Position in chronology
TCBI 1, 012
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P382265.
Why it matters
Transliteration
1(asz@c) sze# gur# lugal-igi-du 3(barig@c)# me-ki-bi#-sze3 2(asz@c)#? DU?-HA-A-pa-e3 gala!(|KU.USZ|) 2(asz@c) 2(barig@c) nimgir#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — TCBI 1, 012. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Banca d'Italia, Rome, Italy (P382265) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P382265..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.