Position in chronology
RIME 1.14.20.01, ex. 04
About this tablet
This is a fragment of a stone vase dedicated at Nippur by Lugal-zage-si, king of Uruk and Umma, around 2350 BCE — one of many exemplars of his famous long votive inscription to the god Enlil. The surviving portion carries the closing prayer: a plea that the gods never revoke the good destiny they decreed for him and that he remain 'the foremost shepherd' of the people, followed by the standard dedication formula. Lugal-zage-si was the last great Sumerian overlord before Sargon of Akkad conquered him, which makes his confident prayer for an unalterable good fate poignantly ironic in hindsight.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The readable part of this vase fragment is the end of a royal prayer. The king asks that Enlil look kindly upon him, and that the gods never go back on the good fortune they have decreed for him — may he remain forever the leading shepherd of his people. Then comes the closing formula: for the sake of his own life, he dedicated this stone vessel to Enlil, the king he loves. The opening of the inscription, which would have named the king and his titles, is lost on this piece.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(beginning lost) [...] may he (Enlil) look upon me [favorably]; the good fate (which the gods have decreed for me) — may they never alter it for me. May I forever be the foremost shepherd, standing at the head. Forever may [I be so]. For his life, to Enlil, his beloved king, he dedicated [this vessel].
Our translation engine — Fable 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
Transliteration
[...] igi ha-mu-da#-du8 nam# sa6-ga szu na-mu-da#-ni-bala-ne# sipa sag gu4#-gal2# da-ri2 he2#-[x] nam-ti-[x]-ni-sze3# en-lil2# lugal# ki-ag2#-ni a# mu#-[...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — RIME 1.14.20.01, ex. 04. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (P264670) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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Related sources
One of the earliest specimens of human writing. Not literature, not law — accounting. The need to keep track of grain in a temple bureaucracy is what pushed marks-on-clay into a system that could one day carry epics.
Marks the boundary between proto-writing and writing. We can see signs being used systematically — but not yet phonetically. The leap to recording speech itself comes a few centuries later.
The earliest historical document in human history. Before this, we have lists, accounts, and dedications. Here, for the first time, a ruler tells us what happened — with names, places, and consequences.