NATN 875

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P121572

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P121572.

Transliteration

9(asz) 4(barig) 1(ban2) sze gur
sza3-bi-ta
1(bur3) GAN2 u2 ze2-a 2(u) sar-[ta]
a2-bi 1(gesz2) 3(u) gurusz u4 1(disz)-[sze3]
1(esze3) GAN2 al 5(disz) sar-[ta]
a2-bi 2(gesz2) gurusz u4 [1(disz)-sze3]
1(gesz2) gurusz u4 1(disz)-[sze3]
gaba-tab ib2-[gid2]
1(asz) gur a2 gu4 [hun-ga2]
1(u) [gurusz u4 1(disz)-sze3 ...]
szunigin 7(asz) 4(barig) [x 6(disz) sila3 sze gur]
zi-ga-[am3]
iti udru [mu bad3-gal ba-du3]

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — NATN 875. 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 (P121572) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P121572..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.