Smithsonian 16

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P332579

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P332579.

Transliteration

1(asz) 2(barig) 3(ban2) sze gur
sza3-gal kunga2
zi-gu5-um-ma
e2-kikken-ta
ki ARAD2-ta
lu2-nin-szubur
szu ba-ti
iti sze-kar-ra-gal2-la
mu us2-sa ur-bi2-i3-lum ba-hul
lugal-e2-mah-e
dub-sar
dumu [lugal-ku3-ga-ni]

Scholarly note

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

Attribution

Image: Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA (P332579) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P332579..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.