DCS 020

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P213107.

Why it matters

Transliteration

3(asz@c) gu-[za x] ab-ba ku3-sig17] [gar-ra]
5(asz@c) gu-za szunigin []ha-lu-ub2 ku3-sig17 gar-ra
3(u@c) la2 1(asz@c) gu-za szunigin
1(u@c)?# la2 1(asz@c) gu-za gid2-da
2(asz@c) gu-za munus ab-ba
5(asz@c) gu-za munus
lugal-inim#-[du10]
szu ba-ti#

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Lagash II (ca. 2200-2100 BC)) — DCS 020. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Bibliothèque Nationale et Universitaire de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France (P213107) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P213107..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.