OTR 016

~2099 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P122951

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P122951.

Why it matters

Transliteration

4(gesz2) 5(u) 6(disz) ad7 udu ba-usz2
1(disz) ad7 sila4 ba-usz2
ki ur-ig-alim-ta
lugal-iri-da
szu ba-ti
mu geme2 usz-bar-sze3
mu gu-za en-lil2-la2 ba-dim2

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — OTR 016. 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: Columbia University Library, New York, New York, USA (P122951) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P122951..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.