Position in chronology
Nik 1, 241
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P222010.
Transliteration
1(u@c) 5(asz@c) kusz kusz du8-sze3 LAK470-ra2 1(gesz2@c) la2 2(asz@c) kusz a-gar-ka 1(gesz2@c) 1(u@c) 5(asz@c) kusz ud5 kusz masz gal-gal 2(u@c) 6(asz@c) kusz masz sza3-du10 iti gurum2-ma-ka ur-igi-ama-sze3 nu-banda3 [ur]-nin-pirig aszgab-ra e-[na]-szid [x]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — Nik 1, 241. 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 (P222010) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P222010..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.