UET 3, 1640

~2036 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P137966

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P137966.

Why it matters

Transliteration

6(disz) tug2 sag usz-bar mu-tuku5
ki na-silim dub-sar-ta
lu2-nin-szubur dumu lugal-za3-ge-si-ke4
szu ba-an-ti
7(disz) [...] x x x
mu-[kux(DU)]
sa# gi4-gi4#-de3#
ur#-lamma i3#-dab5
[mu szu-suen lugal-e ma2-gur8-mah en-lil2] nin-lil2-ra mu-ne-dim2
lu2-nin-szubur
dumu lugal-za3-ge-si

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — UET 3, 1640. 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: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (P137966) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P137966..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.