Orient 16, 106 170

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P124766

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P124766.

Transliteration

1(u) la2 2(disz) ku6 hal sag-kur2
5(disz) ku6 hal gir-sze6
ugula ba-da-ga
1(u) 2(disz) ku6 hal sag-kur2
9(disz) ku6# hal [gir]-sze6# [x] x
ugula# [...]-x
ku6 nam-erin2-na
7(disz) ku6 hal sag-kur2
2(u) 1(disz) ku6 hal gif sze6
3(disz) kaskal ku6 bar-re saga
ku6 nam-enku#
szunigin 1(gesz2) 5(disz) ku6 hal
1(disz) hal 2(gesz2) 3(u)-ta i3-gal2

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Orient 16, 106 170. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: World Museum Liverpool, Liverpool, UK (P124766) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P124766..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.