Position in chronology
TMH 05, 081
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P020495.
Why it matters
Transliteration
4(u@c) 2(asz@c) gu4 ur-ra-ni an-da-sze dub an-da-bala-a an-ta-gurum2 iti du6-ku3 mu en-sza3#-[kusz2-an-na] ag-ga#?-de3 |GIN2.SZE3|! bi2-se3-ga kisal#?-x-kun ur-ra-ni nu-DU sanga dub-bi i3-bala
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — TMH 05, 081. 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 (P020495) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P020495..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.