NYPL 079

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P122615

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P122615.

Transliteration

1(disz) uz babbar2 ba-usz2
e2-gal-la ba-an-kux(KWU147)
iti-ta u4 2(u) ba-ra-zal
1(disz) szah2-NE-tur-munus gesz-gi
1(disz) amar-sag uz-tur
1(disz) ir7
1(u) tu-gur4
kasz-de2-a ta2-di3-esz18?-dar?
iti-ta u4 2(u) 1(disz) ba-ra-zal
4(disz) tu nig2-gu7 nin-ga2-sze3
1(disz) ir7 ba-usz2 e2-gal-la ba-an-kux(KWU147)
iti-ta u4 2(u) 2(disz) ba-ra-zal
zi-ga a2-bi2-la-tum
iti ses-da-gu7
mu en nanna masz2-e i3-pa3

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — NYPL 079. 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 (P122615) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P122615..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.