Position in chronology
Nik 1, 318
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P225780.
Transliteration
[...] [n] n x [...] [n(asz@c)] ninda ur-gibil6 a-nigin2 6(asz@c)# ninda# szu-a-ni#-sze3-DU 3(asz@c)# ninda# lu2#-[...] [...] x x 1(asz@c) kas dug gur4-gur4 1(u@c) ninda lugal-iri dub-sar lu2# ki inim-[ma-bi]-me# i3#!-bi# za3-ge be2-ak
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — Nik 1, 318. 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 (P225780) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P225780..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.