MRAH O.4989

~2028 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P452972

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P452972.

Why it matters

Transliteration

2(u) 4(asz) sze gur
sze-ba giri3-se3-ga szu-la-num2-e-ne
ugula szul-gi-da-nir-gal2
giri3 ni-a-um
ki ensi2 umma-ta
ba-zi
mu i-bi2-suen lugal

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MRAH O.4989. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Ibbi-Suen y1 — Ibbi-Suen became king based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.

Attribution

Image: Musées royaux d’Art et d’Histoire, Brussels, Belgium (P452972) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P452972..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.