Position in chronology
RIME 3/1.01.07.041, ex. add369
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P424369.
Why it matters
Transliteration
[]nin#-gir2-su [ur]-sag# kal-ga []en-lil2-la2-[ra] lugal#-a-ni [gu3]-de2#-a ensi2# lagasz#-ke4 [nig2]-du7#-e pa mu-na-e3 [e2]-ninnu# anzu2-babbar2-ra-ni [mu]-na-du3 [ki]-be2# mu-na-gi4
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Lagash II (ca. 2200-2100 BC)) — RIME 3/1.01.07.041, ex. add369. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Massachusetts, USA (P424369) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P424369..
Related tablets
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.