OTR 218

~2072 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P123153

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P123153.

Why it matters

Transliteration

1(disz) e2-zi-kalam-ma
1(disz) lugal-ezem
1(disz) dingir-ga2-i3-sa6
1(disz) a-kal-la
1(disz) nin-mar-ka-i3-sa6
1(disz) ur-iszkur
ug3-IL2
dam-ni-me
u3? HI-da!-me
e2 nin-gir2-su
mu si-mu-ru-um ba-hul
nam-zi-tar-ra
dub-sar
dumu al-la-mu
szabra

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — OTR 218. 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: Columbia University Library, New York, New York, USA (P123153) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P123153..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.