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 consists of 16 lines of Sumerian
cuneiform. It is perfectly preserved with finely
written document recording the issuing of barley
as wages to two men. It is dated to the 4th year
of Shu-Sin, fourth king of the Third Dynasty of
Ur, c. 2034 BC.
Translation:
1 gur: Shu-Ishtar, son of Ur-kiri.
1 gur: Lallatum, son of a prostitute. Deleted from
the documents, by order of Sharrum, Id,
supervisor of castle, assistant of Ur-kiri and Bel-
bani, foreman of 60: Sharrum-Id.
Total: 2 gur: the assistant of Bel-bani, totalled
Sharum-Id, supervisor, took via Ur-mes, the
governor.
Month: of the plow. Year Shu-Sin, king of Ur,
built the Amarru wall, “That which keeps the
Tidnum at bay”.
This is a brief note that two men had been paid,
but were struck off the register of workers
henceforth, with a more than usual
documentation of the various officials and
bureaucrats involved. A gur was about 250 litres,
no small amount.
