USC 6820

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P235631

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P235631.

Transliteration

2(u) 3(disz) gurusz# u4# [n-sze3]
zar3 tab-ba a-[sza3 ...]
ugula ukken-ne2 [...]
iti sze#-kar#-gal2#-[la]
mu us2-sa ur-bi2-lum ba-hul
lugal-e2-mah-e
dub-sar
dumu lugal-ku3-ga-ni

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — USC 6820. 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 (P235631) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P235631..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.