JCS 52, 046 61

~2045 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P145855

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P145855.

Transliteration

1(disz) ma2 2(u) gur da-na 1(asz) gur 1(disz) sila3-ta
kaskal-bi da-na 1(u) 4(disz)-am3
sze-bi 4(barig) 4(ban2)
szuku ma2 SZIM gu2-gal-gal# gu2-tur-tur u3 imgaga3
ur-za-ba4-ba4-ta
e2-sag-da-na-sze3 gar-ra
mu amar-suen lugal-e ur-bi2-lum mu-hul

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — JCS 52, 046 61. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Amar-Suen y2 — Urbilum destroyed based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.

Attribution

Image: Arizona State Museum, Tucson, Arizona, USA (P145855) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P145855..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.