Position in chronology
En-metena 17
Translation — scholar edition
ETCSRI(shoulder i 1) En-metena, ruler of Lagaš, parceled out 25 bur of land, (a field called) En-ana-tum-sur-Nanše-etaed, 11 bur of land, (a field called) Nizuh-šub in the marshland of Niĝin, next to the holy canal, and 60 bur of land, (a field called) Enlil in the area of Gu-edena for Enlil of the E-adda. (statue i 1) For Enlil of the E-adda. (statue i 3) En-metena, ruler of Lagaš, chosen by Nanše in the heart, chief governor of Ninĝirsu, child of En-ana-tum, ruler of Lagaš, descendant of Ur-Nanše, king of Lagaš, built the sanctuary of Dugru for Ninĝirsu, built him the A-huš, the temple that is…
Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Royal Inscriptions — scholar edition (Vienna).
Scholarly note
Sumerian royal inscription, published in the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Royal Inscriptions (ETCSRI) by Gábor Zólyomi and collaborators. Translation reproduced from the ETCSRI edition. ORACC text Q001091.
Attribution
Image: .
Translation excerpted from Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Royal Inscriptions (ETCSRI), University of Vienna, edited by Gábor Zólyomi et al. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/etcsri/Q001091/.
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.