Anonymous 497531

~2037 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P497531

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P497531.

Transliteration

1(gesz2) sa gi
en-du8-du
kas4 lu2-didli
ki szesz-kal-la-ta
kiszib3 i3-kal-la
sza3 bala-a
u4 1(u)-kam
iti dal
mu szu-suen lugal-e e2 szara2 mu-du3
i3-kal-la
dub-sar
dumu lu2-sa6-ga

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Anonymous 497531. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šu-Suen y1 — Šu-Suen became king based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.

Attribution

Image: private: anonymous, unlocated (P497531) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P497531..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.