OIP 121, 449

~2080 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P124179

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P124179.

Why it matters

Transliteration

3(disz) udu
5(disz) sila4 ga
ba-usz2 u4 2(disz@t)-kam
ki na-lu5-ta
szul-gi-iri-mu
szu ba-ti
iti ezem-me-ki-gal2
mu en nanna ba-hun
[x]

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — OIP 121, 449. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šulgi y15 — The en-priest of Nanna was installed based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.

Attribution

Image: Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA (P124179) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P124179..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.