USC 6500

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P235315

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P235315.

Why it matters

Transliteration

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — USC 6500. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Archaeological Research Collection, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA (P235315) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P235315..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.