Position in chronology
Aleppo 294
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P100626.
Why it matters
Transliteration
1(u) 2(asz) sze gur sa2-du11 szara2 iti 1(u) 2(disz)-kam kiszib3 ku3-ga-[ni] mu us2-sa szu-suen lugal-e bad3 mar-tu mu-du3 giri3-ni-i3-sa6 dub-sar dumu ku3-ga-ni
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Aleppo 294. 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: National Museum of Syria, Aleppo, Syria (P100626) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P100626..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.