurance Ott Collection donated to the Okanangan County Museum, Washington, now in the Rare Books collection, J. Willard Marriott Library, the University of Utah.

Our thanks to Dr. Renee Kovacs for this translation.

This tablet will appear in the master database of cuneiform tablets, CDLI Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative  and the specialised database of administrative tablets of this period, the Third Dynasty of Ur: BDTNS Database of Neo-Sumerian Texts.

Sumerian Cuneiform Tablet of Third Dynasty of Ur

Administrative, receipt of grain

dated to King Amar-Suen of Ur, year 2 (ca. 2045 BC)

3.0 x 3.0 cm. The tablet is complete, 8 lines of Sumerian cuneiform, (6 obverse, 2 reverse).

The tablet records an amount of a grain (lillan”-grain) for provisions for the funerary cult of the former “lords”, that is the rulers, the en-priests and priestesses. The grain was issued from the mill by an official named Arad and received by an official Ur-mes with the title ‘beer libator”  This title was used specifically for an official who performed libations during the funerary banquet for the deceased rulers.

The English units of measure  in the translation do not reflect actual Sumerian volumes but merely the sequence of units, large to small, of the Sumerian.  The regnal years of kings were identified by assigning a  name for a significant event of that year.

1	0.2.2  4 silà (še <gur> lugal	2 “barrels”, 2 “gallons” 4 “quarts”  of lillan-grain
2	níg-dab5-en-en-ne	provisions for the Lords
3	é-HAR-ta	from the mill
4	ki Arad2-ta	from Arad
5	Ur-mes kaš-dé-dé	Ur-mes, libator for ritual meals,
6	šu ba-ti	received.
rev 7	iti dLi9-si4	Month IX
8	mu Ur-bí-/lumki ba-hul	Year (named) ” The year Urbilum was destroyed.”