Syracuse 314

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P130865

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P130865.

Transliteration

2(u) 3(disz) gurusz sza3-gu4
u4 1(disz)-sze3
ki ku3-szara2-he2-gal2-ta
guru7 du6-ku3-sig17-sze3
sze zi-ga
ugula da-a-ga
kiszib3 u3-ma-ni
iti pa4-u2-e
mu ur-bi2-i3-lum ba-hul

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Syracuse 314. 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 (P130865) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P130865..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.