Position in chronology
RIME 3/1.01.07.048, ex. 065
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P234380.
Why it matters
Transliteration
nin#-[gir2-su] ur-sag# [kal-ga] en#-[lil2-la2] lugal-[a-ni] gu3-de2#-[a] ensi2# lagasz#[] lu2 [e2-ninnu] nin#-[gir2-su-ka] in-[du3-a] e2-[PA e2 ub 7(asz@c)-a-ni] mu#-[na-du3]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Lagash II (ca. 2200-2100 BC)) — RIME 3/1.01.07.048, ex. 065. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: British Museum, London, UK (P234380) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P234380..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.