SET 216

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P129626

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P129626.

Transliteration

1(disz) kasz dida 3(disz) sila3 kasz
1(ban2) ninda 2(disz) gin2 i3 2(disz) gin2 naga
3(disz) ku6 3(disz) sa szum2
i3-li2-kal gaba-asz
1(disz) kasz dida 3(disz) sila3 kasz
1(ban2) ninda 2(disz) gin2 i3 2(disz) gin2 naga
3(disz) ku6 3(disz) sa szum2
ur-nigar gaba-asz
szunigin 2(disz) kasz dida du [1(ban2)]
szunigin 6(disz) sila3 kasz szunigin 2(ban2) ninda
szunigin 4(disz) gin2 i3 szunigin 4(disz) gin2 naga
szunigin 6(disz) ku6 szunigin 6(disz) sa szum2
u4 2(u) 4(disz)-kam
iti nesag
mu ma2 en-ki ba-ab-du8

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — SET 216. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, San Jose, California, USA (P129626) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P129626..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.