NYPL 045

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P122581

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P122581.

Transliteration

8(disz) ma-na la2# [1(u) 4(disz) gin2] igi-3(disz)-gal2 [ku3-babbar]
en-um-i3-li2
2(u) ma-na la2 1(disz) ma-na 6(disz) gin2 2/3(|NINDA2x(SZE.2(ASZ))|) ku3-babbar
i-la-ak-szu-qir
9(disz) 2/3(disz) ma-na 1/2(disz) gin2 ku3-babbar
na-an-na
6(disz) ma-na 1(u) 6(disz) gin2 ku3#-[babbar]
nu-ur2-i3-li2
szunigin 4(u) 2(disz) 2/3(disz) ma-na 9(disz) gin2 la2 igi-6(disz)-gal2 ku3-babbar
nig2-sa10-ma SZIM erin-sze3
szu ba-an-ti-esz2
giri3 utu-GIR2@g-gal u3 id-da-a-ka
ki puzur4-isz#-[da-gan]
iti szah2-ku3-[gu7]
mu si-mu-ru-um a-ra2 1(u) la2 1(disz@t)-kam-asz ba-hul#

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — NYPL 045. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: New York Public Library, New York, New York, USA (P122581) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P122581..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.