TCL 02, 5617

~2099 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P131706

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P131706.

Why it matters

Transliteration

1(u) la2 1(disz) udu
mu-kux(DU) lugal
ki ab-ba-sa6-ga-ta
() PA
ensi2 kisz i3-dab5
kiszib3 da-bi-a
iti ezem-me-ki-gal2
mu gu-za en-lil2-la2 ba-dim2

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — TCL 02, 5617. 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: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P131706) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P131706..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.