Position in chronology
Hermitage 3, 001
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P211829.
Why it matters
Transliteration
4(asz) gu2 siki-gi mu-kux(DU) sza3 uri5-ma-sze3 giri3 da-da-a da-da-a dumu e2-gal-ke4 szu ba-ti iti dumu-zi mu lugal-ba-gara2
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Lagash II (ca. 2200-2100 BC)) — Hermitage 3, 001. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation (P211829) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P211829..
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Related sources
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.
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.
The earliest historical document in human history.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.