SM 1911.10.290

~2058 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P407306

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P407306.

Why it matters

Transliteration

1(gesz'u) 3(u) 5(disz) 1/2(disz) geme2 u4 1(disz)-sze3
a2 hun kar!-ra
ki gi-nu-na-ta
a-da-lal3 szabra
i3-dab5
sza3 uri5-ma
mu bad3 mar-tu ba-du3
szu-suen
nita kal-ga
lugal uri5-ma
lugal an# ub#-da# limmu2#-ba#
[a-da-lal3]
szabra#
x [...]
ARAD2#-[zu]

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — SM 1911.10.290. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šulgi y37 — The Amorite wall was built based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.

Attribution

Image: Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA (P407306) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P407306..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.