Position in chronology
CST 694
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P108211.
Why it matters
Transliteration
3(ban2) sze ur-x-ra mu da-ad-sze3 ab-ba-mu engar in-na-ag2 iti# e2-<iti> 6(disz) [mu] us2-sa szu-[]suen# lugal-e bad3# mar-tu ba-du3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — CST 694. 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: John Rylands Library, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK (P108211) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P108211..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.