NMSA 3950

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P342072

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P342072.

Transliteration

1(gesz'u) 1(gesz2) 3(u) ug3-IL2 u4 1(disz)-sze3 a#-sza3 en-du8-du
a-da gub-ba
kiszib3 ki-lu5-la
ugula du11-ga
mu sza-asz-ru-um ba-hul
ki-lu5-la
dumu ur-szara2

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — NMSA 3950. 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 (P342072) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P342072..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.