OTR 187

~2099 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P123122

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P123122.

Why it matters

Transliteration

4(u) 9(asz) 1(barig) sze gur lugal
ma2-a si-ga
i3-dub a-pi4#-[sal4] musz-bi-edin#-[na]
ki ur-mes-[ta]
ur-en-lil2-la2
szu ba-ti
iti amar-a-a-si
mu gu-za en-lil2-la2 ba-dim2

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — OTR 187. 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 (P123122) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P123122..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.