OIP 121, 406

~2043 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P124136

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P124136.

Transliteration

1(disz) gu4
1(gesz2) 5(disz) udu
2(disz) sila4
1(u) la2 1(disz) u8
1(u) 2(disz) masz2
1(u) 8(disz) ud5
ba-usz2 e2-muhaldim-sze3
u4 1(u) 8(disz@t)-kam
ki in#-ta-e3-a-ta ba-zi
iti ezem-me-ki-gal2
mu [en]-unu6#-gal inanna# ba-hun
1(disz) gu4 1(gesz2) 4(u) 6(disz) udu

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — OIP 121, 406. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Amar-Suen y4 — En-unugal of Inanna installed based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.

Attribution

Image: Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA (P124136) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P124136..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.