JCS 52, 045 58

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P145852

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P145852.

Transliteration

2(disz) ba-an-du8-du8 kikken2
ki-la2-bi 1(u) 9(disz) ma-na 1(u) 7(disz) gin2
1(disz) ma-na 8(disz) gin2 uruda
lu2 ur2!-gigir de6-a
lu2-banda3 mu6-sub3
e2 ba-ab-KA
kin til-la
lugal-<e2>-mah-e in-la2
ki lu2-nin-szubur-ta
giri3 lugal#-e2-mah-e simug
iti nesag
mu us2-sa lu-lu-bum2 si-mu-ru-um a-ra2 1(u) la2 1(disz)-kam ba-hul
gaba-ri

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — JCS 52, 045 58. 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 (P145852) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P145852..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.