Position in chronology
JCS 46, 011
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P221753.
Transliteration
4(asz@c) udu siki ha-ad nigar-mud 1(asz@c) udu# ur#-uri3#-[ru2]-a ensi2-ke4# udu siki# u4# ur4-ra# za3 szu4#-[a] ku3 5(asz@c) gin2-ta gu2-ne-ne-a e-ne-gar# bara2-nam#-[tar]-ra dam lugal-an-da ensi2 lagasz-ka 4(|ASZxDISZ@t|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — JCS 46, 011. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: private: Kilmer, A., Tucson, Arizona, USA (P221753) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P221753..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.