Princeton 2, 418

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P201418

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P201418.

Transliteration

6(disz) geme2 u4 5(disz)-sze3
ka-ma-ri2-ta
umma-sze3 zi3 zi-ga
kun i7-da-ka
ma2 bala ak
5(disz) geme2 u4 3(disz)-sze3
a-sza3 a-gesztin-na-ta
umma-sze3
sze zi3-gu zi-ga
ugula lugal-e2-mah-e
kiszib3 lu2-kal-la
mu sza-asz-szu-ru-um ba-hul
lu2-kal-la
dub-sar
dumu ur-e11-e szusz3

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Princeton 2, 418. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey, USA (P201418) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P201418..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.