Position in chronology
TMH 05, 144
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P020558.
Why it matters
Transliteration
1(gesz2@c) 5(u@c) 4(asz@c) []ur3 [x] 2(u@c)#? [x] gesz#-[x] 3(u@c) 3(asz@c) haszhur 2(u@c) 5(asz@c) gi-gid2? 8(asz@c) [...] kiri6 nu-banda3-kam [szu-nigin2?] 2(u@c)#? [...] [...] e2-x x-UD mu-su3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — TMH 05, 144. 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 (P020558) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P020558..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.