Position in chronology
DP 572
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P221222.
Transliteration
8(asz@c) gag al ur-sag 5(asz@c)#? ur-szer7-da 7(asz@c) inim-du11 6(asz@c) e2-nam 1(u@c) 1(asz@c) szesz-lu2-du10 4(asz@c) e2-me 1(u@c) 1(asz@c) inim-ma-ni-[zi] [...] szu-nigin2 1(gesz2@c) 2(asz@c) gag al i7 en-lil2-le szu mu-gi4-a en-ig-gal nu-banda3 e-ne-ba 3(|ASZxDISZ@t|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — DP 572. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P221222) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P221222..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.