Umma 085

~2059 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P139594

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P139594.

Transliteration

1(disz) gin2 ku3 masz kiri6
ki nig2-lagar-e-ta
7(disz) gin2 ku3 ha-li2-li2
ki na-u2-a-ta
1(u) la2 1(disz) gin2 ku3-babbar
ki ma-an-szum2-ta
1/3(disz) ma-na 2(disz) gin2 ku3
ki lugal-e-ba-sa6-ta
a-kal-la szu ba-ti
mu us2-sa an-sza-an ba-hul

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Umma 085. 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: Institut Catholique, Paris, France (P139594) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P139594..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.