NATN 979

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P121676

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P121676.

Transliteration

1(u) 2(disz) kasz saga dug
nig2 nag-a lugal
giri3# ma2-x-a-ba gub-ba
1(u) 4(disz) kasz saga GIR
giri3 ma2 du8-a
maszkim lugal-szu-mah
2(disz) kasz saga dug gal
e2-muhaldim#
maszkim ur-ga2-gi4?-a
ba-zi
ki sipa-inim-gi-na-ta
iti# du6-ku3
sza3-iri

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — NATN 979. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: National Museum of Iraq, Baghdad, Iraq (P121676) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P121676..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.