JCS 52, 037 22

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P145816

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P145816.

Transliteration

1(disz) gu4 niga
1(disz) gukkal niga saga us2
2(disz) udu
2(disz) ud5
3(disz) kir11
3(disz) kir11 ga
ba-usz2 u4 2(u) 6(disz)-kam
ki szul-gi-a-a-mu-ta
szul-gi-iri-mu
szu ba-ti
iti masz-da3-gu7
mu us2-sa gu-za [sza3] hul2#-la en-lil2-la2 ba-dim2
1(disz) gu4 1(u) 1(disz) udu

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — JCS 52, 037 22. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Arizona State Museum, Tucson, Arizona, USA (P145816) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P145816..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.