Position in chronology
RIME 3/1.01.07.048, ex. add086
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P391205.
Why it matters
Transliteration
nin#-[gir2-su] ur#-sag# [kal-ga] en#-[lil2-la2-ra] lugal#-[a-ni] gu3#-[de2-a] ensi2# lagasz#[] lu2 e2-[ninnu] nin-gir2-su#-[ka] in-du3-[a] e2-PA e2-ub-imin-a#-[ni] mu-na-du3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Lagash II (ca. 2200-2100 BC)) — RIME 3/1.01.07.048, ex. add086. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA (P391205) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P391205..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.