KM 89158

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P234941

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P234941.

Transliteration

3(u) ugula lu2-giri17-zal
3(u) a-kal-la
1(gesz2) 6(disz) a-kal-la
3(u) ha-ba-lu5
2(u) 4(disz) szu-ma-am3
2(u) 4(disz) ur-mes
1(gesz2)? lu2-gi-na
3(u) 5(disz) ur-ma-mi
1(u) ur-am3-ma
5(gesz2) 1(u)
u4 8(disz)-kam
iti ezem-szul-gi

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — KM 89158. 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 (P234941) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P234941..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.