TSU 056

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P135219

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P135219.

Transliteration

4(disz) gu4-gesz# 4(disz) 1/2(disz) GAN2 gesz-ur3-ta
4(disz) gu4 4(iku) GAN2 gesz-ur3-ta
gu4-gesz gi4-gi4-dam
gu4 ur-ba-ba6 szabra-e2 nin-mar
ki sanga nansze
GAN2-gu4 lu2-utu nu-banda3-gu4
a-sza3 zi-ga
u4 4(disz)-kam iti szu-numun
mu ma2-dara3-abzu ba-du8!

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — TSU 056. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Musées royaux d’Art et d’Histoire, Brussels, Belgium (P135219) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P135219..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.