TCNU 723

~2037 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P135571

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P135571.

Why it matters

Transliteration

1(u) 5(disz) udu hi-a
1(disz) masz-da3
ki in-ta-e3-a
<<1(disz)>> ba-zi
iti u5-bi2-gu7
mu szu-suen
lugal uri5-ma-ke4
na-ru2-a-mah
en-lil2
nin-lil2
[mu]-ne-du3
[...] AN
[]szu#-suen
lugal kal-ga

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — TCNU 723. 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: Museo di Antichità di Torino, Turin, Italy (P135571) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P135571..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.