UCP 09-02-2, 049

~2037 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P136053

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P136053.

Why it matters

Transliteration

1(disz) inim-szara2
iti sze-sag11-ku5 u4 1(u) 5(disz)-am3 ba-ra-zal-la-ta
sipa# ansze-lah5-sze3
ki i7-pa-e3-ta
usz-mu i3-dab5
mu szu-suen lugal-e na-ru2-a-mah en-lil2 nin-lil2-la2 mu-ne-du3
usz-mu
dub-sar
dumu lugal-sa6-ga

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — UCP 09-02-2, 049. 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: Hearst Museum of Anthropology, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California, USA (P136053) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P136053..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.