RIAA 120

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P200406

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P200406.

Transliteration

1(gesz2) sze# gur#
kiszib3# szara2#-kam# dam#-gar3# nibru#
7(gesz2) gur
kiszib3 lu2-en-ki e2# en-ki
1(gesz'u) gur
kiszib3 wa#-x-ma# dumu x-x-lugal#
1(gesz2) gur
kiszib3 x-x-dan dam-gar3 unu#
2(gesz2) gur kiszib3# [nu]-ur2#-esz18#-dar# dam-gar3# uri5#
ki# al#-la#-mu#-ta
1(gesz'u) 4(gesz2)# gur
kiszib3# nanna#-i3-sa6 dumu# nam#-ha-ni
ki lu2#-usz#-gi-na-ta
szunigin 3(gesz'u)# [5(gesz2)] sze# gur
nig2#-sa10#-am3# udu#? kas4

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — RIAA 120. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Musées royaux d’Art et d’Histoire, Brussels, Belgium (P200406) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P200406..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.