NYPL 015

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P122551

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P122551.

Transliteration

3(u) 5(disz) udu
2(u) 6(disz) udu ge6
3(u) 6(disz) u8
3(u) 6(disz) masz2-gal
3(u) 5(disz) masz2-gal su4
3(u) 8(disz) ud5
2(u) 6(disz) ud5 su4
mu geme2-tur-sze3 sza3 na-gab2-tum-ma
a-hu-ni maszkim
iti u4 8(disz) ba-zal
zi-ga
ki lu2-dingir-ra
[iti] ezem-mah
mu# ki-masz u3 hu-ur5-ti ba-hul

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — NYPL 015. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: New York Public Library, New York, New York, USA (P122551) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P122551..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.