Berens 088

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P105799

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P105799.

Transliteration

1(ban2) ninda ur-x-x
2(disz) sila3 ad-da
2(disz) sila3 ku5-da
2(ban2) 4(disz) sila3 dub-sar tur-tur
5(disz) sila3 mar-tu munus
6(disz) sila3 ur-e2-x
[x] uzu# ur2
x-ta-ku3-zu lu2 tukul-gu-la
x uzu ur2-e x ad x
giri3 ba-ba6-x-x
sze-bi u4 1(u) [...]
[...] a [...]

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Berens 088. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, Ireland (P105799) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P105799..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.