Position in chronology
NATN 442
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P121140.
Why it matters
Transliteration
1(disz) gin2 la2 igi-6(disz)-gal2 masz2 nu-tuku ki ur-suen-ta ad-da-kal-la szu ba-ti iti za3?-a-KA gi4-gi4-dam 1(disz) ARAD2-du10 1(disz) lugal-ku3-zu lu2-inim-ma-bi-me iti bara2-za3-gar-ra mu i-bi2-suen lugal ad-da-kal-la dumu mu-ni-mah
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — NATN 442. 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: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (P121140) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P121140..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.