Position in chronology
RIME 1.14.20.01, ex. 44
About this tablet
These are two joining fragments of a stone vase dedicated at Nippur by Lugalzagesi, king of Uruk (about 2350 BCE) — the last great Sumerian ruler before Sargon of Akkad. Dozens of such vase fragments carrying copies of the same long inscription were found in Enlil's temple there. The surviving lines come from Lugalzagesi's grand titulary and his boast that all the rulers of Sumer and the foreign lands submitted to him at Uruk — one of the earliest claims to something like universal kingship in world history.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
What survives is a slice of a king's self-presentation: he calls himself the great governor appointed by the god Enlil, endowed with wisdom by the god Enki. Under his rule, he says, the people celebrated in joy, and the throne-holders of Sumer together with the rulers of all the foreign lands came to Uruk and submitted to his princely authority. The lines before and after this passage are broken away; from complete copies of the same inscription we know it was Lugalzagesi of Uruk's dedication of vessels to Enlil at Nippur.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(Fragment of a longer titulary and dedication; preserved portion:) grand ruler (ensi) of [the god En]lil, given [wisdom by the god Enki], [... the nation, in joy,] made merry under him, the sovereigns (lit. 'thrones') of Sumer (and) the rulers of all the lands at Uruk [bowed down] to the divine powers of prince[ship] [...] (remainder lost)
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
[ensi2] gal [en]-lil2# [gesztu2 szum2]-ma# [...] mu#-da-e bara2#-bara2 ki-en-gi# ensi2 kur-kur-ra# ki unu-ge# me# nam-nun#-[x] [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — RIME 1.14.20.01, ex. 44. 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 (P264975) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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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.