Position in chronology
RTC 045
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P221442.
Why it matters
Transliteration
3(asz@c) u8 7(asz@c) MUNUS-U8 e3-li 1(u@c) 2(asz@c) sila4 nita e3:li lul-gu e3-a sila4-kam zu2-si udu gal-gal-ka en-ig-gal nu-banda3 za3 bi2-szu4 ur-du6 szusz3 szu-na i3-ni-gi4 dub dagal-a nu-gar la2-a nu-ta-zi 3(|ASZxDISZ@t|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — RTC 045. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P221442) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P221442..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.