Tavolette 203

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P131989

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P131989.

Transliteration

2(disz) [udu] niga
inanna unu-sze3
en-lil2-a2-mah sagi maszkim
1(disz) udu niga
ki-ri-ib-ul-me lu2 si-mu-ru-um
giri3 hu-zi-ri sukkal
1(disz) udu niga ga-ba-ba lu2 mu-ki-isz
giri3 gir-ba-tal sukkal
ARAD2-mu maszkim
iti u4 4(disz) ba-zal
ki zu-ba-ga-ta ba-zi
giri3 ad-da-kal-la dub-sar
iti ezem-me-ki-gal2
mu en nanna kar-zi-[da] ba-hun

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Tavolette 203. 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 (P131989) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P131989..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.