ViOr 8/1, 013

~2069 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P141955

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P141955.

Why it matters

Transliteration

1(u) 8(disz) gurusz u4 3(disz)-sze3
ki-su7-ka gub-ba
a-sza3 i3-szum2
ugula ur-mes
kiszib3 nam-sza3-tam ab-ba-gi-na
mu ha-ar-szi ba-hul
lu2-szara2
dub-sar
dumu ur-sa6-ga

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — ViOr 8/1, 013. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šulgi y26 — Harši destroyed based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.

Attribution

Image: Università Pontificia Salesiana, Rome, Italy (P141955) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P141955..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.