NATN 560

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P121258

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P121258.

Transliteration

1(asz) 1(barig) sze gur DUB x
2(barig) 3(ban2) sze a-rid-gur22-ma
1(disz) x 1(disz) gin2 ku3-babbar-sze3?
[...]-suen-ke4
[...] x NIG2 [x]
[...] NE [...]
[x] in-pa3
1(disz) ur-szul-pa-e3
1(disz) ur-utu lu2-inim-ma
[iti sze]-sag11-ku5
mu us2-[sa] en# inanna unu ba-hun
lugal-[...]
[...]

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — NATN 560. 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 (P121258) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P121258..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.