ViOr 8/1, 019

~2099 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P141961

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P141961.

Why it matters

Transliteration

1(u) gurusz u4 3(disz)-sze3
ka i7-da gesz-gi gal-ta zabala3-sze3
u3 gir13-gesz-sze3
u2 siskur2 lugal de6-a
u3 ga2-nun-bi du3-a
ugula lugal-mu-ma-an-ag2
kiszib3 szesz-kal-la
mu gu-za en-lil2-la2 ba-dim2
szesz-kal-la
dub-sar
dumu na-silim

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — ViOr 8/1, 019. 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: Università Pontificia Salesiana, Rome, Italy (P141961) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P141961..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.