RIME 3/2.01.01.24, ex. 35a-b

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P226921

About this tablet

A standard royal building inscription of Ur-Namma (r. c. 2112–2095 BCE), founder of the Third Dynasty of Ur, stamped or inscribed on bricks from Nippur — here preserved in two duplicate exemplars. It commemorates his construction of the Ekur, the great temple of the god Enlil, chief deity of the Sumerian pantheon. Kings mass-produced such bricks so that every part of the building itself proclaimed who built it and by what right. Ur-Namma is best known today as the author of the earliest surviving law code.

Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.

Written in modern English

This is Ur-Namma speaking through his building: 'I am Ur-Namma, king of Ur, king of Sumer and Akkad, and I am the man who built the temple of Enlil.' The same short declaration appears twice, once on each of the two bricks, word for word. It is a builder's signature — the king's name, his titles over the city of Ur and the whole land, and the single deed he wants remembered: raising the house of the chief god at Nippur.

A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.

Translation — our engine

Our engine

High confidence

Ur-Namma, king of Ur, king of Sumer and Akkad, the one who built the temple of Enlil. (second exemplar, identical text:) Ur-Namma, king of Ur, king of Sumer and Akkad, the one who built the temple of Enlil.

Indicative reading — translated without a photograph. Generated from the transliteration alone, without examining the original. Read it as an accessible first taste, not as a verified catalogue entry.

Our translation engine — Fable 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.

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Transliteration

ur-namma
lugal uri5-ma
lugal ki-en-gi ki-uri
lu2 e2 en-lil2-la2
in-du3-a
ur-namma
lugal uri5-ma
lugal ki-en-gi ki-uri
lu2 e2 en-lil2-la2
in-du3-a

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — RIME 3/2.01.01.24, ex. 35a-b. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: MLC 02628 & MLC 02629 (J. Pierpont Morgan Library Collection, Yale Babylonian Collection, New Haven, Connecticut, USA) — from Nippur (mod. Nuffar) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P226921). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).

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