OIP 121, 201

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P123931

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P123931.

Transliteration

1(disz) gu4
2(disz) udu
1(disz) gukkal
6(disz) sila4
6(disz) masz2
u4 1(u) 5(disz@t)-kam
ki ab-ba-sa6-ga-ta
in-ta-e3-a
i3-dab5
iti ki-siki-nin-a-zu
mu en-unu6-gal inanna unu ba-hun
1(u) 6(disz)

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — OIP 121, 201. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA (P123931) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P123931..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.