Position in chronology
RIME 1.14.20.01, ex. 43
About this tablet
A fragment of a stone vase dedicated at Nippur by Lugalzagesi, king of Uruk and Umma (about 2350 BCE), the last great Sumerian ruler before Sargon of Akkad. Dozens of shattered vases carrying copies of this same long inscription were found in Enlil's temple; this piece preserves part of the king's grand titulary — favored by An, chief ruler for Enlil, given wisdom by Enki — and his boast that his reign brought joy to the cities of Sumer, including Larsa, beloved city of the sun-god Utu. It is one of the earliest surviving claims to rule over 'all the lands', a rhetoric of universal kingship that Sargon would soon make real.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
What survives is part of a king's résumé and his boast. The opening is lost, but the readable lines say that this ruler was looked upon with true favor by An, king of all the lands; that he served as Enlil's chief governor; and that the god Enki granted him wisdom. After a gap, the text resumes mid-boast: he raised up (the head of Ur to heaven, as the full inscription elsewhere says), and he caused Larsa, the city the sun-god Utu loves, to rise up rejoicing. The final line breaks off just as it begins.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(Break) [... looked] upon [truly] by [An], king of all the lands; chief ruler for [the god] Enlil; given wisdom by [the god] En[ki]; (Break) he raised [the head of Ur heavenward] (lit. "he raised up"); Larsa, the beloved city of Utu, he made rise in jubilation — he [...] (text breaks off)
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
[...] [...] bar#-ra [x] lugal# kur-kur-ka ensi2# gal# []en#-lil2 gesztu2# szum2-ma []en#-[x] [...] mu#-dab6#-il2# larsa iri ki-ag2# utu#-ke4# a-ne hul2#-[x] mu#-[...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — RIME 1.14.20.01, ex. 43. 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 (P264974) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
Related tablets
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.