TRU 139

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P134903

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P134903.

Transliteration

1(u) sila4 u4 4(disz)-kam
2(disz) sila4 u4 5(disz)-kam
2(disz) sila4 u4 6(disz)-kam
ki in-ta-e3-a-ta
du11-ga i3-dab5
iti u5-bi2-gu7
mu us2-sa ma2-dara3-abzu ba-ab-du8
ur-mes
dumu la-na kuruszda

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — TRU 139. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Institut Catholique, Paris, France (P134903) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P134903..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.