Position in chronology
TMH 05, 055
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P020469.
Why it matters
Transliteration
4(asz@c) ku3 gin2 numun GAN2 x-gar GAN2 mu?-nu 3(asz@c) ku3 gin2 da gesz? u3? ki? 1(asz@c) ku3 gin2 GAN2 zadim 5(asz@c) ku3 gin2 munu4 munu4 sze (n) 2(disz@t) lid2:ga
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — TMH 05, 055. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Hilprecht Collection, University of Jena, Germany (P020469) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P020469..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.