TCBI 2/2, 58

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P381712

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P381712.

Transliteration

ARAD2-mu
u3-na#-a-du11#
2(u) gu2 nig2-sa-ha saga
al hi-a
ur-du6-ku3-ra
he2-na-ab-szum2-ma
a2-ag2 ugula e2-kam
a-ma-ru-kam
x he2#-[x]-TAG-e#

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — TCBI 2/2, 58. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Banca d'Italia, Rome, Italy (P381712) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P381712..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.