NMSA 3898

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P342051

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P342051.

Transliteration

5(disz) ka-ba-x-x
ki-la2-bi 5(disz) ma-na la2 9(disz) gin2
ki la-a-mu-ta
ur-sa6-ga
szu ba-ti
iti dal
mu a-ra2 3(disz)-kam si-mu-ru-um <ba>-hul

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — NMSA 3898. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: National Museum of Syria, Aleppo, Syria (P342051) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P342051..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.