Position in chronology
Lugal-kigine-dudu 1
Translation — scholar edition
ETCSRI(1) After he had blessed Lugal-kiĝeneš-dudu, Enlil, the king of all lands, combined the title of en and the title of king for him: he ruled then as en in Unug, while he ruled as king in Urim. (15) In his great happiness Lugal-kiĝeneš-dudu dedicated this (vessel) for his well-being to Enlil, his beloved master.
Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Royal Inscriptions — scholar edition (Vienna).
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
Why it matters
Attests a ruler simultaneously holding the titles of en at Uruk and king at Ur — early evidence that one man could unite distinct sacred and secular offices across two rival Sumerian cities, c. 2450 BCE.
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 Q001368.
Attribution
Image: CBS 09581 + CBS 09643 (University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA) — from Nippur (mod. Nuffar) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P222886). source
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/Q001368/.
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.
An early witness to systematic administrative notation at Kish. Its signs and numerals can be catalogued, but that does not establish a full translation or prove that it is the world's first writing.
An early surviving historical monument that joins named rulers, a territorial dispute and religious oaths. It shows how a city-state turned victory into a lasting public claim, without establishing that this was the first recorded conflict.