NYPL 155

~2036 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P122693

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P122693.

Why it matters

Transliteration

2(disz) udu a-lum-gun3-[a]
ma-ni-il mar-tu
3(u) masz2-gal gun3-a u2
1(disz) sila4
s,e-lu-usz-da-gan
u4 2(u) 6(disz)-kam
mu-kux(DU) lugal
in-ta-e3-a
i3-dab5
giri3 nanna-ma-ba dub-sar
iti masz-da3-gu7
mu us2-sa szu-suen lugal-e si-ma-num2 mu-hul

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — NYPL 155. 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: New York Public Library, New York, New York, USA (P122693) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P122693..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.