Position in chronology
DP 064
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P220714.
Why it matters
Transliteration
1(asz@c) udu-nita nin-[dar] 1(asz@c) udu# nin-[musz3]-bar!? 1(asz@c) udu nin-[mar] [u4? nin-dar?] [e2] gibil-na [i3-lah5-a] [bara2-nam]-tar-ra dam lugal-an-da ensi2 [lagasz-ke4] gesz be2-tag udu gu7-a en-ku3 kuruszda-kam 2(|ASZxDISZ@t|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — DP 064. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P220714) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P220714..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.