STU 39

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P130465

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P130465.

Transliteration

5(ban2) 8(disz) sila3 dabin
u4 2(u) la2 1(disz)-kam
ki szara2-kam-ta
kiszib3 ensi2
iti szu-numun
mu us2-sa si-ma-num2 ba-hul
szu-suen
lugal kal-ga
lugal uri5-ma
lugal an-ub-da limmu2-ba
a-a-kal-la
ensi2
umma
ARAD2-zu

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — STU 39. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: John Rylands Library, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK (P130465) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P130465..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.