Aleppo 385

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P100717

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P100717.

Transliteration

1(disz) u8 kur-ra ba-usz2
ki ur-ru-ta
kiszib3 da-da-ga
iti e2-iti-6(disz)
mu us2-sa e2 puzur4-da-gan-na mu us2-sa-bi
ur-li9-si4
ensi2
umma
lu2-du10-ga
dub-sar
dumu nigar-ki-du10
gal5-la2-gal
ARAD2-zu

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Aleppo 385. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: National Museum of Syria, Aleppo, Syria (P100717) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P100717..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.