NMSA 4186

~2059 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P342134

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P342134.

Why it matters

Transliteration

4(disz) ze2# saga
a-ra2 2(disz@t)-kam
ki lu2-sukkal-an-ka
1(u) ze2-na us2
szu he2-em-us2-e
na-mu-ne-ne
a-ma-ru-kam
mu us2-sa# an-sza-an ba-hul
lu2-[...]
dub-sar
dumu lugal#-[...]

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — NMSA 4186. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šulgi y36 — Year after: Anšan destroyed based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.

Attribution

Image: National Museum of Syria, Aleppo, Syria (P342134) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P342134..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.