Position in chronology
WF 090
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P011047.
Why it matters
Transliteration
1(asz@c) 1/2(asz@c) sze gur-mah munus-gesztin 6(barig@c) a-pa-e3 [...] 2(barig@c)#? an-dab6-[si] x [...] 1(asz@c)? x-[...] [n(asz@c)] bilx(|GESZ.PAP.NE|)#-a2-nu-kusz2 1(asz@c)#? ad-[da?] [...] x na-gada
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIa (ca. 2600-2500 BC)) — WF 090. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin, Germany (P011047) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P011047..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.