Position in chronology
Amar-Suena 10
Written in modern English
Amar-Suena speaks in the first person: chosen by Enlil at Nippur, steadfast supporter of Enlil's temple, powerful king of Ur and of the four quarters of the world. The statue bears the name 'Amar-Suena is the beloved of Ur.' Anyone who removes the statue from its place or tears out its base will be cursed by Nanna, king of Ur, and by Ningal, mother of Ur — and his entire lineage will be wiped out.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — scholar edition
ETCSRI(i 1) I am Amar-Suena, whose name was proclaimed by Enlil in Nibru, the steadfast supporter of Enlil's temple, the powerful king, king of Urim, king of the four quarters. (i 10) The name of this statue is "Amar-Suena is the beloved of Urim". (i 13) Whoever removes this statue from the place it was set up, tears out its socle, may Nanna, king of Urim, (and) Ningal, the mother of Urim, curse him! May they put an end to his lineage!
Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Royal Inscriptions — scholar edition (Vienna).
Why it matters
Dedicatory curse clause invokes Nanna and Ningal against anyone who displaces the statue, preserving the standard Ur III formula for protecting royal monuments through divine sanction rather than human enforcement.
Scholarly note
Sumerian royal inscription, published in the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Royal Inscriptions (ETCSRI) by Gábor Zólyomi and collaborators. Translation reproduced from the ETCSRI edition. ORACC text Q000985.
Attribution
Image: BM 090353 (British Museum, London, UK) — from Ur (mod. Tell Muqayyar) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P226684). source
Translation excerpted from Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Royal Inscriptions (ETCSRI), University of Vienna, edited by Gábor Zólyomi et al. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/etcsri/Q000985/.
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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.
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.
The earliest historical document in human history.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.