UET 3, 0142

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P136459

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P136459.

Transliteration

3(disz) giri3-lam zu2-lum 3(disz) sila3-ta
e2 nanna-sze3
1(disz) ka2!(E2)
1(disz) ha-ia3
1(disz) ki gu-za# [x]
1(disz) alan amar-[suen] kar za-gin3#

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — UET 3, 0142. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (P136459) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P136459..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.