HLC 040 (pl. 011)

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P109918

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P109918.

Transliteration

2(u) 4(asz) 4(barig) 3(ban2) sze gur lugal
sza3-gal he2-dab5 u3 erin2-na buru14-a gu7-a
kiszib3 lu2-lagasz
[...]
mu ur-bi2-lum ba-hul#
[ur?]-mes
[dub]-sar#
x szul-gi
[...]

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — HLC 040 (pl. 011). No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA (P109918) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P109918..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.