SET 128

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P129537

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P129537.

Transliteration

9(asz) 1(barig) 5(disz) sila3 gig sze diri gur
bala-ta gu2-ra
guru7-a kux(KWU147)-ra
ki lugal-gaba ma2-lah6-ta
ARAD2 szu ba-ti
iti pa4-u2-e
mu us2-sa mu us2-sa-bi

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — SET 128. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, San Jose, California, USA (P129537) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P129537..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.