Position in chronology
Princeton 1, 198
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P126887.
Transliteration
5(szar2) 2(gesz'u) 3(gesz2) sa gi gu-nigin2-ba 1(u) 5(disz)-ta# 1(u) gu2 gi al-x-x gu-nigin2-bi [...] mu-kux(DU) ga2-nun sag-ub-ba-ka ki szesz-kal-la-ta kiszib3 lu2-igi-sa6-[sa6] iti dal mu szu-suen lugal lu2-igi-sa6-sa6 dub-sar dumu ur-gigir
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Princeton 1, 198. 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: Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey, USA (P126887) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P126887..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.