Position in chronology
WF 101
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P011059.
Why it matters
Transliteration
1(gesz'u@c) 1(gesz2@c) 1(u@c) gurusz me3 du nig2-gu7 2(gesz'u@c) 6(gesz2@c) 5(u@c) 2(asz@c) gurusz ukken nig2-gu7 i3 szesz4
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIa (ca. 2600-2500 BC)) — WF 101. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin, Germany (P011059) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P011059..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.