NYPL 108

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P122644

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P122644.

Transliteration

1(disz) gukkal niga
ba-usz2
u4 3(u) la2 1(disz)-kam
ki u2-ta2-mi-szar-ra-am-ta
szul-gi-iri-mu
szu ba-ti
iti sze-sag11-ku5
mu hu-uh2-nu-ri ba-hul
1(disz)

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — NYPL 108. 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 (P122644) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P122644..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.