BECPL 5

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P464912

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P464912.

Transliteration

1(u) gurusz u4 2(u)-kam?
si2-in-nam-sze3
ma2 gid2-da ma2 si-ga
u4 5(disz)-sze3 ma2 ba-al-la
lugal-ra us2-sa
ugula lu2-giri17-zal
kiszib3 a-du dumu lu2-ga
mu en-mah-gal ba-hun
a-du
dub-sar
dumu lu2-ga

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — BECPL 5. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Buffalo and Erie County Public Library, Buffalo, New York, USA (P464912) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P464912..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.