Position in chronology
SDSU 3
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P249256.
Why it matters
Transliteration
1(gesz2)# 4(u)# 3(disz) eme szinig ki e2-ur2-bi-du10-ta szabra gu4-ke4 szu ba-ti a-sza3 KA da? kiszib3 nimgir-an-ne2 mu i-bi2-suen lugal#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — SDSU 3. 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: H. M. Briggs Library, South Dakota State University, Brookings, South Dakota, USA (P249256) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P249256..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.