NATN 251

~2032 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P120949

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120949.

Why it matters

Transliteration

1(u) gin2 ku3-babbar masz2 5(disz) gin2 1(disz) gin2-am3
ki ur-szul-pa-e3-ta
en-lil2-la2-dingir-zu
szu ba-ti
iti apin-du8-a
igi ur-en-ki-sze3
igi ur-suen nu-ki-sze?-sze3
igi i3-la2-la2 simug-sze3
mu szu-suen lugal-e ma-da za-ab-sza-li mu-hul
en-[lil2-la2-dingir-zu?]
[...]

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — NATN 251. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šu-Suen y6 — Land of Zabšali destroyed based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.

Attribution

Image: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (P120949) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120949..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.