TCNU 604

~2094 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P135450

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P135450.

Why it matters

Transliteration

4(u) 1(disz) tug2 guz-za du
7(disz) tug2 sag usz-bar
2(disz) tug2 usz-bar
tug2 gu2 iri
ki ensi2-ka-ta
dingir-ra-ke4
szu ba-ti
iti nesag
mu szul-gi lugal-e bad3 mu-du3

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — TCNU 604. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šulgi y1 — Šulgi became king based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.

Attribution

Image: Museo di Antichità di Torino, Turin, Italy (P135450) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P135450..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.