OIP 115, 034

~2065 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P123504

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P123504.

Why it matters

Transliteration

1(disz)? masz2
siskur2 na-na-a
1(disz) udu niga sa2-du11
siskur2 nanna
ma-szum maszkim
sza3 tum-ma-al
2(disz) masz2
nig2 ki-zah3 e2 be-la-at-suh-ner
u3 be-la-at-dar-ra-ba-an
sza3 uri5-ma
giri3 be-li2-ba-ni
zi-ga be-li2-du10 kuruszda
iti a2-ki-ti
mu bad3 ma-da ba-du3

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — OIP 115, 034. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šulgi y30 — The frontier wall was built based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.

Attribution

Image: Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA (P123504) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P123504..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.