The tablet is read right to left and top to bottom. The tablet is divided into regions, called 'cases'. Each case contains one piece of information, such as how much was being delivered, what it was and who the recipient was. The quantity signs are fairly well understood (see the Sumerian notation page), as are some of the more common signs, but much is still obscure. Tablets are usually studied from copies, where the signs can be more readily seen. Making copies of tablets, especially broken or damaged ones, is a hard-won skill of the Sumerologist. Below is a cleaned-up copy of the same tablet (based on the copy in MSVO 4,60).
The double line dividing the top row from the rest of the tablet indicates
that there are two different accounts. In the bottom account, there
are 7 disbursements of differing amounts, of one, two, or three wedges
of grain. The total is 11 wedges. In the lowest row is given
the total: a circle and 5 wedges. From this, and other similar, corroborating
tablets, we see that one circle must equal 6 wedges. In this way,
the metrological systems were pieced together with the relative sizes of
the units. How those units relate to our units, is another, and much
more difficult matter.
Go to Mesopotamian Mathematics.
Last modified: 26 September 2002
Duncan J. Melville