NYPL 122

~2037 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P122658

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P122658.

Transliteration

1(u) gu4 u2
1(gesz2) 2(u) udu u2
1(gesz2) 4(u) u8 u2
2(gesz2) 1(u) 5(disz) masz2-gal
5(disz) masz2
ur-ku3-nun-na i3-dab5
gur11-gur11-ra-a
in-ta-e3-a-ta
tur-re-dam
mu szu-suen lugal uri5-ma-ke4 na-ru2-a-mah en-lil2 nin-lil2-ra mu-ne-du3

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — NYPL 122. 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: New York Public Library, New York, New York, USA (P122658) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P122658..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.