CUSAS 03, 0675

~2036 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P324132

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P324132.

Why it matters

Transliteration

1(asz) gu2 siki us2
2(disz) gurdub2 <siki>-ka-tab se3-ga
ki iszkur-illat-ta
[asz]-ta2-[qar]
szu# ba#-ti#
[iti] a2-ki-ti
[mu] szu-suen lugal-e ma2-gur8-mah [en]-lil2 [nin-lil2-ra mu-ne-dim2]
asz-ta2-qar
ugula usz-bar
geme2 a-bu-ni

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — CUSAS 03, 0675. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šu-Suen y2 — Great barge for Enlil and Ninlil fashioned based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.

Attribution

Image: Department of Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA (P324132) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P324132..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.