Berens 068

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P105779

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P105779.

Transliteration

2(u) 5(asz) 1(barig) 5(ban2) sze gur
si-i3-tum mu ma2-gur8-mah
ur-ba-ba6 dub-sar gu4 apin-ke4
su!-su-dam# di! nu-gal2# inim# nu-gal2
mu# en inanna [masz-e] i3-pa3

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Berens 068. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, Ireland (P105779) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P105779..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.