Position in chronology
RTC 195
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P216969.
Why it matters
Transliteration
3(szar2) 1(bur'u) 6(bur3) GAN2 2(asz) guru7 la2 7(gesz2) 2(u) sze gur sag-gal2 4(gesz2) la2 1(u) ziz2 gur 1(gesz2) 3(u) la2 2(asz) 2(barig) gig gur GAN2-gu4 e2-gal ugula erin-da maszkim# [...] gu3-de2#-a ensi2 mu e2 nin#-dar#-a ba-du3-a
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Lagash II (ca. 2200-2100 BC)) — RTC 195. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P216969) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P216969..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.