NATN 237

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P120935

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120935.

Transliteration

3(asz) 4(barig) KA-[x]-da#
1(barig) 2(ban2) nu-ur2-x-[x]
1(u) 1(disz) pesz3 [x] 7(disz) kusz3-[ta]
8(disz) pesz3 sze-er-gu 3(disz) kusz3-ta
4(disz) ze2-na
[...] pesz
1(asz) gu2 ma-na gu7
3(asz) gu2 nig2-e2-sa6
mu-kux(DU) ki ugu2-PA-ta
ur-nigar-ke4
szu ba-ti
iti pa5-u2-e
mu dumu-munus lugal ensi2# an-sza-ke4 [ba-an-tuku]

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — NATN 237. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (P120935) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120935..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.