RTC 057

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P221454.

Why it matters

Transliteration

2(gesz2@c) 5(u@c) la2 2(asz@c) sze gur saggal
1(gesz2@c) 4(u@c) la2 2(asz@c) ziz2 babbar2
szu-nigin2 4(gesz2@c) 2(u@c) 6(asz@c) gur saggal
sze u2-rum
en-en3-tar-zi
ensi2
lagasz-ka
lugal-pirig-tur
sanga gesz be2-ra 3(|ASZxDISZ@t|)

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — RTC 057. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P221454) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P221454..

Related tablets

Related sources

~3200 BCE

Proto-Cuneiform Account Tablet

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.

~3500 BCE

Kish Tablet

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.

~2450 BCE

Stele of the Vultures

The earliest historical document in human history.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.