NATN 212

~2072 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P120910

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120910.

Why it matters

Transliteration

4(asz) sze gur ur5-sze3
masz2 1(asz) gur-ra 1(barig) 4(ban2)-ta
ki ur-szul-pa-e3-ta
en-um-i3-li2
szu ba-ti
iti szu-numun-a
mu si-mu-ru-um ba-hul
en-um-i3-li2
dumu i-di3-nam2

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — NATN 212. 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: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (P120910) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120910..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.