SET 246

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P129656

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P129656.

Transliteration

5(ban2)? sze lugal
sza3 2(u) sze gur lugal ur-sa6-ga
iti# ezem-an-na
3(ban2) sza3 5(asz) gur ka5-a-mu
3(ban2) sza3 2(asz) 4(barig) gur szuruppak-ka#
ki ur-ba-ba6-ta
a-x-x szu ba-ti
iti me-<<me>>-gi8-gal2
mu# us2?-sa? ki-masz ba-hul

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — SET 246. 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 (P129656) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P129656..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.