CUSAS 03, 0279

~2097 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P324416

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P324416.

Why it matters

Transliteration

8(disz) geme2 u4 1(disz)-sze3
[siki] igi sag-ga2
sza3 e2 szu-suen-ka de6-a
giri3 en-lil2-ba-za-du u3 u3-zi-na-we-er
dub-sar-me
ki iszkur-illat-ta
ba-zi
iti ezem-nin-a-zu
mu en inanna unu-[ga masz-e i3]-pa3#
gaba-ri

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — CUSAS 03, 0279. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Ur-Nammu y16 — The en-priestess of Inanna of Uruk was chosen based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.

Attribution

Image: Department of Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA (P324416) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P324416..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.