TCBI 2/2, 05

~2057 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P381659

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P381659.

Why it matters

Transliteration

1(barig) 4(ban2) sze ki ad-da-kal-la-ta
szar ki da-ga-ta
engar lu2-me-lam2
2(barig) 3(ban2) ki da-ga-ta
engar gi-nu-na
sze szu-ti-a#
engar szu-suen
iti apin-du8-a
u4 1(u) 3(disz) ba-zal
mu us2-sa bad3 mar-tu ba-du3

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — TCBI 2/2, 05. 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: Banca d'Italia, Rome, Italy (P381659) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P381659..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.