CDLJ 2012/1 §4.04

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P416455

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P416455.

Transliteration

3(disz)# udu niga# 1(disz) sila4
lamma-mu
2(disz) gu4 1(u) 6(disz) udu
3(disz) masz2-gal# 1(disz) masz2
szar-ru-um-ba-ni nu-banda3
1(disz) sila4 ensi2 gir2-su[]
2(disz) sila4 ensi2 nibru
mu-kux(DU)
iti# ezem-an-na#
mu en nanna masz2-e i3-pa3
u4 2(u) 3(disz)-kam

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — CDLJ 2012/1 §4.04. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, USA (P416455) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P416455..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.