NYPL 019

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P122555

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P122555.

Transliteration

2(u) 3(disz) gu4
1(disz) ab2
2(gesz2) 1(u) 8(disz) udu
1(u) 4(disz) sila4
3(gesz2) 5(u) 4(disz) masz2-gal
5(disz) masz2
u4 1(u) 5(disz)-kam
ki ab-ba-sa6-ga-ta
in-ta#-e3-a
i3-dab5
iti ezem-me-ki-gal2
mu gu-za sza3 hul2-la en-lil2-la2 ba-dim2
6(gesz2) 5(u) 5(disz)

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — NYPL 019. 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 (P122555) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P122555..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.