HSS 68, 453

~2059 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P407411

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P407411.

Transliteration

3(gesz2) 5(disz) gu4 niga
3(gesz2) 2(u) 1(disz) gu4 u2
8(gesz2) udu gal
1(szar2) 2(gesz2) 2(u) 7(disz) udu
4(gesz2) sila4 ga
4(gesz'u) 4(gesz2) 4(u) 7(disz) masz2
1(gesz2) 5(u) 1(disz) masz2 ga
mu-kux(DU) lugal
ki na-ra-am-i3-li2-ta
[iti ...-nin-a]-zu-ta
[iti ezem-me]-ki-gal2-sze3
[iti n]-kam
mu us2-sa an-sza-an ba-hul
iti diri 1(disz)-am3 unu sza3-ba i3-gal2

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — HSS 68, 453. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šulgi y36 — Year after: Anšan destroyed based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.

Attribution

Image: Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA (P407411) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P407411..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.