Aleppo 411

~2036 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P100743

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P100743.

Why it matters

Transliteration

1(disz) udu siskur2
ki-su7-ra i7 lugal
udu gu2-na gu2-tar
[kiszib3] nam-sza3-tam
lugal-ku3-zu
iti sze-kar-ra-gal2
mu us2-sa szu-suen lugal
[lugal-ku3]-zu
dub-[sar]
[dumu ur-nigar szusz3]

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Aleppo 411. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šu-Suen y2 — Year after: Šu-Suen became king based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.

Attribution

Image: National Museum of Syria, Aleppo, Syria (P100743) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P100743..

Related tablets

Related sources

~3200 BCE

Proto-Cuneiform Account Tablet

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.

~3500 BCE

Kish Tablet

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.

~2450 BCE

Stele of the Vultures

The earliest historical document in human history.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.