Position in chronology
Kyoto 42
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P112447.
Why it matters
Transliteration
ur-suen-ke4 na-ab-be2-a la2-ia3 lu2-kal-la a-na mu-da-gal2 sag iti min-esz3-sze3 1(disz) sila3-am3 ki-na nu-ub-ga2-ga2-da mu lugal-bi in-pa3 tukum-bi x na-ba-tak4 x-tab-be2-a [x] lugal-bi in-pa3 [mu] szu-suen lugal-e [ma2]-gur8#-mah en-lil2 []nin-lil2-ra mu-ne-dim2 ur-[...] PA.AH?-[...] dumu ur-da-[...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Kyoto 42. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šu-Suen y2 — Great barge for Enlil and Ninlil fashioned based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan (P112447) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P112447..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.