Umma 040

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P139549

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P139549.

Why it matters

Transliteration

1(disz) szu-nir
za-an-ni
bur-szu-ma inim-inanna
dumu kar-ra
dam lugal-e2-mah-e
mu-kux(DU) [szara2] |KI.AN|
iti sig4-i3-szub-ba-ga2-ra
mu e2 szara2 ba-du3

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Umma 040. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Institut Catholique, Paris, France (P139549) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P139549..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.