Position in chronology
UET 3, 1112
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P137437.
Why it matters
Transliteration
1(disz) SZIM sag hirinx(KWU318)-na! mu-kux(DU) ki lu2-giri17-zal dam-gar3-ta e2-kiszib3-ba-ka x [...] AN sze# [...] iti ki-siki-nin-a-zu mu szu-suen lugal-e ma-da za-ab-sza-li [...] mu-hul
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — UET 3, 1112. 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: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (P137437) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P137437..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.