CST 563

~2037 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P108079

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P108079.

Transliteration

1(ban2) zi3 gu2-gal
2(ban2) esir2 E2-A
2(u) ma-na im-babbar2#
2(disz) szu-a-ba x 3(disz) kusz3-ta
5(disz) sa gi [x]
[x] 1(disz) szu [...] x [...]
giri3 ur-[]gubalag
mu szu-suen lugal uri5-ma-ke4 ma-da za-ab-sza-li mu-hul

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — CST 563. 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: John Rylands Library, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK (P108079) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P108079..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.