Position in chronology
AAICAB 1/2, pl. 090, 1935-528
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P248603.
Why it matters
Transliteration
1(gesz2) 1(u) 6(disz) geme2 u4 1(disz)-sze3 sze gurx(|SZE.KIN|)-a a-sza3 gi-apin-ku5-ra2 giri3 hu-wa-wa 1(gesz2) 3(u) 6(disz) geme2 u4 1(disz)-sze3 sze gurx(|SZE.KIN|)-a a-sza3 gi-apin-ku5-ra2 1(u) geme2 u4 4(disz)-sze3 zar3 tab-ba a-sza3 nin-ur4-ra giri3 szesz-a-ni ugula da-gu kiszib3 da-da-ga mu us2-sa szu-suen lugal uri5-ma-ke4 bad3 mar-tu mu-ri-iq-ti-id-ni-im mu-du3-a mu us2-sa-a-bi da-da-ga dub-sar dumu ur-nigar szusz3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — AAICAB 1/2, pl. 090, 1935-528. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šu-Suen y2 — Year after: Šu-Suen became king based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK (P248603) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P248603..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.