OIP 115, 423

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P123523

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P123523.

Transliteration

4(disz) gu4 niga
e2-u4 7(disz)
iti u4 4(disz) ba-zal
5(disz) gu4 niga
e2-u4 1(u) 5(disz)
iti u4 1(u) 2(disz) [ba-zal]
esz3-esz3 sza3 gesz# [...]
ki a-hu-[ni-ta]
na-sa6 i3-[dab5]
iti ses-da-gu7
mu ki-masz u3 hu-ur5-ti ba-hul

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — OIP 115, 423. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA (P123523) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P123523..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.