Position in chronology
Unattributed 04 (unpublished unassigned ?)
Translation — scholar edition
ETCSRI(1') The name of ... is “May it pray to my lady on my behalf!”.
Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Royal Inscriptions — scholar edition (Vienna).
Why it matters
A fragmentary Ur III royal inscription (ETCSRI Q008910) in which a ruler names an object or structure as a prayer-formula addressed to a goddess — attesting the dedicatory naming convention that wove piety directly into monumental or votive language.
Scholarly note
Sumerian royal inscription, published in the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Royal Inscriptions (ETCSRI) by Gábor Zólyomi and collaborators. Translation reproduced from the ETCSRI edition. ORACC text Q008910.
Attribution
Image: BM 114400 (British Museum, London, UK) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P480540). source
Translation excerpted from Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Royal Inscriptions (ETCSRI), University of Vienna, edited by Gábor Zólyomi et al. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/etcsri/Q008910/.
Related tablets
Related sources
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.
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.
The earliest historical document in human history.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.