Position in chronology
Orient 16, 055 51
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P124675.
Transliteration
[x] gu4 u2 [...] mu aga3-us2 a tu5-[a] ka e2-gal-la kux(KWU636)-ra-[ne-sze3] 1(u) x [...] 2(disz) [...] mu lu2-[...] szu-gid2 [...] [x] 1(u) [...] ki ur-ku3-[nun-na-ta] ba-[zi] iti ses-da-[gu7] mu szu-[suen] lugal uri5[-ma-ke4] [ma2]-gur8-[mah] []en-[lil2] []nin-[lil2-ra] [mu-ne-dim2] x-[...] dub-[sar] [dumu] ur-[...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Orient 16, 055 51. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šu-Suen y1 — Šu-Suen became king based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: World Museum Liverpool, Liverpool, UK (P124675) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P124675..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.