Position in chronology
NATN 887
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P121584.
Why it matters
Transliteration
2(disz) udu 1(disz) masz2 2(asz) 3(barig) zu2-lum gur 5(asz) naga gur 2(asz) mun gur 2(barig) 3(ban2) im-ku3-sig17 1(u) hal ku6 6(disz) ku6 sag-kesz2 nig2-mu10-us2-sa2 e2 nig2-du11-ga-ni-sze3 iti kin-inanna mu i-bi2-suen lugal giri3 lu2-sa6-i3-zu
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — NATN 887. 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: Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA (P121584) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P121584..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.