Tavolette 018

~2057 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P131803

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P131803.

Why it matters

Transliteration

1(szar2) 4(gesz2) 1(u) sa gi
gu-nigin2-ba 1(u) 4(disz) sa-ta
2(gesz'u) 3(gesz2) sa gi
gu-nigin2-ba 1(u) 3(disz) sa-ta
ga2-nun e2 lugal kux(KWU147)-ra
ugula szesz-kal-la
kiszib3 a-kal-la
mu us2-sa bad3 mar-tu ba-du3
a-kal-la
dub-sar
dumu lu2-sa6-ga

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Tavolette 018. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šulgi y38 — Year after: The Amorite wall was built based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.

Attribution

Image: Museo di Antichità di Torino, Turin, Italy (P131803) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P131803..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.