Position in chronology
Nik 1, 036
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P221743.
Transliteration
1(bur3@c) 1(esze3@c) 2(iku@c) 1/4(iku@c) 8(disz@t) sar igi 3(disz@t)-gal2 1(u) i3-tuku GAN2 sze mu2-a apin-la2 sze-bi 2(gesz2@c) 1(u@c) 1(asz@c) 2(barig@c) 4(ban2@c) gur saggal si-sa2-ta ur-du6 szusz3 GAN2 lugal-ra-mu-gi4 ki nam-engar inim-en-lil2-la2-an-dab5 lu2-ba-ba6 engar-re# mu-gid2 4(|ASZxDISZ@t|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — Nik 1, 036. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation (P221743) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P221743..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.