Princeton 1, 541

~2060 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P127230

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P127230.

Why it matters

Transliteration

x ma-na ku3-babbar
ku3 enku
ki lugal-ku3-ga-ni-ta
1/3(disz) ma-na 1(disz) gin2 ku3-babbar
ku3 masz2 nin-ur4!-ra
ki a-ab-ba-ni-ta
5(disz) gin2 ku3-babbar ku6
ki da-a-ga-ta
1(u) gin2 ku3-babbar
ku3 gu2-na lu2 mun!(DIM)
a-kal-la szu ba-ti
mu an-sza-an ba-hul

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Princeton 1, 541. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šulgi y35 — Anšan destroyed based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.

Attribution

Image: Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey, USA (P127230) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P127230..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.