Tavolette 121

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P131907

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P131907.

Transliteration

2(disz) gu4 niga sag-gu4
4(disz) gu4 niga
1(u) 3(disz) gu4
2(disz) ab2
esz3-esz3 e2-u4 7(disz)
iti u4 4(disz) ba-zal
ki a-hu-ni-ta
na-sa6 i3-[dab5]
iti ezem-me-ki-gal2
mu ur-bi2-lum ba-hul

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Tavolette 121. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Museo di Antichità di Torino, Turin, Italy (P131907) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P131907..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.