Syracuse 191

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P130742

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P130742.

Transliteration

1(disz) gurusz u4 2(disz)-sze3
su7-ra gub-ba
a-sza3 gesztin-na
ugula ur-gigir nu-banda3-gu4
kiszib3 ab-ba-gi-na
iti sig4-i3-szub-gal2-la
mu bi2-tum-ra-bi2-um ba-hul
lu2-szara2
dub-sar
dumu ur-sa6-ga

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Syracuse 191. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Syracuse University Library, Syracuse, New York, USA (P130742) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P130742..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.