JCS 52, 051 84

~2057 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P145878

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P145878.

Why it matters

Transliteration

1(gesz2) 1(u) 5(disz) gurusz# u4 1(disz)-sze3
a-sza3-ge-a-ka
ugula lugal-e2-mah-e
kiszib3 lu2-[...]
mu us2#-[sa bad3] mar-tu ba-[du3]
lu2-[...]
dub-sar
dumu ur-[...]

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — JCS 52, 051 84. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šulgi y38 — Year after: The Amorite wall was built based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.

Attribution

Image: Arizona State Museum, Tucson, Arizona, USA (P145878) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P145878..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.