NYPL 116

~2099 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P122652

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P122652.

Why it matters

Transliteration

4(u) 5(disz) gurusz u4 1(disz)-sze3
pa4 a-da-ga ba-al-la
a-sza3 ka-ma-ri2
ugula lugal-nesag-e
giri3 ur-gigir szabra
kiszib3 szesz-kal-la
mu gu-za en-lil2-la2 ba-dim2
lugal-nig2-lagar-e
dub-sar
dumu da-da

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — NYPL 116. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Ur-Nammu y14 — The throne of Enlil was fashioned based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.

Attribution

Image: New York Public Library, New York, New York, USA (P122652) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P122652..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.