Amherst 055

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P100893

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P100893.

Transliteration

8(disz) engar a-sza3 gir2-nun
2(disz) engar a-sza3 lahtan2
2(disz) engar a-sza3 inanna
1(esze3) GAN2 sze-bi 7(asz) gur lugal-ta
a-sza3 4(bur3) GAN2
sze-bi 1(gesz2) 2(u) 4(asz) gur
uru4-a e2-gal-ta
szuku engar-sze3
a-sza3 lahtan2
ugula sanga nin-gir2-su
mu us2-sa ki-masz ba-hul mu us2-sa-bi

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Amherst 055. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: World Museum Liverpool, Liverpool, UK (P100893) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P100893..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.