JCS 14, 107 04

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P111915

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P111915.

Transliteration

[x] 4(disz) udu
2(u) u8
2(gesz2) 2(u) 3(disz) masz2-gal
2(u) 1(disz) ud5
2(disz) sila4
bala-a zi-ga
kiszib3 ur-lamma# ensi2 gir2-su
ki na-lu5-ta
ba-zi
[iti u5]-bi2-gu7
[mu ]gu#-za ba#-dim2

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — JCS 14, 107 04. 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 (P111915) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P111915..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.