NATN 304

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P121002

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P121002.

Transliteration

2(u) sar sig4
ur-szul-pa-e3
1(gesz2) 4(u) gurusz
a-bu-mu
6(disz) sar sig4 a2 u4 1(u) 5(disz) ad-kup4
szesz-da-da
u4 1(u) gurusz
ku-ra-gal2
u4 1(u) gurusz
puzur4-e2-kur-ru
2(u) gurusz ur-szu-mah 3(u) gurusz ku-i3-li2
da-hu

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — NATN 304. 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 (P121002) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P121002..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.