Position in chronology
FLP 1031
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P332549.
Why it matters
Transliteration
3(gesz2) 2(u) 4(disz) sa gi-zi ki ur-e2-mah-ta kiszib3 a-lu5-lu5 u4 1(u)-kam iti ezem-szul-gi mu i-bi2-suen lugal a-lu5-lu5 dumu inim-szara2 kuruszda szara2-ka
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — FLP 1031. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Ibbi-Suen y1 — Ibbi-Suen became king based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: Free Library of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (P332549) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P332549..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.