CUSAS 03, 1040

~2072 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P324405

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P324405.

Why it matters

Transliteration

tu-ra-am-i3-li2
u3-na-a-du11
nig2-ka9 iszkur-illat szabra
mu na-ru2-a-mah ta
mu si-mu-ru-um ba-hul-sze3
he2-en-ga2-ga2
u2-la2-bi

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — CUSAS 03, 1040. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šulgi y23 — Simurrum destroyed based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.

Attribution

Image: Department of Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA (P324405) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P324405..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.