Position in chronology
TMH 05, 118
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P020532.
Why it matters
Transliteration
2(u@c) 7(asz@c) ku6 esztub lid2-ga 4(u@c) 1(asz@c) ku6 za-ri2 lid2-ga 2(disz@t)-kam-sze3 5(asz@c) ku6 esztub lid2-ga lugal-nig2-zu szu-nigin2-bi 1(gesz2@c) 1(u@c) 3(asz@c)# [esztub lid2-ga] [...] szu-nigin2-be6 2(gesz2@c) [x] 6(asz@c)#? ku6 dar-ra-am6 1(gesz2@c) 1(u@c) ku6 x dar-ra 2(asz@c) ku6 x lid2-ga 1(asz@c) i3-ku6 dug ku6 GAN2 u2-x-ba-ki-kam lugal-nig2-zu dumu ur-ur-ra an-na-ag2
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — TMH 05, 118. 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 (P020532) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P020532..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.