Berens 072

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P105783

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P105783.

Transliteration

2(gesz2) 4(u) 3(asz) gu2 1(u) 3(disz) ma-<na> 1(u) gin2 tug2
4(gesz2) 2(u) 6(disz) tug2 mug
3(gesz2) tug2 kiszib3-ta tur
e2-kiszib3-ba-ta
ki szabra-e2-ta
sag-nig2-gur11-kam

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Berens 072. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, Ireland (P105783) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P105783..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.