KM 89044

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P234838

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P234838.

Transliteration

2(asz) gu2 2(u) 4(gesz2) ma-na siki-gi
1(disz) 1/2(disz) gin2 [x] sze x?
la2-ia3 x [...]
[...]
[...] x x x
[szu] ba#-ti
giri3# lu2-nin-szubur
iti# ezem-szul#-gi#
mu us2-sa ma2-dara3-abzu ba-ab-du8

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — KM 89044. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA (P234838) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P234838..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.