# The Ur III administrative archives (Umma, Girsu, Puzrish-Dagan, Ur, Nippur)

> At least 120,000 Sumerian administrative tablets of about 2100 to 2000 BC, mostly from unscientific digging at Umma, Girsu and Puzrish-Dagan before 1920…

Source: https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/unread-cuneiform/artifacts/ART0DEDQR8ZDCWZ/the-ur-iii-administrative-archives-umma-girsu-puzrish-dagan  
Publisher: Mysteries Department  
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (credit Mysteries Department and link the page)  

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[Mysteries](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries)[Unread cuneiform: half a million tablets and the limits of Sumerian](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/unread-cuneiform)[Artifacts](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/unread-cuneiform#artifacts)The Ur III administrative archives (Umma, Girsu, Puzrish-Dagan, Ur, Nippur)

**ART** 0DEDQR8ZDCWZ·Artifact · document

# The Ur III administrative archives (Umma, Girsu, Puzrish-Dagan, Ur, Nippur)

DocumentCC BY-SA 4.0Ur III, c. 2100 to 2000 BC

[Cite]

**Not kept here.** This copy isn't ours to show. [See it where it's published](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cuneiform_tablet_with_Sumerian_inscription,_Ur_III,_Museum_of_Archaeology_and_Anthropology.jpg).

At least 120,000 Sumerian administrative tablets of about 2100 to 2000 BC, mostly from unscientific digging at Umma, Girsu and Puzrish-Dagan before 1920 and now dispersed across dozens of museums and private collections. BDTNS had catalogued 105,187 and transliterated 75,818 by May 2026; the rest is the largest readable but unread block of cuneiform.

SpeakingArch (Wikimedia Commons), 2000. CC BY-SA 4.0

## Copies 2

**Photo** SpeakingArch (Wikimedia Commons) · commons.wikimedia.org · 2026-07-08 · CC BY-SA 4.01 step from the original

[Where it's published](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cuneiform_tablet_with_Sumerian_inscription,_Ur_III,_Museum_of_Archaeology_and_Anthropology.jpg)

**Dataset (bdtns)** Manuel Molina and the BDTNS team · bdtns.cesga.es · Copyright Manuel Molina (CSIC); free to consult online, no open licence statedPrimary source: [Database of Neo-Sumerian Texts (BDTNS): About](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DEDH8V5MW2C/database-of-neo-sumerian-texts-bdtns-about)1 step from the original

[Where it's published](https://bdtns.cesga.es/)

## Where it is kept

[British Museum, London](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/unread-cuneiform/places/PLC0DEDN19B9HCV/british-museum-london) · Museum

## Sources 2

- [Database of Neo-Sumerian Texts (BDTNS): About](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DEDH8V5MW2C/database-of-neo-sumerian-texts-bdtns-about)_SRC_
- [The Corpus of Neo-Sumerian Tablets: An Overview](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DEDH974MX1D/the-corpus-of-neo-sumerian-tablets-an-overview)_SRC_

## Cite it

```
Mysteries Department. (2026). The Ur III administrative archives (Umma, Girsu, Puzrish-Dagan, Ur, Nippur) [Artifact ART0DEDQR8ZDCWZ]. https://mysteriesdept.com/r/ART0DEDQR8ZDCWZ
```

Key

**ART** 0DEDQR8ZDCWZ

Kind

Document

Held by

Dispersed: British Museum, Yale Babylonian Collection, Penn Museum, Louvre, Istanbul Archaeological Museums, Iraq Museum and many smaller collections

Dated

Ur III, c. 2100 to 2000 BC

Licence

CC BY-SA 4.0

Place

[British Museum, London](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/unread-cuneiform/places/PLC0DEDN19B9HCV/british-museum-london)

Part of

[Unread cuneiform: half a million tablets and the limits of Sumerian](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/unread-cuneiform)

The record

Every record is open data. Take this one as JSON, with its links and its history.

[JSON](https://mysteriesdept.com/api/v1/records/ART0DEDQR8ZDCWZ)