Position in chronology
SET 196
Not yet translated
This tablet is catalogued with its transliteration and photographed, but no published translation exists yet. Our translation engine works through the untranslated corpus every night, oldest first — this page will update the day its turn comes. If you are a specialist and can read it, we would love your help.
The world it comes from
A bureaucratic golden age, the Code of Ur-Nammu.
From the same catalogue range (near P129606)
Transliteration
1(u) 4(barig) sze gur lugal 1(u) 4(asz) 2(barig) ziz2 gur sa2-du11 szara2 iti 1(u) 2(disz)-kam kiszib3 1(asz)-a ki ARAD2-ta ur-suen i3!?-du8 szu ba-ti mu e2 puzur4-da-gan ba-du3 ur!-suen dumu lu2!-szara2# nu-banda3 e2!-nin!
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — SET 196. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, San Jose, California, USA (P129606) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P129606..
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Related sources
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.