Position in chronology
TMH 05, 182
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P020596.
Why it matters
Transliteration
[...] [x] ba? mu [x] na e2?-x-gi 1(asz@c) MUNUS-U8 sila4 1(asz@c)? [...] u3-mu-ni-zal e2-ma-ma 1(asz@c) masz2 AN-lu2-mah [...] 1(asz@c) masz2? ur-du6 e2 asz2-da-ma-il
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — TMH 05, 182. 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 (P020596) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P020596..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.