Orient 16, 076 109

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P124724

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P124724.

Transliteration

7(gesz2) 2(disz) 2/3(disz) 5(disz) gin2 gurusz u4 1(disz)-sze3
a2 gul-la
gi en-du8-du AB#-a
ARAD2-mu
su-su-dam
mu ma2-gur8-mah ba-dim2
ARAD2-mu
dub-sar
dumu gur4-sa3-[an]

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Orient 16, 076 109. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: World Museum Liverpool, Liverpool, UK (P124724) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P124724..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.