SET 299

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P129708

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P129708.

Transliteration

2(disz) 1/2(disz) ma-na 4(disz) gin2 la2 1(u) 5(disz) sze ku3-babbar
si-i3-tum nig2-ka9-ak-a
hu-bi2-dam dam-gar3
in-da-gal2
su-su-dam
giri3 ki-tusz-lu2 dub-sar
u3 sipa-inim-gi-na
mu us2-sa a-ra2 3(disz)-kam si-mu-ru-um# ba#-hul

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — SET 299. 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 (P129708) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P129708..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.