UCP 09-02-2, 068

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P136072

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P136072.

Transliteration

1(ban2) i3-gesz lugal
ki szara2-kam-ta
kiszib3 nin9-hi-li2-a
iti sze-sag11-ku5
mu si-ma-num2 ba-hul
nin9-hi-li2-a
dam a-a-kal-la
ensi2
umma-ka

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — UCP 09-02-2, 068. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Hearst Museum of Anthropology, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California, USA (P136072) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P136072..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.