Position in chronology
UET 3, 0401
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P136723.
Why it matters
Transliteration
1(disz) u4-sakar ku3-sig17 si-sa2 ki-la2-bi igi-4(disz)-gal2 a-ru-a nin-e2-gal-sze3 dam ha-ad-ha-da 1(disz) u4-sakar ku3-babbar ki-la2-bi igi-3(disz)-gal2 lugal-suh-du-du-sze3 puzur4-suen gudu4 szu ba-an-ti iti ezem-szul-gi mu# us2-sa i-bi2-suen [lugal] nibru# uri5-ma [bad3 gal]-bi# mu-du3-a [mu] us2#-sa-bi puzur4-suen dumu ur-nun-gal ARAD2 nanna
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — UET 3, 0401. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Ibbi-Suen y2 — Year after: Ibbi-Suen became king based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (P136723) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P136723..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.